Occidental College

Anahit Aladzhanyan, or Coach Heat, which she is widely referred as, has been the head women’s basketball coach since 2012. She was named the D3 Hoops Regional Coach of the Year after leading the Tiger to a conference tournament title, regional rankings, and the NCAA tournament in 2024.  She and her staff were also named the SCIAC Coaching Staff of the Year.  Coach Heat was also on the bench as an assistant coach for the program's two other NCAA Division III playoff appearances in 2009 and 2011 and four consecutive SCIAC championships from 2008-2011. Along with her passion for the Xs and Os of the game, Coach Heat has recruited some of Oxy’s finest basketball players.
 
Prior to taking over for the women’s program in 2012, she spent the 2011-12 season as the head assistant to the Oxy men’s basketball team, making her one of only a handful of women in the nation coaching men’s collegiate basketball. Coach Newhall, Oxy’s longtime men’s basketball coach, said he believes Coach Heat is a great leader. “Heat’s combination of basketball knowledge, her recruiting work ethic, and her feel for the institution makes her an outstanding head basketball coach at Occidental,” Newhall said. 
 
In addition to coaching, Aladzhanyan is the Associate Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator for Oxy Athletics. She has also recruited for various sports during coaching changes, and has served on numerous committees – such as the Alcohol and Other Drugs committee and most recently, Oxy’s Student Experience Strategic Planning Committee.  She has also served as the chair of the SCIAC women's basketball coaches while also representing the SCIAC on the regional advisory committee for the NCAA.
 
As a product of the program herself, it is one she knows well. Aladzhanyan ’07 played at Oxy and by Anahit’s senior season, she was a team captain and essentially a player-coach as an extension of Coach Hoffman (then head coach) on the floor. Coach Heat graduated from Occidental College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a minor in Kinesiology in 2007. She later earned a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine in 2010.  Prior to Oxy she was a two-year captain at John Marshall High School in Los Feliz, CA.