Former University of Vermont and Bangor High School star athlete Laura Thibodeau has been named an assistant women’s basketball coach at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

Iowa State is a member of the Big Eight Conference in the NCAA’s Division I.

Thibodeau received her master’s degree in sport management this spring from Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., where she was a graduate assistant with that women’s basketball program for two years.

During a telephone interview from the office of head coach Pat Wettig, Thibodeau said she was very excited at receiving the Iowa State appointment, particularly in light of the competition. Thibodeau had been told more than 120 individuals applied for the position.

“I’m fortunate,” she said. “I had a good experience at Ball State. There was just one full-time asssistant so that gave me a lot of responsibility. I was in charge of scouting and did a lot of recruiting and on-the-road evaluation, so I feel ready for this position. I’ll have a lot of the same responsibilities, but I’ll be primarily an X’s and O’s person with additional recruiting responsibilities.”

Thibodeau said she was looking for a position that included recruiting, but not one that would force her “to get away from the X’s and O’s. You miss games and practices that way. This is a good opportunity. I’ll be right into it; I’ll be working with coaches and on personnel and getting into helping develop new offenses and defenses.”

Iowa State finished sixth in its conference last season, just a game over .500, Wettig said, but upset Colorado, a team most thought would win the league title and automatic NCAA berth.

“It was a disappointing season record-wise, but it’s a tough, equal conference and there’s not a whole lot of difference between the No. 3 and No. 6 teams,” Wettig explained. “We ended on a high note, and we’ve got great players coming back.”

Iowa State has Lynn Lorenzen who, having played the six-person game, scored more than 6,000 points in her high school career. She’s currently abroad playing with the Big Eight Select team. Two other players will compete in the National Sports Festival this summer.

Wettig said she sought an assistant who had worked for people she knew personally.

“I was impressed with her immediately,” she said of her first meeting with Thibodeau. “She’s definitely an energetic and enthusiastic young woman who has enthusiasm for the game and for her career. The candidates were all about the same age with the same kinds of experience, but I wanted someone in here who had my mind-set 10-15 years ago; someone anxious to get her career going in terms of her work ethic. Laura was very assertive.”

The Iowa State staff will be hitting the recruiting trail shortly and Thibodeau will be attending the AAU’s and then work primarily in the midwest. Former All-American Mary Ann Myers is the first assistant coach.

From a financial standpoint, Wettig said Iowa State “is sitting pretty good right now with one of the best budgets in the confrence for women’s basketball. We don’t lack for anything. Just the fact we can go on a national search shows how we’re doing.”

Thibodeau is a 1983 BHS graduate. A guard, she earned Bangor Daily NEWS All-Maine honors three times, was an East All-Star, played right wing on the state Class A championship field hockey team and was recruited to play basketball at Vermont. An honor student there, she received the United States Achievement Academy/Academic Sports Award her senior year. She coached girls basketball at Penquis Valley in Milo before pursuing her master’s degree.