Spending four years as an Owensville Dutchgirl basketball player and four more in a Drury University Lady Panther uniform, Hailey Diestelkamp will now get to experience life as a member of the coaching staff of the Saint Louis University (SLU) Women’s Basketball team.

Diestelkamp will be a graduate student manager under the SLU Women’s Basketball coaching staff of head coach Lisa Stone, associate head coach Ty Margenthaler, assistant coach Jordann Reese, assistant coach Olivia Applewhite and director of basketball operations Kerri McMahan.

For Margenthaler, this is not the first team he and Diestelkamp have crossed paths.

“I had the opportunity to recruit Hailey when I was a head coach at Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO),” Margenthaler said. “I have always been very impressed with her maturity and knowledge of the game at such a young age.”

After high character people, Margenthaler and the SLU coaching staff felt like they got one in Diestelkamp.

“Hailey’s success at Drury the past four years on and off the court are unprecedented,” Margenthaler said. “Here at Saint Louis (SLU) we want high character people, and with no question Hailey is one of those special people that has a bright future as a Billiken.”

Coach Stone had her eye on Diestelkamp from the word go.

“Hailey was my number one from the get go,” Stone said. “She is intelligent, hard working, very kind, has an awesome personality and is one of the best basketball players in the country. She has already made an immediate impact and has a very bright future in coaching. I am blessed to have Hailey as part of my Billiken family.”

For Hailey, a couple of factors made SLU the perfect fit for her.

“The staff are absolutely amazing,” Diestelkamp said. “Coach Stone welcomed me with open arms and the assistants followed suit. I was so happy to be able to be close to home again and close to Bre in St. Louis.”