Seaside, Calif - Cal State Monterey Bay head coach Renee Jimenez announced Tina Samaniego as her assistant basketball coach for the 2008-09 season.
“Coach Samaniego and I are longtime friends and have often talked about running our own program together while we were opponents in high school and then playing together at Ventura College,” stated Jimenez. “She has a basketball mind, a passion for coaching and teaching student-athletes, and I am thrilled to have her as part of the Otter family.”
Samaniego arrives from Pepperdine University where she served as an assistant coach under Julie Rousseau for two years where her duties included working with the guards, scouting and recruiting on top of serving as the video and film exchange coordinator. Samaniego was a member of the1999-00 team that made history as the first Pepperdine women's basketball team to make it to the NCAA post-season.
Prior to joining the staff at Pepperdine, Samaniego started her coaching career as an assistant coach at San Francisco's Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, where she spent two seasons. She helped lead the team to the 2004 Division III State Championship Game and finished the 2005 season as the Northern California DIII runner-up. Samaniego began her collegiate career at Menlo College serving as an assistant coach under current UNLV assistant women’s coach Caitlin Collier. The following year, Samaniego worked as the Stanford staff intern under Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer, who has led the Cardinals to two national championships and 16 Pac-10 titles.
The Oxnard, Calif., native played one year at Ventura College where she served as team captain and earned All-Western State Conference honors. Samaniego was a member of the 2001 California State championship team.
Samaniego is a 2003 graduate of University of San Francisco with a bachelor's in exercise science with a minor in business administration. While at USF, she served as a student administrative assistant for the Don's men's basketball program. She received her master's in kinesiology from San Jose State in 2006.