Southern Illinois women’s basketball coach Cindy Stein has announced the hiring of Andrea Gorski as the Salukis’ associate head coach.
Gorski comes to Carbondale with 17 years of head coaching experience at the high school, AAU and college level. She spent the last five years as the head coach at Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Mich., where she transformed a sub-.500 club into a national tournament team.
Gorski’s duties at SIU will include recruiting, scheduling, player development and game preparation.
“Andrea brings a wealth of coaching knowledge from every aspect. She has taken programs that were stagnant and turned them into powerhouses,” Stein said. “She knows the hard work, passion and mentality it will take to get the job done at SIU.”
Concordia went 8-22 in Gorski’s first season in 2008-09 before improving to 18-13 the following season and 23-11 in year three with the program’s first ever trip to the NAIA Division II National Tournament.
The Cardinals broke onto the national stage in 2011-12 with a 29-6 record, the program’s first ever Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference regular season title and the program’s first NAIA DII Tournament win. Concordia broke the school record for wins in a season and reached as high as No. 4 in the national rankings during the 2011-12 run.
Gorski and the Cardinals followed the finest season in school history with another stellar year in 2012-13. Concordia went 28-7, won another WHAC regular season title, made it back to the second round of the NAIA DII Tournament and ranked No. 11 in the final national poll.
Gorski coached three Concordia players to All-America honors and two players to WHAC Player of the Year awards, and slew of Cardinals earned All-WHAC honors during her tenure. Gorski was named the WHAC Coach of the Year in both 2010 and 2012.
Prior to Concordia, Gorski spent 12 years as the head coach at Ladywood High School in Livonia, Mich., where she compiled a record of 184-99 from 1996-2008. At Ladywood, Gorski was a three-time Catholic League Coach of the Year in addition to being named Basketball Coaches of Michigan Coach of the Year, the Detroit Free Press Coach of the Year and the Associated Press Coach of the Year in 2005.
In addition to her high school and college experience, Gorski has also been a volunteer coach at the Livonia YMCA, a Catholic Youth Organization coach at St. Michael Catholic School and an AAU coach for the Michigan Celtic team that finished as the 2010 and 2011 state runner-up.
Gorski got her start in coaching as a graduate assistant at Bradley during the 1992-93 season after finishing up a four-year playing career with the Braves.
“I had the opportunity to coach Andrea while I was an assistant at BU and then we worked together as she became our graduate assistant coach,” Stein said. “She has a great head for the game, she is driven and she cares about kids and wants to make a difference in their lives in a positive way.”
As a player, Gorski scored 980 career points at Bradley and earned First-Team All-Missouri Valley Conference honors her senior season in 1991-92. Gorski ranks fourth in Bradley history for career assists and fifth in 3-pointers made. A 1992 BU graduate with a bachelor’s degree in business management and administration, Gorski is a 1996 inductee of the Bradley Hall of Fame.
“I am extremely excited to be back in the Missouri Valley Conference and teamed up with coach Stein once again,” Gorski said. “The opportunity to help lead the Salukis back to the top of the conference is a challenge that I look forward to. With the combination of having a proven winner like Coach Stein at the helm, along with the top-notch facilities, I am confident that we will attract high caliber student-athletes that will compete for championships and excel in the classroom.”
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