2022-23 Western Carolina Catamount Women's Basketball Digital Game Day Program - February 2023

HEAD COACH KILEY HILL

FOURTH SEASON AT WCU

KILEY HILL is amidst his fourth season as the head women's basketball coach at Western Carolina. A veteran coach with more than 25 years experience in collegiate women’s basketball including 21 as a head coach, Hill scored his 300th career coaching victory on the Catamount sidelines during the 2020-21 season.

The former associate head coach at Southern Mississippi and head coach at both West Alabama and Valdosta State, Hill was named head coach at Western Carolina on July 8, 2019.

In his first three seasons on the WCU sidelines, six Catamounts earned postseason accolades including two collecting All-Southern Conference plaudits in Jewel Smalls (2019-20) and Nadia Marshall (2020-21). Joi Reid earned a spot on the 2022 SoCon All-Defensive Team, a first in program history. Three first-year players have earned SoCon All-Freshman honors including Andrea Martin Ruiz and Alyssa Walker in 2019-20 and Zanoria Cruz in 2020-21.

His 2021-22 squad scored the most seasonal wins (7) for Catamount women's basketball since 2016-17 with the 2020-21 team garnering the program's highest SoCon tournament seed since 2015-16.

This season, with the squad's 56-48 win at Chattanooga Jan. 28, 2023, Hill became the first head coach in Western Carolina women’s basketball program history to win twice at Chattanooga (2020, 2023).

During his career, Hill's experience also includes a 16 year stint as the head coach at Valdosta State in Georgia, and a four-year term at West Alabama in Livingston, Ala. – one as head coach preceded by three as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator.

As the associate head coach at Southern Miss, Hill helped the team amass a record of 56-40 including a 23-11 tally in the 2016-17 season that finished with a return to the Conference USA championship game.

Hill made the move to Southern Miss following a 16-year stint as head women’s basketball coach at Valdosta State where he compiled a 279177 record. He established himself as one of the top NCAA Division II coaches in the nation and was recognized as the 2012 Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s (WBCA) South Region Coach of the Year. He stacked that on top of being named the Gulf South Conference (GSC) East Division’s Coach of the Decade. During his time at Valdosta, Hill garnered the GSC East Coach of the Year twice.

A four-year letter winner on the baseball diamond and a 1995 graduate of Arkansas Tech in Russellville, Ark., Hill got his start in collegiate coaching at his alma mater as a graduate assistant.

Hill is married to the former Molly Longing of Russellville, Ark., and the couple has two children; Whitley and Skyler.

THE KILEY HILL FILE

PERSONAL:

Hometown:

Family:

CATAMOUNT WOMEN'S BASKETBALL >>>>> COACHES & STAFF

<<<<< 2022-23 CATAMOUNT BASKETBALL – FAST BREAK POINTS

CATAMOUNT WOMEN'S BASKETBALL STUDENT ASSISTANTS (L-R): MADISON COPE, RICHIE McKERCHER, HEAD COACH KILEY HILL, CLARA HEINS, AND SARA RHONEY

WESTERN CAROLINA ATHLETICS – DEPARTMENT SENIOR STAFF

Basketball Committee with terms running through 2026 and 2027, respectively.

Alex Gary, a former student-athlete on the Western Carolina baseball team was dubbed the director of the Catamount athletics program in late February 2020 by WCU Chancellor Kelli R. Brown.

Selected following a national search conducted by a 15-member committee working with the assistance of the North Carolina-based executive search consulting firm Collegiate Sports Associates, Gary had most recently served as senior associate athletics director for development at Oregon State.

During his first couple of years as the Athletics Director at WCU, Gary successfully navigated the department through the COVID-19 pandemic while also overseeing the hiring of 50 employees including three high-profile sport head coaches – men's basketball head coach Justin Gray; Kerwin Bell, head football coach; and Alan Beck, head baseball coach.

Gary was appointed to both the NCAA Division I Baseball Rules Committee and the NCAA Division I Women's

Gary served as senior associate director of athletics and the department’s chief development officer at Oregon State from September 2017 through 2020. He previously served as associate athletics director for development and external relations at the University of Maryland from 2014 until 2017. He also has held development positions at the University of Michigan and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Gary’s professional experience in major collegiate athletics conferences, such as the Pac-12 and Big Ten, combined with his personal familiarity with WCU as a former student-athlete make him a perfect fit to take over the helm of the Catamount athletics program, Brown said.

A native of Knoxville, Tenn., who grew up in Charlotte, Gary was an outfielder on the Catamount baseball team from 2001 until 2004, earning Southern Conference Player of the Week honors in March 2004. During his junior year of 2003, he was a member of WCU’s regular season and SoCon Tournament championship team and participated in the NCAA regionals held in Wilson, N.C. While at Oregon State, he was a member of the executive leadership team responsible for the athletics department’s $85 million budget, 150 employees

and more than 500 student-athletes. He oversaw the 16-member athletics development team, which raised nearly $26 million in 2019, a record for the Beavers’ athletics program. That fundraising effort included a $3.5 million sports performance center renovation, $2.3 million women’s locker room renovation, and $2.6 million baseball stadium expansion.

During his stint at the University of Maryland, Gary chaired a committee focused on the financial sustainability of the athletics department, and he led annual giving growth in the Terrapin Club by 22 percent in 2015 and 13 percent in 2016. As a member of the development team at the University of Michigan from 2010 until 2014, he worked closely with the university’s athletics department, raising $12.8 million to support the Wolverines’ athletics program’s capital and endowment needs. He began his career in 2009 as assistant director of annual giving at UNC Charlotte.

He earned a degree in business administration in 2005 from Virginia Commonwealth University and his master’s degree in business administration at UNC Charlotte in 2009.

Gary and the former Katie Mavis of Saint Joseph, Mich., were married in a mountain-top ceremony in Oregon on Aug. 28, 2020. The couple has a daughter, Gianna.

Daniel Hooker Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations

Julie Miller Associate Athletic Director for Development

Travis Chandler Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance

Ashleigh Simmons Associate AD for Academics & Compliance (SWA)

Kyle Pifer WCU Deputy Athletics Director

Amanda Murchie Assistant Athletic Director for Business

Chad Gerrety Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs

ALEX GARY DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS

PRESENTED BY EDWARD JONES: JUSTIN CASTLE

Interested in joining? Please contact the Catamount Ticket office

- Portfolio reviews

- Retirement income strategies

CATAMOUNT WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

2022-23 SCHEDULE / RESULTS

<<<<< 2022-23 CATAMOUNT BASKETBALL – FAST BREAK POINTS

KEHINDE OBASUYI

KYLA ALLISON

ZANORIA CRUZ

MERCER BEARS

HEAD COACH: Susie Gardner (Georgia, 1986) • 13th season

ASSISTANT COACHES: Ben Wierzba (SIU Edwardsville, 1999) • 8th season

David Lowery (Mississippi State) • 2nd season

Marqu'es Webb (Vanderbilt, 2017) • 2nd season

PLAYER PERSONNEL / OPS: Ali Trani (UNC Asheville, 2019)

SAMFORD BULLDOGS

QUICK FACTS:

LOCATION: Macon, Ga.

ENROLLMENT: 9,033

PRESIDENT: William D. Underwood

ATHLETICS DIRECTOR: Jim Cole

WEBSITE: MercerBears.com

CHATTANOOGA MOCS

HEAD COACH: Shawn Poppie (Limestone, 2007)

ASSISTANT COACHES: Jonathan Goldberg (Emerson, 2014)

Grisillo (USC Aiken, 2016)

(Radford, 2018)

DIRECTOR OF OPS: Tyler Clark (Bowling Green, 2015)

ATHLETIC TRAINER: Eric Roux (High Point) • 3rd season

ETSU BUCCANEERS

QUICK FACTS:

LOCATION: Chattanooga, Tenn.

CHANCELLOR: Dr. Steve Angle

ATHLETICS DIRECTOR: Mark Wharton

WEBSITE: GoMocs.com

WESTERN CAROLINA CATAMOUNTS 2022-23 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL ROSTER

Western Carolina Women's Basketball – Updated Statistics

WESTERN CAROLINA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL – 2022-23 Radio / TV Chart

WESTERN CAROLINA ATHLETICS >>>>> CATAMOUNT HEAD COACHES

ALAN BECK baseball

JUSTIN GRAY mens basketball

KILEY HILL womens basketball

CAITLIN DAVIS cheerleading

KERWIN BELL football

TIM ECKBERG mens golf

COURTNEY GUNTER womens golf

CHAD MILLER soccer

JIM CLIFT softball

BRET BEAVER tennis JESSE NORMAN xc / track and field

KAREN GLOVER volleyball

RAMSEY CENTER QUICK FACTS:

DEDICATION: December 6, 1986

First Game / First Women’s Basketball Game: Western Carolina 65, Mars Hill 61 (12/4/86)

First

CATAMOUNT WOMEN'S BASKETBALL >>>>> DID YOU KNOW...?

• Western Carolina’s 1969 women’s basketball team made history on March 22 as the first team to compete in the CIAW Championship, facing West Chester State (Pa.) in the title game, falling 65-39 ... Coached by BETTY WESTMORELAND, the team finished its fourth season with a 14-3 record, losing only to UNC Greensboro twice and West Chester in the final game ... the 1969 Catamount women’s basketball team was inducted into the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003;

• JAYNE ARLEDGE was the first female student-athlete to receive athletic grant-in aid at WCU in 1976 and was later the first female student-athlete to have her jersey retired in school history ... In 1992, Arledge was inducted into the Western Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame ... Arledge coached at North Greenville University for 36 years, remaining on-staff as the Senior Woman Administrator ... She was inducted into the Crusaders’ Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019;

• JAYNE ARLEDGE is the program’s all-time leading scorer, finishing with 1,928 career points, averaging 21.7 points per game over four seasons ... Arledge scored 30 points five times and owns 11 Western Carolina game, season and career records ... Arledge led the Catamounts to four-consecutive winning seasons and was twice named All-State;

• Under the leadership of head coach KELLIE HARPER, WCU won its first Southern Conference tournament title in 2005, outlasting fifth-seeded Georgia Southern, 97-95, in double overtime to earn the program’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament ... WCU also became the first team in SoCon history to reach and win the tournament championship after playing in the opening round;

• In 2007, Western Carolina won its first SoCon regular season title ... the Catamounts won a school-record 15 league games and tied Chattanooga for the regular season title, earning the program’s first-ever No. 1 seed in the SoCon tournament ... WCU went on to play in the postseason WNIT;

• It took three overtime periods, 101 points and clutch free throws down the stretch, but WCU weathered it all to capture the 2009 SoCon Tournament title, the second in program history ... No. 3 seed WCU defeated No. 5 seed College of Charleston, 101-87, in the come-from-behind victory ... the game was the third-highest scoring game in SoCon Tournament history and also the first triple OT game in the tournament ... WCU earned a No. 13 seed in the NCAA tournament, the highest in school history;

• LAURA ECHOLS (1998-2002) and JENNIFER GARDNER (2001-05) were both named to the SoCon's 100th Anniversary Women's Basketball team at the end of the year-long celebration in 2021 ... Both Echols and Gardner were three-time, first-team All-SoCon selections in their WCU careers.

LAURA ECHOLS KENDRA EATON

KELLIE HARPER

JAYNE ARLEDGE

JENNIFER GARDNER

BETTY WESTMORELAND

CAT HOUSE PEP BAND

FRONT ROW (L-R): Skylar Poulos, Naidelyn Cruz and Nicole Stauffer

MIDDLE ROW (L-R): Matigan Rowe, Alex Henry, Kenzie Davis, Kimberly Hydrick, Alyssa Malgrat and Megan Normandin

BACK ROW (L-R): Liv Wiesenhart, Samantha Harp, Bailey Burk, Julia Gerrer, Ashley Avant, Michelle Davis and Madison Tadlock

2022-23 CATAMOUNT CHEERLEADERS

FRONT ROW (L-R): Hannah Wing, Airica Anderson, Caroline Lopp, Molly McAvoy, Sara, Grace Smith, Olivia Hawkins and Sarena Burrell

MIDDLE ROW (L-R): Riley Ledford, Lindsey Mendzoa, Emma Shue, Kate Ammend, Marissa Clontz, Becca Kilpatrick, Kamdyn Anderson, Scotting Branning and Tiana Scarchilli

BACK ROW (L-R): Isabella Fazio, Savannah Jones, Catie Osborne, Nathan Campbell, Riley Sanz, Kasi Jones and Makenna Shipley