Utah State head women’s basketball coach Jerry Finkbeiner has announced the addition of Kelsie Kruger to the coaching staff.

“We are excited to add Kelsie to our staff. She was an outstanding Division II player who knows the game and comes from a basketball family,” Finkbeiner said. “Kelsie will be a great complement to Ben (Finkbeiner) and JC (Carter), as well as our players. I’ve known her for two years and am looking forward to adding her to our team.”

A native of Marshall, Minn., Kruger joins the Aggies from South Dakota State, where she spent the 2015-16 season as the director of basketball operations.

“I want to thank John Hartwell and Coach Finkbeiner for the opportunity to be an Aggie. I feel very fortunate and extremely blessed to work alongside Coach Finkbeiner and I could not be more excited to join him and the rest of the staff at Utah State,” Kruger said. “I want to thank Coach (Aaron) Johnston and the coaching staff at South Dakota State for a great opportunity. The experiences gained through my time at SDSU will help me moving forward. I am eager to meet the team and everyone else at Utah State.”

Prior to her time in Brookings, Kruger spent two seasons as assistant coach at California State University, East Bay. There, she helped lead the Pioneers to the California Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament title game, posting a 20-11 record.

Before coaching at CSU East Bay, Kruger spent a season as an assistant coach at her alma mater, Adams State, and was a women’s basketball and volleyball graduate assistant at Iowa Lakes Community College.

As a student-athlete at Adams State, Kruger helped lead the Grizzlies to back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Division II postseason tournament in 2009-10 and 2010-11. She was a member of Adams State’s most successful squads, accumulating an overall record of 44-18 over her final two seasons. Kruger was an all-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference selection, averaging 11.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, while shooting 51.3 percent from the field as a senior. She also spent five years as an instructor at the Adams State Basketball Academy before being promoted to Assistant Director of the camp in 2012.

 

Kruger earned her bachelor’s degree in sports administration from Adams State in 2011. She completed her master’s degree in educational leadership and policy studies at Iowa State in 2013.

Kruger replaces four-year assistant Micha Thompson who was recently named the head women’s basketball coach at Upper Iowa.

http://www.utahstateaggies.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/070516aac.html

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