Stephanie Gaitley hired as new Women's Basketball Coach

Stephanie Gaitley, who has 16 seasons of experience as a head coach, today was named women’s basketball coach at Long Island University.

Gaitley’s name has become one of the more recognized in college basketball with a 312-151 career record, seven NCAA Tournament berths, four conference championships and two WNIT appearances. Gaitley sported a 196-88 mark in 10 seasons at St. Joseph’s University (1991-2001) and went 116-63 in six seasons at the University of Richmond (1985-91).

The Ocean City, NJ native took over the ranks at St. Joseph’s from legendary coach Jim Foster and added to the program’s success each year. Gaitley guided the Hawks to five 20-win seasons, Atlantic-10 Conference championships in 1997 and 1999, and at-large appearances to the NCAA Tournament in 1994, 1995 and 2000. St. Joseph’s advanced to the second round in each of its postseason appearances from 1997-2000.

Gaitley, who served as an assistant coach at the Philadelphia school from 1982-85, took her team on three European tours as head coach in Ireland, England, Belgium and Luxembourg. She also helped secure an annual sponsorship of the program by a major supermarket chain and established the “Kid’s Fun Club,” bringing in over 100 supporters for the Hawks.

The success Gaitley had with St. Joseph’s carried from her experience at Richmond, where she led the Spiders to a WNIT berth in 1989 and Colonial Athletic Association championships in 1990 and 1991. Gaitley took over a mediocre squad and turned it into one of Virginia’s finest, notching 20-win campaigns in each of her last four seasons with a combined 96-27 record. Gaitley was named CAA Coach of the Year in 1990 following a 25-5 mark and went 26-5 the next season.

“We are privileged to have a coach of Stephanie’s caliber join our staff,” director of athletics John Suarez said. “Her experience is going to be invaluable to the program.”

Gaitley also has had success on the international level. She served as assistant coach for the United States in 2000 at the Jones Cup, helping lead it to a gold medal, and was coach for the West team at the 1995 U.S. Olympic Festival, winning a silver medal.

Academic success also has followed Gaitley wherever she has gone with a 100 percent graduation rate as coach. She has coached seven Atlantic-10 academic honorees, four CAA academic winners, two Atlantic-10 Student-Athletes of the Year, two all-district academic honorees and one academic All-American.

Gaitley graduated from Villanova in 1982 with a B.S. in Education and received her M.S. in Secondary Education there in 1983. Villanova inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 1993, three years after she was enshrined into the Philadelphia Big Five Hall of Fame. Gaitley served as chairperson of the Kodak All-America Committee from 1998-2001 and is a member of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.

Gaitley replaces Tony Bozzella, who left to become head coach at Iona. The Blackbirds (18-12, 13-5 Northeast Conference) finished tied for second in the NEC last season before falling to St. Francis (PA) in the final.