St. Francis (Pa.) hires Keila Whittington as women's hoops coach

Keila Whittington’s first head coaching job in Division I women’s college basketball will be at Saint Francis (Pa.).

A Louisiana native, Whittington replaces Joe Haigh, who resigned after 10 seasons with the program, seven as head coach.

Whittington will officially be announced Thursday afternoon during a press conference on Loretto.

“It has been an overwhelming past few days as I’ve realized that I have finally accomplished a lifelong career dream,” Whittington said in a news release. “There is no better place that I would rather begin my head coaching career. It is truly a match made in heaven.

“I am looking forward to meeting the team and working with them to continue to build upon the winning tradition that has been established with Saint Francis women’s basketball.”

We are excited to announce Keila Whittington as the eighth women's basketball coach in program history! Welcome @kawhit14!
Saint Francis will host an introductory press conference Thursday at 12:15 p.m. You can watch here: https://t.co/4v2fFIb8GIhttps://t.co/PrQh9sqRAR pic.twitter.com/hf2RGefM9M

— Saint Francis U WBB (@RedFlashWBB) April 24, 2019

Whittington brings an extensive resume.

She served as an assistant at Marist for the last three years, and held the same position there from 2007-09.

Whittington also was the associate head coach at Memphis in 2012-13 and is a former assistant and recruiting coordinator at Oregon. She also was an assistant and recruiting coordinator at Penn State from 2001-07.

In 2000-01, she was an assistant at South Alabama, and had the same position at Indiana from 1995-2000. Other stops include Rhode Island (1993-95), Delaware (1991-93), and McDonogh High School in New Orleans.