Michelle Van Dyke Named Women’s Basketball Strength & Conditioning Coach
6/22/2023 10:18:00 AM | Women's Basketball
PITTSBURGH – Michelle Van Dyke has been named head strength and conditioning coach for the Pitt women's basketball team, as announced on Thursday morning by head coach Tory Verdi.
"I am very excited to announce Michelle as our new strength and conditioning coach," said Verdi. "She has worked with one of the best women's basketball programs in the country, UConn, and those experiences will help our program excel at all levels."
Van Dyke comes to Pittsburgh after spending the 2022-23 campaign with the UConn women's basketball program as sport performance coach. While in Storrs, Van Dyke helped to lead the daily use of Catapult technology for all practices and competitions for all women's basketball players while also collaborating with the athletic training staff on appropriate return to play protocol for athletes based on collected data.
Prior to spending last season at UConn, Van Dyke spent two seasons at Milligan University as the strength and conditioning coach and sport scientist for the men's basketball program.
Van Dyke spent two years as a Kinesiology Lecturer at Youngstown State from 2018-2020 and was also selected as the Chinese Olympic Committee sport performance coach in 2018 where she helped to lead the delivery of evidence-based performance training centered around athlete health during off-season periods for Chinese Olympians and Olympic hopefuls.
She earned her bachelor's degree in exercise science from Shepherd University in 2008 after being a member of the women's basketball team. She earned her master's degree in kinesiology from Georgia Southern in 2010. Van Dyke is expected to graduate with her doctorate of philosophy sports physiology/sports science in 2023.