Head Women’s Basketball Coach Craig Jackson announced today, the hiring of new assistant and JV coach, Lisa Willis from Long Beach, California.

"We are very fortunate to add Lisa to our coaching staff. She has a wealth of experience in the professional game, as well as coming from an outstanding college program. We are looking forward to the contributions that she will make to our program,"-says Jackson.

Willis earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a concentration in American Politics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2006, and is currently pursuing her Masters of Business Administration from the Keller School of Management.

While earning her undergraduate degree, Lisa was a member of the UCLA women’s basketball team where she played the shooting guard position and named team captain in 2005. Also in 2005, she was a USA Collegiate Team Gold Medalist in Izmir, Turkey and in 2006 was named the Pac-10 Tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

After college, Lisa was selected in 2006 as the overall fifth draft pick in the WNBA to the Los Angeles Sparks. With the Sparks, she engaged in various community service activities for children and youth and was also the WNBA 3-point leader in 2008. Lisa played professionally from 2006-2010 in Russia, Greece, Turkey, and Latvia where she led her team to win the Latvian Championship.

Lisa most recently worked as a basketball tutoring instructor for Work Hard, Play Hard where she tutored students individually and in group settings to achieve better performance in basketball. Not only did she work with these students to improve their skills, but she provided academic tutoring to struggling students to bring up their grades. She helped to enable students to prepare for and receive athletic scholarships.

Lisa will be a great asset to the coaching staff and the Montreat Women’s Basketball program.

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