Lehigh women’s basketball head coach Sue Troyan has announced a few changes to the coaching staff as the Mountain Hawks get set to gear up for the 2012-13 season. Caitlin Gillard was promoted from Director of Basketball Operations to the second assistant coach position, Laura Kurz was hired as the third assistant coach and Katie Kuester was hired as the new Director of Basketball Operations.
Kurz and Kuester join the staff replacing the recently departed Tiffany Coll, who joined the staff at Towson University and Tricia Smith, who is exploring other professional opportunities.
Gillard is in her third season with the Lehigh program after spending the past two years as the Director of Basketball Operations.
Kurz joins the Lehigh women’s basketball program in what will be her first coaching opportunity after an extremely successful playing career.
Kurz had a stellar collegiate career in which she played two seasons for Duke University before transferring to Villanova where as a senior, she was a unanimous First Team All-Big East selection, the Big Five Player of the Year, the Big East Conference Co-Most Improved Player Award and the honor of being named a finalist for the Naismith Award. In her senior season, Kurz led Villanova in scoring (17.4), rebounding (7.2) and blocks (42), and she ranked among the best in steals (26) and assists (52) while Kurz also became just the second player in program history to score 1,000 points in just two seasons.
After graduating, Kurz played professionally for a year in Greece and was then a training camp invitee with the WNBA’s Seattle Storm.
Kuester joins the Lehigh program after playing for four years at Saint Joseph’s where she co-captained the squad in her final two seasons. The Media, Pa. native had a storied career for the Hawks as she finished first all-time in free-throw percentage (86.1) and seventh all-time in three-point field goals made (167).
Kuester led the Hawks with 58 three-point field goals in her senior season while averaging 9.1 points and 2.2 assists per game. In April, she was named to the Philly College Sports All-Area Division I Second Team. Kuester was part of a Saint Joseph’s program that was the Big 5 Co-Champions (2009), earned two berths to the postseason NIT (2010,11) and won three Hawk Classic Basketball Tournament Championships (2009, 10, 11).
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