Blue Star Operations

Nettie Respondek

Nettie Respondek came to Blue Star in the spring of 2017 after two season at the University of Denver. The Texas native also helped the development of game plans and recruiting duties.

Respondek joined the Pioneers after three seasons as an assistant coach at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, New York. As an assistant coach at St. Francis, Respondek was responsible for coaching the perimeter players, recruiting national student-athletes and creating game scouting reports of opponents. Respondek helped lead this year's team to the 2014-15 Northeast Conference Women's Basketball Championship and the program's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Under Respondek's tutelage, Terrier guard Eilidh Simpson earned 2nd Team NEC All-Conference honors and guard Leah Fech was a two-time All-Defensive Team member.

Before St Francis, Respondek spent two years as an assistant coach at Columbia University. Prior to her stint at Columbia, Respondek held a similar assistant coaching position at Fordham University from 2006-08. At Fordham, she served as the recruiting coordinator, in which she was responsible for planning and scheduling all recruiting activities for a staff of five coaches.

As a student-athlete, Respondek enjoyed a successful basketball career at Vanderbilt University, where she helped lead the Lady Commodores to two NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearances, as well as a trip to the NCAA Elite Eight. A four-year starter, playing both point and shooting guard, Respondek led the Commodores in assists during the 1996-97 campaign and in three-pointers in 1997-98. Respondek was a three-time Southeastern Conference (SEC) Academic Honor Roll selection while serving as team co-captain and received the 1997 Vanderbilt Spirit Award for women's basketball.

While at Vanderbilt, she worked at a number of Vanderbilt Summer camps, serving as counselor and camp director. She managed the adult counselors and coordinated daily activities and camp schedules for five summer camps in Nashville, Tennessee. Away from the court, Respondek worked as an intern at the Women's Basketball Coaches Association in Atlanta in 1997, where she planned activities for summer camps and scheduled trips for WBCA executives.

A Rosenberg, Texas native, Respondek was named the 1994 Gatorade High School State Player of the Year while also garnering Southwest Region Player of the Year accolades. She was also a two-time Houston Chronicle Houston Area High School Player of the Year and was named Miss Texas Basketball (1994). The same year, she was one of 20 players selected to the WBCA Kodak High School All-America Team.

Respondek received a Bachelors' degree in Human and Organizational Development from Vanderbilt in 1998, before going on to earn a Masters' degree in Counseling Psychology from Vanderbilt in 2000