by Mary Margaret Johnson, Assistant Athletics Communications Director
AMHERST, N.Y. — The Daemen University women’s basketball team has added another member to the coaching staff, and she’s a local legend. Daemen women’s basketball head coach Jenepher Banker announced that former University at Buffalo women’s basketball standout Summer Hemphill (Seneca Nation) is now an assistant coach for the Wildcats.
“Summer has been fantastic. Her background of just finishing is something I look for, someone that played at a high level that’s close to our players age is something that I look for, but she’s just been fantastic. She’s stepped right in, has great ideas, she’s not afraid to share her ideas, yet has a great temperament so we’re really excited to have her on board,” Banker said of Hemphill. “You try to think about people that might be really good, so she’s somebody that came to mind right away about somebody that would be a really good fit in our program.”
A graduate of Cardinal O’Hara High School in Buffalo, Hemphill spent her collegiate career as a member of the UB women’s basketball team under head coach Felisha Legette-Jack. While at UB, she was a part of a team that went to six-straight Mid-American Conference (MAC) Tournaments, coming away with two MAC Tournament Championships to advance to the NCAA Division I Tournament in 2019 and 2022.
“I’m excited! I’ve come from a winning program, I already have that winning mentality, so to just be able to be welcomed into a program that’s already started that winning mentality, it’s just an easy process,” Hemphill said of the Daemen women’s basketball team. “They have the players that are willing to put in the work, they have great personalities outside of the court, and even better ones on the court. They’re very competitive, they won’t settle for a loss.”
“It goes to show that they’ve put in the work these last couple years and they’re not taking no for an answer when it comes to anything on the court, so I’m definitely thankful to add things that I’ve learned in my own personal career as well as my player career to this program, and just learn from them as well,” Hemphill said.
Hemphill left her mark on the UB record book, currently ranked sixth all-time in scoring with a total of 1,417 points, and finished her career as the program’s all-time leading rebounder. She played in a UB-record 134 games over the course of her six year career, starting in 101 games and accumulating over 3,800 minutes on the court. She was one of just two Bulls to record 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds.
In her final season at UB (2021-22 season), Hemphill averaged a double-double with 13.0 points and 10.4 rebounds per game, and led the Bulls in total rebounds with 354, offensive rebounds with 124 and blocks with 43. She scored double-digits 20 times on the season, scoring over 20 points in six games.
Hemphill’s statistics spoke for themselves, but she was also awarded for her performance on the court throughout her career. She was named to the MAC All-Freshman team, she earned All-MAC honors twice, MAC All-Tournament team honors during her junior season in which she set a conference tournament record 21 rebounds in the MAC championship victory in 2019 that sent UB to March Madness.
Sidelined with an injury during her entire senior season, Hemphill got a taste of coaching during the 2019-20 season. The experience being on the bench and looking at her teammates from an outside perspective was a turning point in her life to see that she could turn coaching into a career after she was done playing.
“I feel like that was a common question during my injury, like what was my mindset during that time, what was I doing? I was able to coach a lot of my teammates up, especially with me being older. I got hurt my senior year, wasn’t really active my fifth year, so with all that knowledge of playing, I was able to teach my teammates about things on the court,” Hemphill said of her time off the court at UB. “Whether it had to to with Coach Jack’s culture that she built there, or whether it had to do with personal things on the court, where they should be, what they should do, how they should play the defense, I was able to spill that knowledge over to them.
“That definitely opened up my eyes to a coaching career and with a lot of praying and things like that, I was able to get in contact with Coach Banker that I was able to get this opportunity that I’m very grateful for.”
Hemphill comes into a great situation at Daemen. The Wildcats have won three straight East Coast Conference regular-season titles and claimed the ECC Tournament championship in 2019 and 2021. They have played in the NCAA Division II East Region Championship game for the last two seasons, and advanced to the Elite Eight in the 2020-21 season. Since the 2018-19 season, Daemen has amassed an impressive 77-23 record, with the Wildcats combining for an 82% winning percentage over the last three seasons.
“Definitely with a lot of talks with Coach Banker I’ve been able to learn a lot from her during this time. I think I will definitely be able to fit the roll in just being able to teach and be there for the players this year,” Hemphill said. “I will definitely hold them accountable for sure, I know as a collegiate athlete things get very hectic with balancing school, balancing meals, when to eat, balancing going to practice, just having the energy being able to do that. I know it’s very tiring, so especially with me just finishing my career less than a year ago, I’m hoping to be able to allow them to trust me, and trust the process that I can help lead them along with Coach Banker this year.”
