Hailey Van Lith, the star guard of the LSU Tigers, has seen a meteoric rise during the 2023-24 collegiate season. Last season, Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes beat Van Lith’s Louisville in the Elite 8. She watched the final from her home and saw her future team win the championship. Now she has the chance to go all the way with the Tigers but she again has to face Iowa in the Elite 8. During the interviews building up to the game, she has given credit to her father, Corey Van Lith, for helping her every step of the way.

Corey has been training Hailey since childhood, juggling between the roles of father and coach. Since her elementary school days, she was supposed to work out close to 5 days a week. One thing that caught his eye was how quick a learner Hailey was. She would repeat the plays that her father taught her the very next game. Thus, he decided to coach her seriously.

Corey played basketball and baseball during his time at the University of Puget Sound. It was not just basketball where Corey pushed her daughter. According to Nola.com, Levi Heyen men’s basketball coach at the time said, “There were the 15-20 goals Van Lith had scored in that soccer game as a second grader. The hurdles record she had broken at her middle school on only her second day in the sport. And the Washington softball scholarship offer she had received in eighth grade, even though her middle school didn’t even have a softball team.”

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