Pirates Welcome Home Assistant Coach Ka-Deidre Simmons - Seton Hall University Athletics
Seton Hall women's basketball head coach Anthony Bozzella announced today the hiring of Pirates' Hall of Famer Ka-Deidre Simmons as a new assistant coa...
Pirates Welcome Home Assistant Coach Ka-Deidre Simmons
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Seton Hall women's basketball head coach Anthony Bozzella announced today the hiring of Pirates' Hall of Famer Ka-Deidre Simmons as a new assistant coach for the program.
"It's fantastic to welcome back a Hall of Fame player and person to our family here at Seton Hall," Bozzella said. "Didi will once again be a tremendous asset and a catalyst for future success. Welcome home, Didi!"
Simmons returns to Seton Hall with a wealth of experience as both a player and coach. Most recently, she served as an assistant coach for St. Bonaventure University for the last two seasons assisting with scouting, recruiting and player development. With the Bonnies, Simmons enhanced the skill set of Atlantic 10 leading scorer Asianae Johnson and premiere shot-blocker I'yanna Lops, the latter of which is joining Simmons in South Orange.
Prior to her time with St. Bonaventure, Simmons served two years with Bozzella as his Coordinator of Basketball Operations at Seton Hall. In her first foray into college coaching, she was responsible for a multitude of aspects including the design of player development workouts and conditioning plans, generation of scouting reports, recruitment and new-player development and oversight of managers, among other duties.
A native of Newark, Simmons was a legend as a player at Seton Hall, leading the Pirates back into national prominence, while guiding them to a national ranking and the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance in 20 years in 2015. She ranks second all-time in assists (562) and first in free-throws made (502), fourth in points (1,717) and second in steals (257). Her 2015 season is one of the best in school history with averages of 17.0 points, 5.7 assists and 2.2 steals as the Pirates won the BIG EAST co-regular season championship and earned an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.
Simmons was a 2015 Associated Press All-America honorable mention, two-time All-BIG EAST First Team pick and the 2015 Met Writers Women's Basketball Player of the Year. In June of 2019, Simmons reached the pinnacle of Seton Hall excellence with her induction into the Seton Hall Athletics Hall of Fame, one of the youngest players to ever receive the prestigious honor.
Simmons played for the WNBA's Connecticut Sun during training camp and preseason. She then moved on to play two seasons professionally overseas in Finland and Romania.
Simmons earned her Bachelors Degree from Seton Hall in Broadcast and Visual Media in June 2014 and received a Masters in strategic communications in May 2020.
