Samantha Quigley Smith is in her third season leading the Lewis women's basketball program.
Last season she led the Flyers to a 27-5 record and their seventh straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament where they advanced to the second round. She mentored four All-GLVC players in first team selection Jessica Kelliher, second team selections Rachel Hinders and Tierney Lockett and third team selection Gabby Green.
Kelliher was also named the GLVC Player of the Year, the D2CCA Midwest Region and National Player of the Year, the Google Cloud Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for Divsion II Women's Basketball and the D2CCA Scholar Athlete of the Year. Kelliher is currently playing professionally overseas in Antwerp, Belgium.
In her first season at Lewis she led the Flyers to a 24-8 record and their sixth straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Lewis advanced to the second round of the tournament after defeating Southern Indiana 71-64 in the opening round.
Quigley came to Lewis via the University of St. Francis in Joliet, where the Fighting Saints recorded a mark of 101-62 (.62) in her five seasons (2012-17) as head coach. She served as an assistant coach for USF in 2011-12 under her uncle and former Lewis University head women's basketball coach Brian Michalak. Michalak was Lewis' head women's basketball coach from 1993-2002.
In her final two seasons, the Fighting Saints registered a mark of 62-7 (.899) with two Top 10 finishes in the NAIA Division II Coaches Poll, including a No. 1 ranking in the final 2017 poll. Her 2015-16 squad was the first USF team to advance to the NAIA National Tournament in 13 seasons. In that span, Quigley Smith mentored All-Americans in Charnelle Reed and Jordan Giddings.
In 2016-17, Quigley Smith guided USF to a mark of 34-2, helping the Fighting Saints to an undefeated slate in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) and a berth in the NAIA Division II Semifinals. One of those 34 wins was an 80-69 victory in December over then-No. 18 ranked Lewis.
For her efforts, Quigley Smith was named the CCAC Coach of the Year for a second-consecutive season. She was also selected as the Illinois Basketball Coach Association (IBCA) Coach of the Year and a WBCA/United States Marine Corps NAIA National Coach of the Year Award finalist.
Academics are important to Quigley Smith as well, as she propelled USF's team cumulative grade point average from 2.35 to 3.5 during her tenure. She had several student-athletes with a 4.0 grade point average and had two achieve WBCA Academic All-America status.
Quigley Smith also brings an international flair to Romeoville as she has spent the last two summers as an assistant coach with USA Basketball, serving on the staff of the Women's U17 National Team in 2016 and the U16 National Team, which captured the bronze medal at the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship in Puebla, Mexico.
Quigley Smith is a highly decorated former Division I student-athlete, as she played for DePaul from 2006-11. She left the Lincoln Park campus with 1,273 points scored - good for 20th in school-history - and third in Blue Demon history with 484 assists.
The 2006 Joliet Catholic graduate was a two-time All-Big East selection and was named an Honorable Mention WBCA All-American in 2011 and a finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Award as a senior. The same season, Quigley Smith earned Capital One Academic All-District honors and was the recipient of the Big East Sportsmanship Award.
As a high school senior, Quigley Smith was selected as the 2006
Chicago Sun-Times Female Athlete of the Year as a basketball, volleyball and softball standout. She was a two-time Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) All-State First Team and Associated Press Class AA All-State Third Team selection in basketball, as she finished with 1,910 career points in a JCA uniform. Following her senior season, Quigley was a Parade All-American and McDonald's All-America nominee.
Quigley Smith has ties to Lewis, as the Fighting Saints play on Pat Quigley Court - named after her late father (and former Lewis head women's tennis coach) - in the Sullivan Center named for Lewis Hall of Famer Pat Sullivan (basketball/baseball). Sullivan went on to St. Francis (Ill.) where he coached Quigley Smith's stepfather Don Strle on the basketball court.
Quigley Smith’s older sister Allie Quigley currently plays professional basketball overseas and for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky. She is the two-time reigning Sixth Woman of the Year and the two-time reigning three-point champion.
She resides in Shorewood, Ill., with her husband Greg Smith and sons Cooper, Jackson, Flynn and daughter Logan.
What They Are Saying About Samantha Quigley Smith
"Sam Quigley is one of the best leaders and captains to ever compete at DePaul. In addition to her natural leadership qualities, Sam is a gifted teacher and a great coach. The job she has done at St. Francis leading that program to No. 1 in the country says it all."
- Doug Bruno
DePaul Head Women's Basketball Coach
"Sam Quigley is a fantastic addition to the Lewis University community. She is one of the most competitive people that I have ever been around as a student-athlete and has carried that over to her coaching career. Sam is a complete winner in everything that she has done as a player, as a coach and more importantly as a person. The Lewis student-athletes are definitely the winners in having Sam lead them to that next level."
- Nicci Hays Fort
Drake University Assistant Women's Basketball Coach
"We are grateful to Samantha for the work that she did to turn our women's basketball program into one of the top-caliber programs at the NAIA level. It has been extremely fun to watch her develop over these past five years, culminating with this year's undefeated regular-season record and a trip to the semifinals of the NAIA National Tournament.
"I know that this was a very difficult decision for Samantha to make with her and her family's ties to St. Francis, but one that I know will serve her well along her career path. We were glad to give Samantha her first head coaching opportunity and know that she will do well for many years to come."
- Dave Laketa
St. Francis (Ill.) Director of Athletics
"Given the great recent successes of the Lewis women's basketball program, surpassing those accomplishments will obviously be a tall task, but it's precisely what I anticipate from Coach Samantha Quigley and her teams. In my 24 years of coaching collegiate basketball, I honestly can't remember observing a women's coach as polished and well-rounded as Samantha at this point in her career. She's the real deal, from basketball acumen, to on court teaching, to recruiting, to relationship-building and player wellness, you name it and she can do it. All that coupled with her background at Catholic educational institutions in the area including Joliet Catholic, DePaul University, and the University of St. Francis make her an absolutely impeccable choice to lead the Flyers."
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- Ryan Marks
St. Francis (Ill.) Head Men's Basketball Coach
"I saw the leadership qualities Sam demonstrated as a freshman at DePaul and what a special player she was. It was great watching her leadership continue to grow and develop throughout her career. I couldn't be more proud of all her accomplishments, and Lewis is getting a top-shelf coach in Sam Quigley."
- Jean Lenti Ponsetto
DePaul Director of Athletics
"Sam has a good basketball pedigree that provides her the knowledge of what it takes to win at an elite level. She combines that knowledge with competitiveness, honesty and an environment built for athlete success on and off the court."
- Carol Callan
USA Basketball National Team Director
"Sam Quigley Smith was one of the smartest and most competitive players I have had the pleasure to coach. Those attributes allowed her to achieve at the highest level as a collegiate player and have carried over to her coaching career. She will never be outworked and I guarantee that any team led by Sam Quigley Smith will always be prepared and competitive. Sam is a winner and she will lead this team to success on the basketball court and beyond!"
- Bart Brooks
Belmont Head Women's Basketball Coach
