Meet the next women's basketball coach at University of Illinois Springfield
The University of Illinois Springfield women’s basketball team posted its best season yet last winter.
The Prairie Stars will now embark on a new chapter after the departure of Casey Thousand, who returned to Northern Michigan to become its head coach.
Summer Quesenberry next takes the helm for UIS, the school announced on Thursday. She has been a collegiate head coach the past nine seasons, including the last two years at NCAA Division II Alderson Broaddus in West Virginia.
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She posted a 20-25 overall record with the Battlers, finishing 13-14 this past season.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Summer Quesenberry to UIS and the Springfield communities,” UIS athletic director Laura Liesman said in a press release. “Her enthusiasm and drive to not only lead our women’s basketball program on the court, but also to instill meaningful experiences for the student-athletes to be successful people was evident. I look forward to having Summer join our Prairie Star team.”
The Ohio Wesleyan University graduate previously led NAIA Lourdes from 2016-2018 and NAIA Brescia from 2012-16. She reached the NCAA Division III national semifinals in 2011 as an assistant coach at Christopher Newport.
She reached the Mountain East Conference tournament both years at Alderson Broaddus and ended a 14-year postseason drought there.
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Thousand went 36-41 over the past three seasons at UIS and led the Stars to their first ever Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament victory en route to a 17-11 overall mark after several years as an assistant coach at Northern Michigan.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: UIS women's basketball: Alderson Broaddus coach replaces Casey Thousand
