Catamount Head Coach Kiley Hill

HEAD COACH KILEY HILL

Third Season as Head Coach at WCU

KILEY HILL is amidst his third 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 19 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 Valdosta State, Hill was named head coach at WCU on July 8, 2019.

In his first two seasons on the WCU sidelines, five Catamounts have earned postseason accolades including two collecting All-Southern Conference plaudits in Jewel Smalls (2019-20) and Nadia Marshall (2020-21). 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 2020-21 squad scored the most seasonal wins for Catamount women's basketball and earned the program's highest seed in the conference tournament since 2016-17.

THE KILEY HILL FILE

PERSONAL:

Hometown: Hot Springs, Ark. Family: Molly Longing (wife); Whitley (daughter) and Skyler (son)

EDUCATION:

Arkansas Tech, 1995 & West Alabama, 1997

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 Bas-

ketball 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.

COACHING EXPERIENCE:

WESTERN CAROLINA........ Head Coach ..........2019-present Southern Mississippi ......... Associate Head................... 2016-19 Valdosta State ......................Head Coach .................... 2000-16 West Alabama.......................Head Coach ................ 1999-2000 West Alabama....................Assistant Coach ..................1997-99 Arkansas Tech .................Graduate Assistant................1995-97