By Mark Gregory
Sports Editor
@Hear_The_Beard
mark@buglenewspapers.com
How does a program in the Joliet area replace a coach with bloodlines to one of the top athletic families in Will County?
With another one, that’s how.
Lewis University announced welcomed Samantha Quigley-Smith as the 13th head women’s basketball coach in school-history last week.
She replaces Kristen Gillespie, who accepted the head job at Illinois State University after only two seasons at Lewis.
Quigley comes to Lewis from the University of St. Francis, where she posted a record of 101-62 in five seasons on the bench.
Last year, the Saints posted a 34-2 record and were undefeated in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference. St. Francis advanced to the NAIA Division II semifinals.
Quigley-Smith was named the CCAC Coach of the Year for a second-consecutive season. She was also selected as the Illinois Basketball Coach Association Coach of the Year and was a WBCA/United States Marine Corps NAIA National Coach of the Year finalist.
“I am really excited to be here,” Quigley-Smith said. “I have to thank my family, it wasn’t an easy decision the last couple weeks, but it is great to be here. I have to thank St. Francis, who gave me my start at the ripe age of 23 years old. I was grateful to have that opportunity to coach and be a head coach at such a young age. I have to thank Lewis and the search committee. I know they had some really great candidates and to choose me, I am really lucky.
“After meeting with the search committee, I immediately felt like this was family and it felt right and the second time I came, just driving up to the university felt right.”
This year was not the first time Quigley-Smith considered applying for the Lewis position.
“When coach Gillespie took the position at Illinois State, I jumped at the opportunity,” she said. “When the position opened two years ago, it was something I thought long and hard about, but the timing wasn’t so great. I felt like now was a good time and I was ready to accept the challenge.
“Not everyone goes to a cross-town rival, but the step up in division to NCAA Division II was big and to be able to be part of an athletic program that has been so successful.”
While she said she has no plans to leave Lewis in the near future, Quigley-Smith said that the idea that the last two Lewis coaches moved on to Division-I jobs was intriguing.
“I would be crazy to say that it wasn’t in the back of my head, but our family is really established in the area and we are not looking to go anywhere anytime soon,” she said. “It does speak volumes about the program that they are producing coaches that are having great success and they are leading coaches to the highest level there is.”
That desire to some day coach at the Division I level is a reason St. Francis AD Dave Laketa knew Quigley-Smith would not be a Saint forever.
“We are grateful to Samantha for the work that she did to turn our women’s basketball program into one of the top-caliber programs at the NAIA level,” Laketa said in a statement. “It has been extremely fun to watch her develop over these past five years, culminating with this year’s undefeated regular-season record and a trip to the semifinals of the NAIA National Tournament.
“I know that this was a very difficult decision for Samantha to make with her and her family’s ties to St. Francis, but one that I know will serve her well along her career path. We were glad to give Samantha her first head coaching opportunity and know that she will do well for many years to come.”
Her ties to the community run deeper than just USF.
Quigley-Smith was also a JCA legend, as she was the 2006 Chicago Sun-Times Female Athlete of the Year as a basketball, volleyball and softball standout. She was a two-time Illinois Basketball Coaches Association All-State First Team and Associated Press Class AA All-State Third Team selection in basketball. She finished with 1,910 career points as an Angel.
She went on to play for Doug Bruno at DePaul, where she played from 2006-11. She left as No. 20 on the all-time scoring list with 1,273 and was third with 484 assists.
She was a two-time All-Big East selection and was named an Honorable Mention WBCA All-American in 2011 and a finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Award as a senior. The same season, Quigley Smith earned Capital One Academic All-District honors and was the recipient of the Big East Sportsmanship Award.
Quigley-Smith will not be coming to Lewis alone, as she looks to bring her entire USF staff to Lewis with her, including former Joliet Catholic boys coach and 1974 Lewis graduate Dan McCarthy.
“My intention is to bring everyone over and hopefully everything works with logistics and our graduate assistant getting some credits transferred over, but it looks like everything will work out,” she said. “Dan McCarthy was a huge part for our success and he is a big reason why I am the coach I am today, so I had to have him come over.”
The staff will inherit a team that advanced to the NCAA Regional Tournament for the fifth-straight season and is paced by 2017 Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Year Jessica Kelliher.
The Flyers will play at St. Francis in December.