Melissa Young-Kruse - Head Coach
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Phone #: 651-523-2034

Melissa Young-Kruse enters her fourth season at the helm of the Hamline women's basketball program. In just her second season at the helm, Young-Kruse led the Pipers to their first .500 season since 1996-97.  Their fifth place conference finish also earned the squad their first postseason appearance. In 2006-07, Hamline went 13-12 on the year - just the third time the Pipers' finished above .500 in program history.

Prior to joining Hamline, Young-Kruse was an assistant at Winona State for two seasons (2002-04), where she also held duties as a professor in the university's health and human performance department.

Young-Kruse also served as an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota. There, she helped recruit the likes of Janel McCarville, Shannon Schronrock and Shannon Bolden, who started for the Gophers' 2004 Final Four team.

Young-Kruse was the head coach for Anoka, St. Croix Lutheran, Hastings and Nicollet High School, posting a 120-67 record and winning three conference championships. She coached the Minnesota Swoosh AAU team to a 144-45 record over eight seasons.

Young-Kruse was a standout player at Gustavus Adolphus College. She was named to the MIAC All-Conference first team in 1992. That year, she set the NCAA Div. III record by hitting 8-of-8 three-point attempts in one contest. Young-Kruse graduated from Gustavus in 1993 with a degree in health and physical education. She played her last collegiate game at Hutton Arena, her new home as a head coach.

She earned her master's degree in education from Winona State in 2003. Young-Kruse and her husband, Mark, have three daughters, Natasha, Taylor, and Jadyn.

Angel Leon –  Assistant Coach
E-Mail
Phone #: 651-523-2401

Angel Leon enters her first season as an assistant coach with the Pipers. Leon has been very involved in Hamline University basketball and All-Sports camps.

Leon also has coaching experience as a Ladyslipper AAU assistant coach from 2000-01, and served as a St. Francis traveling assistant coach in 1998.

As a high school player, Leon was a stand-out player at St. Francis High School (Bethel, Minn.), where she led her team to the North Suburban title in 1999 and 2000, and was named the conference most valuable player in 2000. She concluded her career at St. Francis with 966 points, 748 rebounds and 258 blocked shots.

She played the 2000-01 season at the University of Minnesota, where she was a teammate of colleague Tanisha Gilbert. Later, she transferred to Anoka Ramsey Community College, where she earned her AA in 2003. While at Anoka-Ramsey, she gathered numerous accolades while playing during the 2002-03 season for the Golden Rams, who placed fourth at the NJCAA tournament that year. En route to being named All-American, she also gathered All-Region honors and was named to the All-Tournament team at the national tournament. During that season, she also set the NJCAA single-game tournament (29) rebounding record and the Golden Rams’ single-season rebounding record (344, 16.381 per game).

She received her bachelor’s degree in physical education with a minor in education, earning a teaching license in physical education and health education, from Hamline University in 2006.

Danielle Mercurio – Assistant Coach

Danielle Mercurio is entering her first year as an assistant coach with the Pipers following a record-breaking career as a basketball player at the University of Minnesota-Morris.

Originally from Pittsburg, California, Mercurio moved to Minnesota to be a two-sport student-athlete at UM-Morris. As a point/shooting guard for the Cougars, Mercurio set three records that still stand – most three-point field goals made in a season (81), most three-point field goals made in a game (8) and best three-point shooting percentage in a game (100%, five-for-five).

While at UM-Morris, Mercurio was also an outfielder for the Cougar softball team.

Mercurio graduated from UM-Morris in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and minors in art history and history. She attends the William Mitchell College of Law.

Jenny Dimitroff - Assistant Coach

Jenny Dimitroff enters her fourth season as an assistant for the Hamline women’s basketball team.  She was a varsity assistant for Maple Grove High School for one season (2002-03) and was the head freshman coach at Maple Grove for a season (2003-04).

As an athlete, Dimitroff started as a sophomore at Maple Grove High School.  She was also named her team’s best all-around player.

Dimitroff graduated from North Hennepin Community College in 2004.

Brian Behm – Student Assistant Coach

Brian Behm is entering his first season as the student assistant coach for the Pipers.

A passionate student of the game of basketball, Behm has earned a basketball coaching certificate from the University of Minnesota. During the summer of 2005, he coached at both the St. Olaf Men’s Basketball Camp and the University of Minnesota Women’s Basketball Camp.

Behm plans to complete his work on a bachelor’s degree in finance and international business at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota in the spring of 2008.