Women's Basketball

A native of the Peoria area, Donnie Denson has worked at KCC for the past 27 years, and is proud to call Kankakee home.

Being employed by the college has brought about many positive experiences over the years for Denson. This is the 27th season he has been associated with the women’s basketball team in some capacity. He was an assistant coach of the Lady Cavaliers from 1997 until being named head coach for the 2000-01 season.

Over the last 20 seasons with Denson at the helm, the Lady Cavaliers have compiled a 464-137 record, and a winning percentage of .775. He has continued to build upon the program’s history of success, and the Cavaliers have won the Region IV championship 22 times in the last 28 years.

Denson came to KCC as a Fitness Center specialist and athletic trainer in 1992, and is currently the assistant athletic director.

Denson graduated from Farmington East High School in Farmington. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Eureka College. He resides in Kankakee with his wife, Deb, and their son, David.

A former KCC player, Casey Hadley Meister is in her sixth season as women’s basketball assistant coach. Meister has experience as a community college, NCAA Division I, and NAIA Division I athlete. With her playing and coaching experience, she provides guidance to the student-athletes on reaching the next level, plus valuable input and game planning for the staff.

Meister has six years coaching experience at Tri-Point High School, 2008-11 as an assistant and 2011-14 as head coach. As assistant for her father, Marcus Hadley, Tri-Point went from a few wins per season to a .500 record. Then, while she was head coach, Tri-Point became even more competitive and finished second in the River Valley Conference all three seasons. Three players from Tri-Point also attended KCC on basketball scholarships during this time.

Meister graduated from Reed-Custer High School in 2004 with multiple basketball honors including All-State two times. She still holds the scoring record for the Kankakee All-Area All-Star game (34 points).

She played for Coach Denson and the Lady Cavaliers from 2004-06. At KCC, Meister was named to the All-Region team (2005) and was MVP of the Region Tournament in 2006. She earned NJCAA All-American honors in 2005 and 2006. She also played in the national tournament in 2006.

Meister continued her basketball career with a scholarship to Chicago State University. She then played her senior year at Olivet Nazarene University. That team won the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament, was nationally ranked, and went to the CCAC National Tournament (2008).

Meister is an art teacher at Tri-Point High School and lives in Cullom with her husband, Todd, and their three children. Hadley, Harper and Hudson.