Ponchatoula native Hailey Giaratano joined the Southeastern women’s basketball program as an assistant coach in June 2023 after five seasons as a student-athlete.
During her collegiate athletic career with the Lady Lions, Giaratano helped Southeastern to four consecutive winning seasons. She aided SLU to a 21-10 overall record, including a 14-4 mark in conference, in the 2022-23 season, when the Lady Lions won the Southland Conference regular-season and tournament championship for the first time in program history on the way to SLU’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
Giaratano led Southeastern in scoring, field goal percentage and minutes played the past two seasons. Regarded as one of the top players in the conference, Giaratano gained many awards throughout her career at SLU among being SLC Tournament MVP, a three-time SLC All-Conference selection, two-time Player of the Week, two-time All-Louisiana nominee and three-time SLC All-Academic selection.
In her final season, Giaratano reached 1,000 career points and broke a program record with 109 consecutive starts throughout her career. The veteran guard led the team with 12.2 points per game, 4.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists per contest. Giaratano ended the season with 23 games in double-digit scoring and secured a career high of 27 points. She ranks first in school history in free throw percentage (80.0) and will look to incorporate her experience and leadership on the court to her coaching style.
Giaratano earned her bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences in 2022 before attaining her master’s degree in Business Administration in May 2023.
