Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Women's Basketball Adds Three to Staff
8/30/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
BOCA RATON, Fla. - The Florida Atlantic University women's basketball team is keeping busy in the preseason, as Head Coach Kellie Lewis-Jay has added three new staff members.
"The search for the right candidates to fulfill the positions was tough, but we feel like we have found our best choices for each role and they will contribute greatly to our program," said Lewis-Jay.
The Owls have hired Hannah McGonigal as the new director of women's basketball operations while Cindy Hilbrich and Kachine Alexander have joined the program as assistant coaches.
McGonigal comes to Boca Raton from almost every corner of the country besides the southeast. An alumnus of the University of Oregon with a degree in journalism and communications, McGonigal gained experience and enthusiasm for collegiate athletics as a student journalist for the Ducks. Her primary exposure to college athletics is in ticket sales where she served five different Division I institutions including Oregon. She also worked at Idaho, Washington, Massachusetts Amherst, and most recently, Arizona. McGonigal will have her homecoming on Thursday, Dec. 1, as the Owls travel to Tucson, Arizona, to face the Wildcats.
Hilbrich brings an extensive playing and coaching background to FAU. She is a former Division III basketball and softball athlete at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater. Following her collegiate playing career, she coached across the various levels of competition in women's basketball. Hilbrich started as a volunteer coach at Wisconsin-Parkside, then became an assistant coach at Mount Olive College. Hilbrich saw a forefront of success as an assistant coach at South Carolina Aiken. In her tenure, Hilbrich was a part of a Pacers staff that led the squad to NCAA Division II Regional Tournament appearances in 2009 and 2011. The 2010-11 campaign featured the most success, as the Pacers beat the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 teams of the season including dishing eventual national champion Clayton State its only loss of the season. USC Aiken captured its first NCAA Regional Tournament bid in the same season.
Most recently, Hilbrich had a five-year head coaching stint at Montevallo. As a head coach, Hilbrich recorded 17 wins in UM's 2012-13 campaign, which is Montevallo's NCAA Division II program record. That 2012-13 team also recorded a 3.22 spring GPA, the first time in six years the team posted a GPA better than a 3.0. In player development, one of Hilbrich's athletes earned Women's Basketball Coaches Association and Division II Bulletin honorable mention All-American honors, along with first team All-Peach Belt Conference and first and second team Daktronics NCAA Division II All-Southeast Region honors. This will be her first coaching tenure at the Division I level.
Kachine Alexander comes to FAU after building an impressive playing and coaching career. Alexander played for Iowa, where the former Hawkeye earned All-American Honorable Mention honors from both the WBCA and Associated Press, along with honors from the Big Ten Conference - including three times as a conference all-star and two times as an all-conference defensive team member. She then continued her playing career at the professional level. The 2011 draftee had a stint with her hometown WNBA team, the Minnesota Lynx, then headed to Vienna, Austria where she played for the Flying Foxes. In 2013, Alexander began her coaching career at Division II Colorado-St. Paul. She helped to guide the Golden Bears to a record-breaking 28-9 season in 2013-14, along with their first appearance in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.
The Owls are coming off an international trip and will open their 2016-17 campaign on Friday, Nov. 11 at home versus Florida Memorial in the FAU Arena. For season tickets call 1-866-FAU-Owls or visit www.fausports.com.
