Jennifer Roos Named Russell Athletic/WBCA Regional Coach of the Year

Bowling Green State University women's basketball coach Jennifer Roos has been named the Russell Athletic/WBCA Region 4 Coach of the Year, the WBCA office announced Wednesday (March 26). Roos, in just her second year as a collegiate head coach, earns the honor for the first time.

Roos is one of eight regional award winners, all of whom are now finalists for the Pat Summitt Trophy, which will be presented to the 2014 Russell Athletic/WBCA NCAA Division I National Coach of the Year.

Roos is part of a veritable coaching Who's Who, as the other NCAA Division I regional winners and national C-O-Y finalists include Geno Auriemma (Connecticut - Region 1), Muffet McGraw (Notre Dame - Region 2), Dawn Staley (South Carolina - Region 3), Kim Mulkey (Baylor - Region 5), Curt Miller (Indiana - Region 6), Ryun Williams (Colorado State - Region 7) and Scott Rueck (Oregon State - Region 8).

BGSU has now had four different head coaches receive the WBCA's district/region coaching award a total of eight times over the years. Before taking the Indiana job, Miller earned the honor four times in a seven-year span (2005-06, 2006-07, 2008-09 and 2011-12) as the Falcons' head coach. Jaci Clark (1993-94, 1997-98) was the region coach of the year on two occasions, while Fran Voll (1986-87) won the award once.

The 2014 Russell Athletic/WBCA NCAA Division I National Coach of the Year will be announced during the fourth annual WBCA Awards Show on Monday, April 7, in the Omni Nashville Hotel's Broadway Ballroom. This event is part of the WBCA National Convention and is held in conjunction with the NCAA Women's Final Four.

Roos, a native of Louisville, Ky., was named BGSU's head coach in April of 2012, after spending 11 years as an assistant coach (the last eight as associate head coach) on Miller's BGSU staff. Since assuming the helm, Roos has guided the Falcons to an overall record of 53-15 and a Mid-American Conference mark of 28-6.

"We would like to congratulate these coaches for being named finalists for the 2014 Russell Athletic/WBCA NCAA Division I Coach of the Year Award," said Senior Vice President General Manager of Russell Athletic, Robby Davis. "Each of these coaches embodies the team concept we embrace at our Company, and we are pleased to honor them for a fantastic season."

This is the first year the physical award presented to the six Russell Athletic/WBCA National Coaches of the Year will bear Summitt's name. It will be the only national coach of the year award to do so. The legendary University of Tennessee head coach, who stepped down in April 2012, is the winningest basketball coach (men's or women's) in NCAA Division I history with 1,098 career victories. Summitt led the Lady Vols to eight NCAA Division I national championships and was named the Russell Athletic/WBCA NCAA Division I National Coach of the Year three times in her career.

"The WBCA congratulates these coaches on being named finalists for the Pat Summitt Trophy presented to the 2014 Russell Athletic/WBCA Division I National Coach of the Year," said WBCA CEO Beth Bass. "Each coach helped lead their team to an outstanding season and was selected by their peers to be candidates for this honor. On behalf of the WBCA and its members, I wish all of these finalists the best of luck at the WBCA Awards show in Nashville."

Roos and the Falcons have an overall record of 29-4 this year to date, heading into Thursday's (March 27) game vs. the University of Michigan. BGSU went 17-1 in MAC play to win the league's East Division and overall regular-season titles, and the Falcons are participating in the Women's National Invitation Tournament for the second time in her two years at the helm.

BGSU has advanced to national postseason play for the 10th consecutive season, extending the school and MAC records. The Falcons have advanced to the third round of the WNIT for the second-straight season.

With 29 wins this season to date, Roos and the Falcons are tied for the second-highest total in both school and MAC history. BGSU has won 29 or more games three times in school history -- all since Roos came to Northwest Ohio -- while the rest of the MAC's teams combined have won as many as 29 games twice.

The 2013-14 team won a MAC division title for the ninth time in the last 10 years, and BGSU has captured the outright conference regular-season crown eight times in those 10 seasons.

Roos, who was named MAC Coach of the Year earlier this month, has helped the Falcons to an overall record of 311-107 and a MAC mark of 163-47 since coming to BG prior to the 2001-02 season. Those numbers aren't too shabby, as they represent a success rate of over 74 percent overall and a winning percentage of better than 77% in conference action.

Over the last 10-plus years, however, the numbers are even more staggering. The Falcons are 290-72 (80.1%) overall, 152-26 (85.4%) in MAC regular-season play and 175-32 (84.5%) in all games vs. league foes during that time.

Roos came to the Falcon program after spending eight years at Davidson College. She became a coach with the Wildcats upon her graduation from the school.

She was a member of both the 1991-92 Davidson club team and the 1992-93 varsity squad. The latter season marked the varsity program's first after a six-year absence.

Roos was a standout in field hockey during her undergraduate years. She was a four-year letterwinner and a three-time MVP for Davidson. Roos led the 'Cats to a 50-15-6 record in her four seasons, and helped the squad to three consecutive Deep South Association championships.

Roos served as a captain for both the field hockey and basketball teams as a senior. She also lettered in lacrosse at Davidson.

Roos graduated from Davidson in 1993, with a B.A. in history, upon which she began her coaching career at the school.

In January of 2006, Roos was inducted into the Davidson Athletics Hall of Fame. She was inducted into her high school's (Kentucky Country Day) Hall of Fame in February of 2010.

Russell Athletic and the WBCA present the national coach of the year award annually in each of the six WBCA membership divisions (NCAA Divisions I, II and III; NAIA; junior/community college and high school). This is the 32nd year (since 1983) that the WBCA has presented this honor to an NCAA Division I head coach.

(Portions of this release are courtesy of the WBCA office)

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