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ATH_Coaches_Lani Silversides

Lani Silversides

  • Title
    Associate Head Coach, Girls Varsity Basketball
Lani Silversides is a former Division I basketball player at the University of Vermont. Lani finished her collegiate career ranked among UVM’s all-time leaders in 10 different categories. She is one of only seven players in school history to score over 1,000 points, grab 500 rebounds, and record 200 assists. Prior to college, she was an all-state soccer goalie, state champion hurdler, and became the all-time leading scorer (male or female) in basketball with over 1,400 points, 1,000 rebounds, and 299 blocks at York high school.

After graduating UVM in 2005, she began her career teaching and coaching at Phillips Academy in Andover, where she spent 16 years. In 2013, Lani was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame for her contributions as a player and coach. In 2019, she founded Mindful Performance LLC and the nonprofit Strong Girls United, combining her passions for sport, performance, and mental health. Through this work, she now coaches and consults with high schools, colleges—including Bowdoin College’s athletic department—and organizations such as Boston Children’s Hospital, equipping individuals and teams with tools to optimize performance and well-being.

Her nonprofit, Strong Girls United, works with Pre-K through collegiate athletes (and coaches) to empower girls through sports, mentorship, and mental health programming. The nonprofit got recent national attention on the Today Show.

Lani holds an undergraduate degree in Education from UVM, a Master of Science in Teaching from the University of New Hampshire, and has pursued graduate coursework at Boston University in Sport Psychology.