Staten Island, NY – Lisa Steele, who has served as an assistant coach at Mount St. Mary's the past three seasons following a stellar playing career at George Washington University, has been named an assistant coach at Wagner College, newly-hired Seahawk women's basketball coach Lisa Cermignano announced.

At Wagner, Steele's responsibilities heavily involved in the Seahawks' recruiting program, on the court teaching, preparing scouting plans for upcoming opponents as well as player development.

“I recruited Lisa and I've known her since she was 15 years old. She played in South Jersey and was successful, played for the Philadelphia Belles and was successful,” Cermignano said. “She came to George Washington and I coached her during her first two years there before I left for Vanderbilt. Lisa knows me, she understands, because I recruited her, what it takes to recruit, what I'm looking for in a student-athlete. She competed so hard as a player under me, that she understands the level that I'm used to.

“I'm blessed to have Lisa on staff,” Cermignano added. “She's a relentless worker, she wants to learn, and I think she has the ability to be really, really good. I'm lucky because she had a lot of other opportunities and she chose to make this move.”

Steele played four-year career at George Washington where she accumulated 206 points, 107 rebounds, 36 assists and 25 steals. She is also known for hitting one of the clutch shots in GW history, draining the a game-winning three-pointer with 1.1 seconds remaining to lift Colonials to a 68-66 win over No. 18 Auburn on Jan. 3, 2008.

An Erial, NJ native, Steele helped the Colonials to a 101-29 record and four NCAA Tournament appearances, including advancing to the Sweet 16 in her final two campaigns.

“I've known Coach Cermignano for about 10 years. She recruited me back when I was a sophomore in high school down in South Jersey,” Steele said. “I've believed in her vision since I was 15 years old. I was impressed with what she had already accomplished in basketball to that point. Since I was that young, I knew she was going to be successful. I'm looking forward to contributing to the Wagner program and learning a lot along the way. It's very exciting for me to continue my career in the Northeast Conference, under Lisa Cermignano at Wagner College. When you combine the New York City metropolitan area and all of New Jersey, it's a great recruiting area and my family is close by. I couldn't be happier.”

Steele hails from an athletic family as her father Robert was a starting pitcher on the Temple University baseball team that reached 1977 NCAA Division I Men's College World Series College World Series.

A 2009 graduate of George Washington, Steele recently completed her class work for an MBA from Mount St. Mary's and will receive her degree in May, 2012.