SAN DIEGO – San Diego State Women’s Lacrosse Associate Head Coach Brandi Padilla has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Kristina Quigley Scholarship, the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association announced on Thursday. Each year the scholarship fund provides one collegiate women’s lacrosse coach with the opportunity to travel alongside their family to the annual IWLCA Convention.
Created in 2016, the scholarship honors the life and legacy of Kristina Quigley, former Seton Hill Head Coach who was killed in a tragic bus accident while traveling with her team in 2013, also claiming the lives of the bus driver and Quigley's unborn child. The scholarship pays tribute to the lives lost by celebrating coaches who dedicate themselves to their sport as well as to their families every day. As stated in the scholarship: “The time-intensive nature of the coaching profession is significant and family time is often sacrificed. The opportunity for a family to join a coach on this trip represents the very essence of Kristina Quigley.”
Entering her 13th season with San Diego State lacrosse, Padilla has been successful in fostering a strong sense of community within the program. “I wanted my players to feel like they were part of my family, not just players on a team,” said the associate head coach.
Coach Padilla will now have the opportunity to share this experience with her husband Eddie and their four children. The family will travel to St. Petersburg, Fla. in November where she will receive recognition at the IWLCA Convention.
“It is such an honor to be a recipient of the Quigley Scholarship,” stated Padilla. “I am so grateful to the committee and the IWLCA for this amazing opportunity for me and my family. Lacrosse has given me a family and community like no other. This past year, as a mother of four, a coach, and while grieving my dad’s passing, my lacrosse family made one of the hardest years of my life bearable with their love and support. I hope to carry on Kristina’s extraordinary legacy of coaching and dedication to family.”