Alex Focke officially began his duties as Hamline Assistant Vice President / Athletic Director on July 1, 2023. He will embark on his third year in that role, as well as his 13th overall year at Hamline in 2025-26.
Focke held a multitude of roles throughout his tenure in the Hamline athletic department, most recently as Head Women's Basketball Coach/Compliance Director for six seasons from 2017-18 through 2022-23. He accumulated a 71-63 overall record as head coach, which included a 37-16 mark over his final two seasons. Focke led the Pipers to a program-record 19 wins in 2021-22, and helped them achieve their highest MIAC Tournament seed ever at No. 3 in 2022-23.
In his first three seasons, Focke and his staff turned the program around, going from four wins in 2017-18 to 13 in the following season. In 2019-20, Hamline made the MIAC Tournament for the first time since the 2012-13 season, ending with a 15-11 overall record. The 15 wins was the most the program had recorded since 2008-09. The team also swept Saint Benedict for the first time since 1986.
Focke has coached seven MIAC All-Conference selections, one D3Hoops.com All-Region honoree, one MIAC Defensive Player of the Year, two MIAC All-First Year Team accolades, and one MIAC All-Playoff Team member throughout his six seasons as head women's basketball coach.
Focke arrived to Hamline in 2013-14 as the assistant men's basketball coach, a post he held for four seasons under current head coach Jim Hayes.
Working with Hayes, Focke played a major role in helping to recruit several of the players that contributed to turning the program around. During the 2016-17 season, Hamline went 14-12 overall, had their longest MIAC winning streak in 57 years, and advanced to the conference playoffs for the first time in six seasons. The Pipers recorded road wins at MIAC co-champion St. Thomas (for the first time in 37 seasons), and UMAC titlist Northwestern. They also swept Gustavus Adolphus, St. Olaf, and Concordia.
Focke has a master’s degree in sports pedagogy from South Dakota State, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota in communication studies. He was a graduate assistant coach at South Dakota State University for two years where he coached and recruited for the Jackrabbits. He was also an assistant at Henry Sibley when the team advanced to the MSHSL AAAA Boys’ Tournament.
Prior to coming to Hamline, Focke, who was on a state tournament hoops team at Cretin-Derham Hall, spent three years as the head coach at Prior Lake High School. He inherited a team that had been in last place in the Missota Conference with a 3-24 record. The Lakers turned things around quickly, winning 40 games in Focke’s three years as head coach, including a first-ever section triumph as a Class AAAA school.
In 2012-13, the Lakers went 19-7, including a 13-5 conference record and a third-place finish in the South Suburban Conference. They also experienced their first top-10 rating as a Class AAAA school.
Focke also spent two seasons coaching the ninth grade team at his prep alma mater and ran the 15U, 43 Hoops Basketball Club for one season.
In addition, he has worked at several hoop camps, including serving as the director of the Minnesota Timberwolves camps in 2009.
