Nicholas “Nic” Kjaerholt is in his second season as Wheeling's Assistant Athletics Director. He played an instrumental role in compliance and working with international students as Assistant Athletic Direcor after spending the previous two seasons as the university's Student Success Coordinator and Director of International Admissions.
During the 2024-2025 season, Kjaerholt split his duties between Assistant Athletic Director and Associate Head Coach for the Women's Basketball team. In the Athletic office, Kjaerholt assisted Athletic Director Carrie Hanna with all compliance tasks, including making sure student-athletes were eligible to compete on a day-to-day basis. He also worked with the international students insuring that visas were all up to date and students had everything they needed when they were ready to report to campus. He had other gameday duties as well, including serving as Game Administrator and performing other duties to insure that Gamedays flowed properly.
He joins the Athletic Department after serving as the Academic Success Services Coordinator and the Director of International Admissions. In the Student Success Center, he was responsible for ensuring the academic success of students and making sure the Student Success center ran efficiently. As Director of International Admissions, his responsibilities included recruiting and admitting international students from all over the world. In both roles, he ensured students' academic success, and looks to bring that into the athletic world to help the students become well rounded individuals.
His coaching duties included working with the Women's Basketball team offense under Head Coach Anna Kowalska. Kjaerholt would work on offensive strategy, insuring that the Cardinals were gameday ready. Under his leadership, the team achieved their highest seeding in the MEC Women's Basketball tournament since the 2020 season, earning the conference's #3 honor. He helped coach forward Rachel Wilson to the first All-MEC honor of her career and helped with the continued growth of the Women's Basketball program on the court.
On the court, Kjaerholt helped the Wheeling Women's Basketball team to a historic start, with the team going 8-0. By year's end, the Cardinals were the #6 seed in the MEC Tournament, and had a rematch of their first-round matchup with Charleston. Kjaerholt worked hand-in-hand on game strategy and other aspects of the team's on-court play. He also assisted in film breakdown and game film exchange for the team.
In 2022-23, Kjaerholt worked closely with Head Coach Anna Kowalska on strategy and other game planning measures for the team. He helped lead Wheeling to the MEC Tournament Quarterfinals. He also works closely with the team's recruiting efforts and in their first season helped bring in eight+ new players for the team.
Prior to coming to Wheeling University Kjaerholt served as Assistant Coach under Head Coach Anna Kowalska at Life University and WVU Tech. During his time with the WVU Tech Golden Bears, they won the 2021 River States Conference Tournament thus earning their 3rd straight NAIA National Tournament berth. Kjaerholt oversaw many roles: He structured the strength and conditioning program, prepared scouting reports, in charge of recruiting, designed player development programs and assisted in the overall operations of the team. He also coached the 2021 River States Conference Player of the Year Brittney Justice who was 1st Team All-Conference and NAIA Honorable Mention All-American.
From 2018-2020 Nic Kjaerholt served as a Graduate Assistant for the Florida State Seminoles under former Head Coach Sue Semrau. As part of FSU’s team, he helped the program in several ways: Director of Scout Team, game preparation, player personnel scouting, post-game scouting reports and helping organize team travel. While at FSU, the team qualified for the NCAA tournament both years, played in the ACC Championship game, and finished the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons in the Top 25 poll. During the 2019-20 season the Seminoles were ranked as high as #8 in the country and defeated six Top 25 teams including 3 Top 10 teams.
Kjaerholt is a former standout on the floor for WVU Tech representing Tech from 2009-2011 while serving as a team captain for 2010-2011 season. He also served four years as an Assistant Coach at WVU Tech under Head Coach Bob Williams with the men’s program where he had a myriad of roles: He headed up the strength and conditioning program, prepared scouting reports, in charge of recruiting, structured player development and assisted in the overall operations of the team. In his four years with WVU Tech, the program was a consistent Top 25 ballclub, garnering as high as a No. 11 ranking in the 2016-17 season. During his time with the WVU Tech men’s program the team went to the NAIA National Tournament 3 out of 4 years.
Kjaerholt played at Broome Community College from 2007-2009, helping his team to a Mid-State Athletic Conference title in 2008. In that year, he also was named to the Mid-State Athletic Conference Team, the all-region team and earned a spot on the Dean’s List. In addition to captaining Broome Community College, he also captained WVU Tech in the 2010-11 season. Originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, Kjaerholt played for the Danish Men's National Teams in the U15, U-16, U-17, U-18, U-19 and U-20 divisions while also playing for Falcon Basketball Club. Kjaerholt is married to Ania Kowalska, who is the head coach of the Wheeling University women's basketball team, and they have two kids, Noah and Kylo
