Head Coach - 13th year at Illinois Central College
Alma maters: Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (BS '93), Eastern Illinois University (MS '07)
Hall of Fame coach Karrie Redeker is in her 13th season as the head coach for the storied ICC women’s basketball program and 27th year overall on the hardwood. She holds a 311-86 record in East Peoria and has an overall winning percentage of .765 in her career of over 820 games at the junior college and high school level. Known for her winning mentality in both basketball and life, Redeker has led the program to six National Tourney appearances in the last ten seasons while mentoring countless young women to succeed later in life as adults.
In 2024-25, Redeker led the Cougars back to the NJCAA National Tournament as ICC earned an at-large bid. ICC was the #12 seed and lost to #5 Union County, beat #20 North Platte and #11 North Central Missouri, and then lost to #10 Mid Michigan for an 8th place finish. The at-large bid came courtesy of their tough regular season schedule that saw them defeat several ranked teams over the course of the year, including #5 Lincoln Land, #7 Lake Land, #12 Palm Beach State, #24 Parkland, and #25 Des Moines Area. Redeker and staff led the Cougars to another Mid-West Athletic Conference regular season title and earned Region 24 Coach of the Year honors. Freshman Lily Luczkowiak was named a 3rd Team NJCAA All-American and both Luczkowiak and freshman Addy Engel were named All-Region 24 and All-MWAC. The Cougars also finished the season ranked in the Top 10 of the final NJCAA poll at #9.
ICC has been to the NJCAA national tournament six times since Redeker came to East Peoria in 2013. In addition to the 2025 team's 8th place finish, the 2022 team captured 7th place in (in Port Huron, MI) the 2021 Cougars earned 4th place (Hickory, NC) and the 2018-19 team went 32-3 while winning a program record 32 games in a row before falling in the Elite Eight (Harrison, AR). In 2017-18, ICC brought home a 5th place national finish (Harrison, AR) and in 2015-16 the Cougars advanced all the way to the national championship game (Overland Park, KS) but settled for a 2nd place National Tourney finish to go along with a 32-5 overall record.
In eighteen years at the junior college level, Redeker has coached 14 NJCAA All-Americans, 26 NJCAA All-Academic Award winners, and moved 58 players on to play at four-year schools. During the 2025-25 school year there will be seven of Redeker's former Cougars playing at four-year schools: Laisha Armendariz Lopez (Fort Lewis University), Cora DeSutter (Illinois College), Naomi Elliott (Benedictine University - Mesa), Halie Gilbert (University of Indianapolis), Savannah Orgeron (William Jewell), Addison Swadinsky (University of St. Louis-Missouri), and Miya Webb (Webster University).
Redeker was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches' Association (IBCA) Hall of Fame for her coaching career in 2022, making her one of only 17 people who have been inducted as both a player (2003) and a coach in the IBCA's fifty year history. Redeker also collected her 400th college coaching victory on March 5, 2022 with a 58-53 win over Lake Land and has had twenty-win seasons in 17 of 18 seasons as a college head coach. She has a 627-193 overall record at both the college and high school levels since beginning her coaching career in 1999.
Her teams are known for their work in the community at a variety of Peoria-area organizations, including Illinois Cancer Care, the Hult Center for Healthy Living, Loaves & Fish, Special Olympics, the KB Strong Foundation, EP!C, and area elementary schools. Because of these efforts, the women's basketball program earned the Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy Award by the Association of Fundraising Professionals in 2017.
Prior to ICC, Redeker was an elementary teacher and coach in both the Casey-Westfield and Tolono Unity School Districts for 19 years while also coaching basketball at Unity HS and at Parkland College. She earned her master's degree in educational administration from Eastern Illinois University in 2007.
Redeker is a four-year letter-winner at SIUC where she played in two NCAA tourneys and won a Gateway Conference title, is 2nd all-time in career three-pointers made, was honorable mention All-Gateway her senior year and served as team captain. As a prep athlete, she was the all-time leading scorer at Crescent-Iroquois High School (girls & boys) with 1,981 points, was named a USA Today All-American her senior year in 1988, and had her #20 jersey retired.
Karrie currently serves on the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) Board of Directors, Illinois Cancer Care Foundation Board, is the Vice President (DII) of the NJCAA Women's Basketball Coaches' Association, and is the Region 24 women's basketball chair. She is a breast cancer survivor who received the Derril Kipp Courage Award from the IBCA in 2019 and was also honored by Illinois State Comptroller Jessica Mendoza during Women's History Month for her contributions to girls and women in sports in March of 2023.
In addition to coaching, Redeker works in sports' information for the ICC Athletic Department. She resides in Morton.
Updated 08-10-25
