BROOKLYN, N.Y. — When it comes to collegiate coaching, climbing the ladder means changing your address.

A lot.

Dionne Dodson, a 1993 Butler graduate, was willing to take that journey.

“When I got my degree in sports management from Slippery Rock, I was trying to decide between going into coaching or athletic administration,” Dodson said. “I just happened to get a job in coaching first.”

That was an assistant women’s basketball coaching position at St. Francis (Pa.) in 1999. Dodson since moved on to Coastal Carolina, Manhattan and Fordham before landing at St. Francis (N.Y.) in Brooklyn, where she’s been the past six seasons.

She served as the associate head coach of the Terriers this season, the first assistant to third-year head coach John Thurston.

“Down the road, I’d love to be a head coach, sure,” Dodson said. “I’ve had some opportunities to leave, but I like being in New York right now and I wanted to be loyal to the kids who have been loyal to us.

“Our seniors took a chance in coming here three years ago, looking to build something. I wanted to see that through with them.”

And this year, that mutual loyalty paid off.

The Terriers finished 4-25 in 2011-12, when the team’s current seniors were freshmen. They won a program-record 19 games last season, but were only 7-17 at one point this season.

“We were decimated by injuries,” Dodson said. “Then we got healthy.”

And they got rolling.

St. Francis (N.Y.) won eight of its final nine games, winning the program’s first NorthEast Conference title by defeating three higher seeds on the road, including a double-overtime victory at No. 1 seed Central Connecticut State in the semifinals.

No NEC team had ever won the conference championship by posting three road wins. The Terriers gained their first-ever NCAA Women’s Tournament bid with a 15-19 record.

“I mean, nobody does that,” Dodson said of her team’s improbable run to the league title. “These girls could have easily been discouraged by all of those injuries and the disappointing way this season started.

“But I’ve never been around such an upbeat bunch.”

The Terriers’ season ended with an 89-33 first-round NCAA tourney loss to No. 1 ranked Connecticut. But the experience was well worth it.

“Just being on the same floor with them was amazing,” Dodson said. “Our girls weren’t scared. UConn is just UConn.

“We had a magical run. Stuff like that is why you coach.”

Dodson was a shooting guard for Butler’s girls basketball team in high school. She went on to play at Muskingum College.

All five members of the Golden Tornado starting lineup her senior year went on to participate in a collegiate sport.

“Only two of us were true basketball players, but we were all athletes,” Dodson said. “Patty Drum and Allyson Sams did track, Molly Woodroofe played soccer at Yale, Allyson Cowoski scored 1,000 points.

“It was so much fun playing ball with that group. You don’t realize the athleticism that was there at the time.”

She realizes how fortunate she is to be in the position she has now.

“While my ultimate goal is to be a head coach, I enjoy what I do now,” Dodson said. “The relationships you establish with the kids ... You talk to them in a different way and get to know them in a different way as an assistant.

“When the day comes, I will definitely miss that.”