The 2025-26 season will mark Kent Madsen's 16th year as head coach and 24th overall as a women's basketball coach at Wheaton. Madsen was named head coach of the Thunder program in May 2011. In July of 2013, he was named an Assistant Athletics Director and has added a supervisory role to the position, overseeing several coaches within the department. Madsen owns a career record of 281-111 as a head coach, has the second-highest winning percentage in CCIW women's basketball coaching history, and is the fastest coach in conference history to reach the 150-win mark.
He has guided Wheaton to seven NCAA Division III Tournament appearances (2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020), and in 2014-15, he led Wheaton to its first CCIW Championship since 2007. In December 2010, Madsen was named Acting Head Coach and would go on to be named the CCIW Coach of the Year for 2010-11, as the Thunder went 11-3 in the CCIW regular season to finish second in the conference. Wheaton finished with a 19-7 record overall. Wheaton's 2012-13 season saw the Thunder go 22-6 and finish second in the CCIW. Wheaton received an at-large bid to the NCAA D-III Tournament for the first time since 2007. It was also Wheaton's first 20-win season since 2007. In 2014-15 he was named the CCIW Coach of the Year for the second time his his career. He led Wheaton back to the NCAA Tournament in 2015-16 and was again named the CCIW Coach of the Year.
The 2016-17 season saw Wheaton three-peat as CCIW Champions and Madsen was named the CCIW Coach of the Year for the third straight season. Madsen's 2017-18 squad earned an at-large selection to the NCAA Tournament, finishing the season with a record of 22-6. The 2018-19 season saw the Thunder claim their fourth CCIW Championship in five seasons with a 15-1 CCIW record and earn an at-large selection to the NCAA Tournament. Wheaton finished the season with a 22-6 record, with Madsen being named the CCIW Coach of the Year for the fifth time in his career. The Thunder finished the 2019-20 season with a record of 20-8 overall after an overtime loss to fifth-ranked Whitman in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament. Wheaton repeated as CCIW Champions that year and Madsen earned his sixth CCIW Coach of the Year honor.
In 2021-22, the Thunder posted a 16-11 overall record, and the team's only non-conference defeat came to the top-ranked team in the country, Christopher Newport. Wheaton earned a place in the 2022 CCIW Tournament as the fifth-seeded team in the conference, where they upset North Park in Chicago in the first round of the competition. The Thunder placed two student-athletes on the All-Conference Second Team. Madsen coached two more All-Conference selections in 2022-23, with one representative making the First Team and one being named to the Second Team. The Thunder posted another winning record in overall and conference competition in 22-23 and earned a pair of notable wins, first at #24 Puget Sound in November and against #25 Millikin on Senior Night, handing the Big Blue their only conference loss of the season.
The Thunder won 15 games in 2024-25 and finished with a 9-7 record in conference play, earning the #4 seed in the CCIW Tournament and advancing to the semifinals. Wheaton has had three All-Conference selections over the past two seasons, including All-Region honoree Annie Tate, who set a CCIW and NCAA Division III women's basketball record with 28 made free throws in a home win over Elmhurst University in January 2024.
Madsen is a 1988 graduate of Westmont College, earning his degree in Physical Education. He was a four-year letterwinner and two-time All-Conference pick for the Warriors’ baseball team. Madsen is in the Westmont baseball record books for several categories, including: career stolen bases, career runs, runs in a single season, career batting average and hits in a season. As a senior in 1988, Madsen set a school record with a 23-game hit streak.
Prior to coming to Wheaton, Madsen taught junior high and high school physical education and health at the Aurora Christian Schools. He also coached the eighth-grade boys basketball team in 1996-97, and the freshman boys team in 1997-98.
Madsen coached the varsity boys basketball team at Valley Christian High School in San Jose, California from 1994-96. His teams were 37-17 in those two seasons, and both teams played in the Central Coast sectional championships. The 1994-95 team won the sectional title, made the final eight in the northern California playoffs and was ranked 10th in the state at the end of the season. Madsen's 1995-96 team placed in the sectional. Both teams ranked high in the CIF northern section among Division 4 teams.
Madsen also spent six seasons as an assistant coach for the Thunder baseball team.
Kent and his wife, Laurie, live in Montgomery, Illinois and have two children: a daughter, Kirsten, and a son, Trey.
