U-High grad Chaia Meier works way up to lead role as Bradley women’s basketball coach

Don’t remember Chaia Meier’s basketball career at University High? It’s OK. She understands.

She was Chaia [pronounced KY-ya] VanGoethem back then. Newspaper folks will tell you it’s a challenge fitting a name like VanGoethem in a headline, but copy editors caught a break. She didn’t need headlines to be happy.

Former U-High girls basketball coach Mike Sondgeroth recalls her being “a player who was devoted to the program and gave her all. If you’re going to run a good program, you need those types of players who are willing to bust their fanny in practice every day and understand the game and jump on their opportunities when they present themselves.”

That’s how she remembers it, too.

“I loved being on a team,” said Meier, who was named head women’s basketball coach at Bradley University on April 3. “I never got upset about playing time. I knew my place and knew my role and I just worked really hard at it and enjoyed it.”

An injury kept her off the court as a senior in the 1999-2000 season, but she remained part of the team under Sondgeroth’s successor as head coach, Bob Morris.

Collin Nawrocki

“She became a student assistant [coach] with me,” Morris said. “She never missed a practice or a game.”

The thought never crossed her mind.

Saying she “wasn’t really athletic,” she had to “use every single ounce that God gave me to play.” Sidelined by the injury, she poured herself into her new role.

“Coach Morris was a big influence. He kind of gave me jobs on the bench,” Meier said. “He kept me engaged and that was my first taste of coaching. I got the bug.”

It followed her to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in theology in 2004. She didn’t play basketball, but as a senior, she learned Walter Payton Prep – a high school across the street from Moody Bible – needed a freshman basketball coach.

“I took that job,” Meier said. “I didn’t know what I was doing whatsoever, but I did that and I was like, ‘Man, I like this.’”

Next came a job as an assistant coach at Dominican University in River Forest. What did she bring to the position?

Well …

“I always said I didn’t do anything except go buy the bagels and cheer loud,” Meier said. “But my whole career, I’ve been a learner and a student of the game. My head coach at Dominican [Mike Lane] would throw his practice plan in the trash and I would go get it. I kept them all. I still have them. I just learned and picked up things.”

It led to a head coaching job at Moody Bible from 2009-15, then a year as head coach at Grace University in Omaha, Nebraska.

Grace was transitioning to a National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics [NAIA] school. Six months into Meier’s tenure, a school assembly was called by the administration.

“They announced that the school was shutting down,” Meier said.

Reviving Edgewood

She turned to Edgewood University, an NCAA Division III school in Madison, Wisconsin. Edgewood played in the same conference as Dominican, so there was familiarity for Meier.

Soon, she learned why the job was available. The Eagles went 0-25 in her first season.

“I knew the program was going to be poor. I didn’t know it would be quite that poor,” Meier said. “A couple of years later, we won the conference and went to the NCAA tournament. We got it turned around.

“I love to do that. That’s kind of been my whole career. I’m a builder … a builder of people, a builder of programs. I’m a pretty optimistic person, so I don’t get easily discouraged. I’m crazy enough to think that I can do it.”

Meier went on to become the winningest coach in Edgewood history. The Eagles were 104-95 in her eight years as coach, including 104-70 after the 0-25 start.

They went 82-58 in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play under Meier, who said she was “comfortable” at Edgewood.

Then, “out of the blue,” Meier said, she received a call from newly hired Marquette head coach Cara Consuegra.

“She knew some people who knew me,” Meier said. “She was wanting someone on her staff who had been a head coach and to help her with transition offense and pace. She is a really strong defensive coach. I was more the other way.

“We had a very candid conversation. I said, ‘I’m hearing you, but I want to make sure that I can help there.’ I didn’t want to go just to go because I was really happy.”

Meier made the move to Division I Marquette in 2024, spending the past two seasons there. She was determined to “take the challenge of it,” and indeed, there were challenges.

It was still basketball, but at “such a different intensity level,” Meier said.

“Everything was different,” she added. “That jump was a lot. My first year was hard … in a good way. It was hard just learning the ropes and understanding things and finding my voice a little bit. I learned a great, great deal.”

Happy to be ‘home’

Meier is thrilled to be back in Central Illinois and close to family. Her parents, Jeff and Karen VanGoethem, live in Bloomington and two of her three sisters live in Normal.

Jeff VanGoethem is former senior pastor at East White Oak Bible Church in rural Carlock and now is Pastor of Spiritual Development and Missions at the church.

“You get into coaching and you don’t really expect that you’ll be close to home or be around your family. It’s just the nature of it,” Meier said. “This is kind of special for me. I’m by my dad and my mom and my sisters and my nieces.

“It’s just fun for me and fun for them to be able to come to all of the games. And the community I grew up in is right here. It was special when they [Bradley officials] reached out to me.”

Meier, who is married to Josh Meier, said her children, Molly, 16, and Lincoln, 13, are “excited about being close to their cousins. They love their cousins.”

Busy at Bradley

Meier had to hit the ground running at Bradley. She replaced Kate Popovec-Goss, who was hired as head coach at Boston College after leading Bradley to a 20-13 record.

Eight players had the possibility of staying at Bradley when Meier arrived and, she said, “Just about every one of them had one foot in the [transfer] portal.”

Meier immediately began to “re-recruit” those players.

“I spent time with them and got to know them and their game,” Meier said. “I watched a lot of game film on them and I met with them individually, several more than one time.”

Her message? You just had a successful season. You’re a close-knit group. You get along well and you’re friends. Why go elsewhere?

“I said, ‘Stay together. Don’t leave it. You know you have something. Stay together and build it,’” Meier said.

The new coach asked them to trust her. They did. Seven decided to stay. A post player is following Meier from Marquette, and two of Bradley’s four high-school recruits re-committed to the program.

“We were really pumped to keep the nucleus together,” Meier said. “We’re at 10 [players] and we’re trying to get to 12. It was a lot, but I feel very blessed that they chose to stay.”