South Dakota State women’s basketball head coach Aaron Johnston announced Monday that Haylie Linn has being elevated to a full-time assistant coaching position and Kelsie Kruger named director of basketball operations.
“We are excited to promote Haylie to an assistant coaching position from her role as director of operations,” Johnston said. “She did an exceptional job with us last year on the operations side, and I know she will excel in her new recruiting and player development roles. Haylie is a great fit for our program and she will help us build on our current success.”
After spending the 2014-15 season as the Jackrabbits’ director of basketball operations, Linn takes over as an assistant coach, replacing Carissa Nord, who was named an assistant coach at Bucknell University.
Prior to SDSU, the Madison, Wis., native was a graduate assistant for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women’s basketball program and assumed its interim director of operations responsibilities in spring 2014.
Linn transferred after her sophomore season at Indiana and played two years at the University of Toledo where she was an Academic All-MAC Team recipient and earned the 2011-12 Roy & Gail Hummel Scholarship, awarded each year to women’s basketball player with the highest GPA. She also participated in Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s “So You Want To Be A Coach” program in conjunction with 2012 NCAA Women’s Final Four in Denver.
“Kelsie will do an excellent job as our new director of operations. Her ties to the area and familiarity with our program will help her quickly transition into the role,” Johnston said. “She has an outgoing energetic personality that our student-athletes and fans will certainly enjoy.”
Kruger comes to SDSU after spending last season as assistant coach at Ashford University in Iowa. She helped the Saints to a 25-8 overall record and to the second round of the 2015 NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball Championship.
Prior to Ashland, Kruger spent two seasons as an assistant coach at California State University, East Bay, one at her alma mater, Adams State in Colorado and was a women’s basketball and volleyball graduate assistant at Iowa Lakes Community College.
As a collegiate player, Kruger helped lead the Grizzlies to back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Division II postseason tournament in 2009-10 and 2010-11. She was also an All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference selection, and as a senior, averaged 11.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, while shooting 51.3 percent from the field.
The South Dakota State women’s basketball program has made six trips to the NCAA Tournament after winning six Summit League Tournament titles. The Jackrabbits have nine consecutive postseason appearances and 18 20-win seasons.
The Jackrabbits host Marist College in their home opener Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. in Frost Arena.
