Lisa Campanell-Komara
Lisa Campanell-Komara is a retired collegiate coaching professional and former Head Women’s Golf Coach at The College of Wooster, where she dedicated 42 years to college athletics. She spent 28 years coaching women’s collegiate basketball before transitioning to launch and lead the women’s golf program in Wooster for 14 years. Throughout her career, Lisa was known as a “player’s coach,” investing deeply in the lives of her athletes beyond their performance on the court or course. She built programs rooted in respect, dignity, and mentorship, reminding every athlete that they are “forever on my roster”—a reflection of her lifelong commitment to their growth both personally and professionally.
Her coaching philosophy centers on trust, communication, and nurturing the whole athlete. Lisa believes that when athletes are treated with respect and genuinely supported, they develop confidence, commitment, and the drive to exceed expectations. Over the course of her career, she not only coached multiple sports—including basketball, golf, volleyball, and tennis—but also taught courses in sport administration, coaching theory, leadership, and mental sport training. Her influence extended beyond competition, shaping cultures of accountability, loyalty, and sustained excellence within athletic departments and teams.
Now in retirement, Lisa works as a mental sport performance coach, providing coaching and advisory services to teams and individuals seeking to strengthen their mental game and competitive preparation. She continues to teach golf at all levels, from beginners to advanced players, working with both women and men who are committed to improving their skills and confidence on the course. Through individualized instruction and mental performance strategies, Lisa remains dedicated to helping athletes of all ages perform with clarity, resilience, and purpose.
• West Virginia University - MS, Sport Management
• West Liberty University - BS, Health and Physical Education
• The Fourth Angel
• Cleveland Clinic
What do you attribute your success to?
I think I've always worked real hard at finding a way. When I say finding a way, I mean taking a problem and figuring out the best way to take people through this problem, and solve the problem, and be successful through the problem. It's about hard work and finding a way to work through challenges and help others succeed.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I once had one of the legendary local coaches tell me that if you want to be successful, you invest in your athletes. You find the athletes that kind of have your same beliefs, and they're the ones that are going to follow you and they're going to take you somewhere. I've always passed that along and been a player's coach. I invested in the athletes, not just in their athletic ability, but really strongly in their lives. I tell every one of them they are forever on my roster - they never leave, they're just forever on a roster with me. As long as we treat athletes with respect and dignity and nurture them, because they all need nurtured, they're going to believe and they're going to want to go above and beyond for you as a coach.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I say never to never quit. Sometimes it gets very difficult - time constraints, family constraints, possibly travel, recruiting - all of those are a lot of difficulties, and sometimes they're things that you can't control, but my advice would be not to quit. I think we need women coaching women, and I strongly believe in that. I think we just have to continue to mentor young women, support them, be their best advocate, and make sure that they are in place and have things in place for them to be successful.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think in coaching, sometimes younger women are just a little bit reluctant to enter coaching because there's other things that they can do in athletics now. The world has opened up over the course of the years to allow women to have other opportunities in athletic-related careers. It takes a special individual to decide they want to be a coach and dedicate themselves to that life. So I think that's one of the challenges - the distractions, not in a bad way, but distractions for other opportunities. On the opportunities side, if you don't want to coach, there are opportunities in athletics, in sport-related events that you can excel at, and many at the executive level. That's been a tremendous course of change over my 40-something years. You saw things change and women be able to open the doors. We don't have as many women coaching as we used to back in the 70s and the early 80s, but other opportunities have opened for women, so that's been a positive thing.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
My most important value is honesty. I have two that I really strongly believe in: honesty and loyalty. I think if you find somebody that is honest and is loyal, you're going to get so much out of them. I'm a really strong believer in being that way towards other people too.
Locations
The College of Wooster
Wooster, OH 44691