Northwest Notes March 20, 2020

Former Cd’A, NIC standout steps down as Lethbridge women’s basketball coach

LETHBRIDGE, Alberta — Deanna (Dotts) Simpson, who played basketball at Coeur d’Alene High and North Idaho College, has resigned as women’s basketball coach at Lethbridge College after three seasons.

Simpson and her husband, Brady, are expecting a child in the coming months.

Simpson graduated from Coeur d’Alene High in 2008. Following a redshirt season, she played two years at NIC, and was on the Cardinals’ NJCAA title team as a sophomore in 2011.

Simpson and her Kodiaks team played a game at NIC in December.

Simpson completed her post-secondary playing career at Lethbridge from 2013-15, which included helping the Kodiaks to an ACAC championship and national silver medal in 2014-15. She then spent two seasons as an assistant coach, a span in which the Kodiaks went 50-1 and captured a CCAA national championship in 2017.

She led the Kodiaks to a pair of ACAC playoff appearances in 2019 and 2020, and was named the 2020 ACAC South Division coach of the year.

Former Lake City, NIC standout named volleyball coach at Missoula Hellgage

Brittany (Gay) Tilleman, who played volleyball at Lake City High, North Idaho College and the University of Montana, has been named head volleyball coach at Hellgate High in Missoula.

Tilleman, 23, replaces Matty Hancock, who resigned in January after three seasons.

Tilleman, who graduated from Montana in spring 2019, was the sophomore coach at Hellgate last fall, and was also an assistant on the varsity team.

Tilleman, who graduated from Lake City in 2015, played at NIC in 2015 and ’16, and at Montana in 2017 and ’18.

She also played softball at Lake City and NIC.