Maddy Siegrist has enjoyed ‘a little bit of everything’ in her offseason job at Villanova

In an ideal world, Maddy Siegrist and the rest of the WNBA’s players would make enough money from their first job to not need a second one in the winter.

Or, if they’d like to play some during the league’s seven-month offseason, they’d join their soccer colleagues in Barcelona, Paris, or London, and have a good time there.

Right now, though, the money isn’t there at home. If you want it in Europe, the richest teams have long been in Russia — but players have understandably sworn that off because of Brittney Griner’s imprisonment and the war in Ukraine.

The WNBA runs an offseason marketing program for a group of players each year, but access to that is limited. So what else is there to do?

Siegrist has found an answer.

Six months after her stellar Villanova career ended, Siegrist went back to the Main Line to work as a special assistant to senior associate athletic director Lynn Tighe, who’s also the Wildcats’ chief athletics administrative officer and senior women’s administrator.

“I definitely wanted to come back to Villanova this year,” Siegrist said. “I felt like it was such an abrupt leaving, a fast turnaround — I knew I needed some time to train, and be in one spot.”

» READ MORE: Maddy Siegrist returns to Villanova to assist the women’s program she helped lead

The offer to come back to campus came last July from Wildcats coach Denise Dillon.

“We didn’t know exactly what the job would look like, whether it was staff, or what I’m doing now, which is a little bit of everything,” Siegrist said. “Getting to see the administrative side, trying to get to see the coaching side a little bit, which is great. Just to see what I like [for] the future.”

Anyone who’s been to a game at the Finneran Pavilion this season has likely seen Siegrist at work. She’s hard to miss, on the concourse before games and courtside during them. Just look for the Villanova varsity jacket with her old number 20 on one sleeve, and inscriptions of her many accomplishments on the other.

“Villanova gave me that,” Siegrist said. “We got them after last year. Everybody loves it — I’ve told them they’ve got to get all the alumni that, it’s very cool.”

Or look for anyone holding up a cell phone, because just about everyone who asks for a photo with Siegrist gets one. When Villanova hosted Connecticut a few weeks ago, she could barely take three steps without another family stopping her.

» READ MORE: UConn's Geno Auriemma praises Lucy Olsen and this season's Villanova team

Asked if working the room was as natural as it looked, Siegrist laughed.

“I think I had a lot of practice the last few years at Villanova,” she said. “Just doing that but really making sure you’re engaged in the community, and that’s something I’ve always loved about Villanova. So it really doesn’t feel like work for me.”

Siegrist is one of a few players — not quite many, but a growing number — who’ve taken offseason jobs at their alma maters or other colleges.

North Philly-born Rutgers alumna Kahleah Copper has spent this winter as the Scarlet Knights’ director of athletic culture and professional development. (She also has continued her own development, earning a trade from Chicago to Phoenix and playing for the U.S. national team.)

Penn State hired the Connecticut Sun’s Natasha Hiedeman, a two-time WNBA finalist, as its director of player development. Hiedeman already knew Nittany Lions coach Carolyn Kieger, having played for her at Marquette in Kieger’s previous job.

“I think that’s great,” Siegrist said. “You want to get into coaching, now there’s so many more opportunities in the WNBA offseason.”

» READ MORE: Chicago Sky trade North Philly’s Kahleah Copper to Phoenix Mercury

Siegrist had thought about going to Europe, but knew her body would benefit from a lighter workload.

“There definitely is an appeal to go to Europe,” she said. “The Sweet 16 was in March, then the [WNBA] draft was at the beginning of April. It was just such a quick turnaround, and then right into the season. So I hadn’t had an offseason in a long time. Just knowing that was probably right for my body, that was the biggest thing.”

On Sunday, Siegrist will head to Dallas to play in the Athletes Unlimited basketball competition from Feb. 29 to March 23. Coincidentally, that’s the same city Siegrist now calls her professional home with the WNBA’s Dallas Wings, whose preseason starts April 30.

When she next plays an official game, it will have been around five months since her last one: the Wings’ season-ending loss to the back-to-back WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces in a first-round playoff sweep. It’s a pretty long time to be off, and if she didn’t play Athletes Unlimited ball she’d have waited two months more.

Fortunately, one of the perks of Siegrist’s Villanova job is a key to the Davis Center’s practice courts. Her workouts have included joining scrimmages with her old teammates, who now hope to replicate Siegrist’s success.

“Two or three days a week I’ll play,” she said, amid her usual daily workouts. “It’s fun — it’s definitely different than last year, because I don’t have to run. … It’s more on your own, and without having class, you can really focus on how you’re going to prepare your day around your training.”