Bio

Cardinal joined the St. Clair Women’s Basketball Coaching staff prior to the 2025-26 season and hails originally from Edmonton but also lived in Sarnia as a youth where she started playing basketball for the Huron Lakers and the St. Clair Mini Colts.  Her family eventually settled in LaSalle where she attended Sandwich Secondary playing basketball for the Sabres as well as the Windsor Valiants.  Cardinal possesses a wealth of coaching experience from both the high school and club ranks in the local Windsor/Essex area.

Beginning in 2013 Cardinal began coaching basketball at the high school level but has also spent time leading swimming, badminton, track and field, baseball and softball teams.  She was at Sandwich Secondary from 2013-20 and piloted the Sabres to a pair of Junior Girls AAA WECSSAA titles (2013 & 2015) in addition to the 2016-17 Junior Boys AA WECSSAA and SWOSSAA Championship.  During her time at Sandwich, Cardinal also logged several years as Head Coach with both the boys and girls teams at the junior and senior levels. 

In 2014-15 Cardinal assisted at Vincent Massey junior boys before spending a season in 2015-16 helping the Tecumseh Vista Academy senior boys.  In 2017, she was the Head Coach of the Junior Girls at Leamington District but since 2019 she has been the Head Coach of the Tecumseh Vista Academy junior and senior girls program.  She has guided Vista Senior Girls to back-to-back AA WECSSAA titles in 2024 and 2025 to go with a SWOSSAA championship in 2025.  While at Vista, Cardinal has also given her time to the boys program as Head Coach for several seasons with the junior and senior teams.  In 2024-25, she led the Vista Senior Boys to AA WECSSAA and SWOSSAA titles. 

Cardinal also has extensive club coaching experience and began with the Windsor Valiants in 2018-19 working with the OBLX grade eight team and then spent the following year in the OBA with the grade nine and ten group.  In 2022-23 she assisted the JUEL Prep squad before helping the U15 Windsor Suns Boys team which won a D2 Ontario Cup Championship in 2024-25. 

In 2018 Cardinal was honoured as a recipient of the WESPY Knobby Knudsen Volunteer of the Year Award. 

Cardinal’s education includes a Bachelor of Science (2010) with a Major in Biology and a Minor in Chemistry from the University of Windsor adding a Bachelor of Arts in French Studies (2011) and followed that up with her Bachelor of Education in 2012.  She is also NCCP certified with completion of the Aboriginal Coaching Modules. 

Cardinal has worked as a Secondary School teacher for the Greater Essex County District School Board since 2012 with certification to educate Science, Physical Education, Biology and French.  She is currently in the role of Indigenous Graduation Coach which supports Indigenous students at the secondary school level.