Crusaders Announce Addition of Luke Simons as Director of Operations
Valparaiso University men’s basketball head coach Bryce Drew announced today that Luke Simons has joined the Crusader program as its director of basketball operations.
Simons comes to Valpo with nearly a decade of experience working with Athletes in Action as an international team director and coach, as well as a regional coordinator. In his time with AIA, Simons helped assemble and direct multiple international competitive tours throughout Europe and Asia, including tours which current Crusader Vashil Fernandez and former Crusader Bobby Capobianco were part of. He also created Captains Camp, an AIA leadership initiative to serve influencers in basketball which current Crusaders Alec Peters and Keith Carter attended last summer.
Outside of AIA, Simons served as director of operations for Team USA at the last three World University Games and helped found the International Basketball Coaches Experience, held annually at the NCAA Final Four. He also brings a good deal of coaching experience with him, having worked as an assistant coach and director of player development for the Mongolian national team – which he helped lead to the final round of 2015 Asian Games – since 2012. Simons also previously spent one season as interim head coach at Black Hawk College and five years as an assistant coach at West Lafayette H.S.