INDIANAPOLIS - Beech Grove native Katie Gearlds is set to coach her alma mater, Purdue University.
Gearlds will be the associate head coach of the women's basketball program next season and will succeed her former coach, Sharon Versyp as the head coach at the end of the 2021-2022 season.
“First and foremost, I want to thank Mike Bobinski, Coach Versyp and Nancy Cross for believing in me,” Gearlds said in a release. “Honestly, it just feels like I am coming home. I am thoroughly excited for the opportunity to help put Purdue back on the national scene. I believe we will accomplish great things in the years ahead and am looking forward to being a part of the next chapter in Purdue women’s basketball history."
Gearlds was a senior at Purdue in Versyp's first season leading the Boilermakers.
“I am thrilled to welcome Katie back home to Purdue. Katie was one of the hardest working players I’ve ever had the good fortune to coach," Versyp said. "Her character and leadership embodied everything we wanted in a student-athlete to represent our program.”
Gearlds has spent the last eight seasons leading Marian University, where she compiled a 228-50 record leading the Knights to back-to-back NAIA national championships in 2016 and 2017.
She earned NAIA National Coach of the Year three times.
Gearlds was named Indiana Miss Basketball in 2003 after leading Beech Grove to the 3A state title. She scored 2,521 career points for the Hornets.
After a standout career at Purdue, she was picked seventh overall in the 2007 WNBA Draft by the Seattle Storm.