Michaela Trider enters her first season at Columbus State University after joining the women’s basketball program as a volunteer assistant coach in July 2026. She works closely with the program’s post players, focusing on their development and growth on and off the court.
Trider begins her coaching career following a successful five-year professional playing career in Europe.
A native of the Czech Republic, Trider moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, before her senior year of high school. She graduated from Lincoln Christian School, where she helped lead the Lady Crusaders to the 2017 Class C-1 State Championship and earned C-1 All-State Second Team honors.
At North Dakota State, Trider was a three-year starter who helped lift the program from seven to 15 wins and a winning record by her senior season. She was an All-Summit League Honorable Mention selection as a junior and set an NCAA Division I women’s basketball record with 75 consecutive made free throws, a streak that spanned from Dec. 30, 2018, to Feb. 23, 2020. She finished as NDSU's all-time leader in free throw percentage at 91 percent, second in career 3-pointers made and attempted, and third in career 3-point percentage at 40.9 percent. As a senior, she shot 50.8 percent from three, the third-best single-season mark in school history.
Trider was equally accomplished in the classroom. She earned a journalism degree with a minor in emergency management at NDSU, then a master's in emergency management from Bellevue University in December 2023, graduating with a 4.0 GPA at both schools. She was a Google Cloud Academic All-District First Team selection and a three-time Summit League Academic All-League honoree.
The 5-11 guard/forward went on to play professionally in France, the Czech Republic, and Portugal. During her third professional season, she led the Czech top league in three-point shooting percentage at 44 percent. Her final professional team competed internationally in the EuroCup, where she averaged 9.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game while shooting 52.6 percent from three-point range.
She also represented Czechia on the U16, U17, U20, and U18 3x3 national teams, and at the 2019 and 2023 World University Games in Italy and China.
Trider is married and resides in Columbus with her husband.
