Illinois Wesleyan

Marla Maupin-Cleveland returned to Illinois Wesleyan as an assistant women's basketball coach in 2017-18 and enters her fourth season as an assistant on Mia Smith's staff in 2020-21.

She previously was the head coach at Illinois Wesleyan for two seasons, going 15-36 overall (8-24 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) from 1986-88.

A high school standout at Saybrook-Arrowsmith (Ill.) High School, she was a four-year basketball letterwinner and All-American (1985) at Illinois State.

In the 1984-85 season she was named an All-American as she notched 17 double-doubles and finished with 26 in her career. Also that year she was a four-time Gateway Conference Player of the Week and an all-conference first team pick.
She scored 1,323 career points, and finished her career as one of the career leaders in rebounds (796) and in blocked shots (68) and holds the highest career field goal percentage (.554) in Illinois State history.

After college, she played professionally for seven seasons in Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ireland, France and Australia. She began her coaching career as an assistant at Illinois State and also coached at University High School, Ashland University, and Akron University.

She was inducted into the Illinois State Athletics Percy Hall of Fame in 2002.