Former Clairton star Kam Gissendanner takes over Saint Vincent women's basketball program

Two years? Three years?

No, new Saint Vincent women’s basketball coach Kam Gissendanner doesn’t want a grace period for the Bearcats. She wants to win immediately.

“We’re going to hit the ground running, quickly,” Gissendanner said Wednesday from Carey Center on SVC’s campus. “Like, we want it right now.”

SVC has its next coach, and she is ready to roll.

Gissendanner, a former Clairton star who played and coached at the Division I level and briefly played in the WNBA, takes over for Jimmy Petruska, who led SVC for 15 years and went 245-110 with four PAC regular-season titles before his resignation in July.

Gissendanner, 40, comes to Latrobe after 12 years as head coach at LaRoche, a member of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference.

She wants to continue the winning tradition Petruska helped build over the last decade-plus.

“Basketball is basketball,” Gissendanner said. “I believe in playing it one way and one way only. And that is with passion.”

La Roche won eight AMCC titles and appeared just as many times in the NCAA Division III Tournament over a 10-year span.

She was 235-64 with the Red Hawks and was voted AMCC Coach of the Year five times.

“There was so much excitement around the job, and attracting somebody with a resume and history like coach (Kam), there was only one choice,” Saint Vincent athletic director D.P. Harris said. “From Kristen Zawacki to Jimmy Petruska leading this historic program, as soon as Kam and I talked, we knew that she was the perfect person to step in and fill that role.”

Harris said several applicants, from the Division I to small-college level, expressed interest in the job.

Gissendanner also was an assistant for two years at Division I Saint Francis, where she went to two NCAA tournaments and won a pair of Northeast Conference titles.

She also spent one season as an assistant at La Salle.

Before she began coaching, the 6-foot-1 Gissendanner was a force as a player.

She was a dominant post presence at Clairton, averaging 30 points per game as a junior and totaling 2,703 points in her prep career, second most in school history behind recent star Iyanna Wade. The three-time all-state player and USA Today All-American led the Bears to back-to-back WPIAL titles in 2001 and ’02.

She was the Associated Press Small-School Player of the Year in 2003.

Turning to college, she went on to play at N.C. State and Penn State, averaging 14.8 points as a sophomore at the latter and scoring 1,262 career points for the Nittany Lions. She was an All-Big Ten pick three times.

Undrafted, she found her way into the WNBA and played two games with the Los Angeles Sparks before playing one season in Norway’s Kvinnenligaen League — she was the league MVP — and also had pro stints in Slovakia and Puerto Rico.

“This is an amazing opportunity, and I do not take it for granted” Gissendanner said. “I am so excited to be a part of this family and to help propel the tradition of Saint Vincent women’s basketball.”

Get to know new Saint Vincent Women’s Basketball Head Coach Kam Gissendanner as she sits down with Athletic Director DP Harris to talk about her journey, vision, and the future of Bearcat Basketball.????@SVC_WomensBball pic.twitter.com/SXtCFImtZV

— SVC Bearcats (@SVC_Bearcats) August 13, 2025

By the numbers

Kam Gissendanner

Points at Clairton: 2,703

Points at Penn State: 1,236

Wins at La Roche: 235

Conference record: 177-14

NCAA D3 Tournament trips: 10

AMCC players of the year coached: 6