The 2026-27 season is the fourth (third full season) for Maria (Wiltzius) Belt as the head women’s basketball coach of the Aggies. In addition to her coaching duties, Belt serves as OPSU Athletics’ Senior Woman Leader, through which she leads administrative efforts alongside the Director of Athletics.
Coaching Highlights at OPSU (Since November 2023)
Through the 2025-26 season at OPSU, Belt’s team and athletes have compiled:
- One Third Team All-SAC selection
- Two All-SAC Freshman Team honorees
- Two All-SAC Honorable Mention players
- Four CSC Academic All-District selections
- Two-time NAIA Scholar Team
- Two-time OPSU Team Academic Excellence Award
Belt initially came to OPSU in the spring of 2023 as the assistant sports information director, a role she executed through the 2023-24 year. In late November 2023, Belt was thrust into interim head coaching duties of the women’s basketball team. Belt successfully steadied the ship of the program that season, and she had the interim tag removed in February 2024.
During her first season leading the Aggies, Belt led the team to three victories post-winter break, including a signature win on Jan. 6, 2024, over (RV) Science & Arts Oklahoma. She also coached one player to Honorable Mention All-Sooner Athletic Conference honors.
After leading a roster overhaul through the 2024-25 year, Belt coached two all-conference players – both freshmen – in the 2025-26 season and led the Aggies to a 6-22 record, tying for the program’s most single-season wins since 2018-19. OPSU posted a five-win year-over-year improvement, and it won consecutive games in the SAC for the first time since 2020-21.
Academic success has been a cornerstone for the women’s basketball program under Belt, with the team garnering OPSU’s Academic Excellence Award in both of Belt’s two full seasons, along with being named NAIA Scholar Teams in 2024-25 and 2025-26.
Before OPSU
Prior to joining the athletics staff at Panhandle State, Belt spent two years from 2021-2023 at Williams Woods University as a graduate assistant coach, where she helped coach her players to nine all-conference honors, including the Freshman of the Year in the American Midwest Conference. Belt also spent the 2020-21 season as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Bay College.
Furthermore, Belt has spent time with the Milwaukee Bucks as a brand ambassador and at Wauwatosa East High School as an intern within the athletics department.
Playing Career
Originally from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Belt played basketball and volleyball at Gogebic Community College for two seasons. There, she was named all-region in both sports as a freshman and all-region in volleyball as a sophomore, and she was awarded the teams’ MVP in both sports as a sophomore.
Belt then transferred to Cardinal Stritch University in 2017-18 to complete the final two seasons of her playing career. The Wolves made it to the NAIA Division II National Tournament in both years, and she played a key part by appearing in 59 games (11 starts), making 29 3-pointers, scoring 185 total points, grabbing 82 rebounds, dishing out 29 assists, and recording 18 steals and 10 blocks across those two seasons.
Education
Belt holds a Business Certificate from Gogebic Community College (2017), a Bachelor of Arts in Sport Management and a Health & Wellness Certificate from Cardinal Stritch University (2019), and a Master of Education in Athletic Administration from William Woods University (2023).
Personal
Coach Belt resides in Goodwell, Oklahoma, with her husband, Charles Belt. She loves to golf and read in the summer, as well as play video games and do puzzles in the winter. She watches the Green Bay Packers, Miami Heat, New York Liberty and Michigan State Spartans all the time. She makes time to see family and friends in Michigan whenever she can.
