University of the Pacific

Gavin Petersen enters his second season at Pacific as an assistant coach in 2014-15 season. His primary focus with the Tigers is a defensive role, where he helped the Tigers hold opponents to under one point per possession in 2013-14 (0.94). Pacific finished second in the West Coast Conference in steals (10.0 per game), and held a +4.35 turnover margin per game (second in the WCC). Petersen also plays a key role in recruiting, and has previously recruited players from Australia, Canada and Romania.

He joined the Tigers after 11 years at Hawai'i, Idaho and Idaho State. Petersen had spent the previous two seasons as an assistant coach and associate head coach at the University of Hawai'i, which returned to post-season in 2011-12, the first post-season bid for the Rainbow Wahine since 2002-03, when Petersen was also on the staff.

A native of Hawai'i, he got his start as a team manager while earning his bachelor's degree in in justice administration at Hawai'i Pacific. He then served as team manager at Hawai'i for three seasons while earning his master of science in kinesiology and leisure science degree. Petersen joining the Rainbow Wahine staff as an assistant coach for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons. In his two stints at Hawai'i, covering four seasons on the Hawai'i staff, Petersen coached nine All-Conference players.

From 2004-2008, Petersen served as an assistant coach and associate head coach at Idaho State, where he helped to lead the Bengals to a Big Sky Conference title and an NCAA tournament appearance in 2006-07; a regular season BSC title which resulted in a WNIT appearance in 2005-06; and a WNIT appearance in 2007-08; all under head coach Jon Newlee. In four seasons, Petersen coached six All-Conference award winners, inlcuding Joanna Hixon, the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year award winner in 2006, and Natalie Doma, the BSC Most Valuable Player honors in 2008 and the BSC's all-time leading scorer and then-leading rebounder.

Following Newlee to the University of Idaho as the associate head coach in 2008, Petersen helped turn around the Vandals' program, as Idaho made just its' second post-season trip in program history with a WNIT appearance in 2011. Six players earned All-Conference accolades during Petersen's time at Idaho, including Yinka Olorunnife, a two-time WAC All-Defensive team honoree and the WAC's all-time leading rebounder.

Petersen and his wife Karen have have two daughters, Breagh born in 2011, and Brooklyn born in 2013. The couple served together as assistant coaches at Idaho from 2008-2011.