Former coach Gissendanner returns to La Roche

Tri-State Sports & News Service

Kamela Gissendanner looked to her left on the Los Angeles Sparks bench and there was Lisa Leslie, one of the WNBA’s alltime greats. On the right was DeLisha Milton-Jones, a twotime WNBA champion.

“And on the floor was our teammate, Candace Parker,” Gissendanner said. Life was good. “Surreal,” she said. That indelible moment occurred a decade ago, when Gissendanner was living out her professional basketball dream. And while her time in the WNBA lasted only one season, it had a profound impact on this Clairton High grad.

“I realized that I was on the right path in life,” she said. “To be on a team with those players, it was a highlight in my career. I was starstruck, but I also said to myself, ‘This is what hard work can do for you.’”

For a woman who’s reached great heights in her sporting life (Gissendanner also scored 1,236 points at Penn State and had a solid career overseas), she’s never lost her passion for the game. That’s why she is thrilled to be back as the coach of the Division III La Roche women’s team after serving as an assistant at Division I LaSalle last season.

“I had no hesitation at all about this; it was like coming home,” said Gissendanner, who spent only one season at LaSalle because her boss, former Pitt assistant Jeff Williams, was let go. “This is like family here.”

A winning family, particularly when Gissendanner is working the sidelines.

Demonstrating the savvy that enabled her to score an incredible 2,703 points at Clairton, Gissendanner was nothing short of phenomenal in leading the Redhawks to a combined record of 116-23 (.835 winning percentage), including 85-5 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, in her first five seasons.

To underscore: Her teams won 95 percent of their conference games over a half-decade. Staggering numbers. So much so that La Roche swung the doors wide open once Gissendanner became available again.

“We are thrilled to welcome coach Kam back home,” athletic director Jim Tinkey said of Gissendanner, who led La Roche to