April 16, 2008
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara University Director of Athletics and Recreation Dan Coonan announced today the hiring of Jennifer Mountain as head women's basketball coach. Mountain comes to the Mission Campus after serving seven seasons as the top assistant coach at Gonzaga, where she helped the Bulldogs to four straight West Coast Conference regular season championships and one WCC Tournament crown.
She will be formally introduced to the media and University community on Wednesday, April 16, at 11:30 a.m., in the University Suite located on the third floor of the Leavey Center.
"We are very excited to be bringing Jennifer Mountain on board," said Coonan. "She is very competitive, hard working and passionate about her role in the lives of young women. She embraces the mission of the University, and will fit in famously here. We could not be happier about this hire."
While at Gonzaga, Mountain helped turn the Bulldogs from a 2-12 WCC record in 2001-02 to four-time regular season champion. The Bulldogs compiled a 140-79 overall record and a league mark of 72-40 since Mountain rejoined the coaching staff. Gonzaga advanced to the NCAA Tournament once and twice advanced to the Women's NIT, and in 2005 garnered the school's first national ranking.
"She knows us, she knows our conference and she clearly knows how to win," said redshirt sophomore forward Kimee Goeggel. "Gonzaga has a winning tradition, and she was there for the process of going from a good program to one of the consistently best in our conference. Coach Mountain is an individual that will take our program to the next level."
Mountain, a 1991 Gonzaga graduate, worked as an assistant under Julie Holt and helped recruit and coach many of the players that guided the Bulldogs to their first WNIT appearance in 1994. She went on to serve as the head boys' basketball coach at Saint George's School in Spokane from 1994 to 2001, where she compiled a 134-62 record and led the Dragons to two Washington State Class B championship game appearances in 1996 and 2001. Mountain returned to Gonzaga as an assistant coach in 2001.
"I am extremely excited for the fantastic opportunity Santa Clara has given me," said Mountain. "I'm looking forward to being a part of the Santa Clara family and to bringing the Broncos much success well into the future."
Mountain became a double alumna of Gonzaga in 1999 when she received a masters degree in athletic administration. She also holds a bachelors degree in physical education and health. Following her first stint as assistant coach, Mountain also served as the head coach for the boys and girls' track and girls' volleyball teams at Saint George's, and was a volunteer assistant basketball coach at Spokane's Whitworth College.
About Santa Clara University Athletics
Santa Clara University Department of Athletics and Recreation sponsors 19 intercollegiate athletics teams and competes as a Division I member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the West Coast Conference (WCC), the Pacific Coast Softball Conference and the Western Water Polo Association. The department is enjoying a successful 2006-2007 season. Both the men's and women's soccer teams captured the WCC championship, while the men's basketball team won 21 games. Santa Clara's four-year student-athlete average graduation rate of 74 percent is tied for first in the WCC and second on the West Coast.
About Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located in California's Silicon Valley, offers it's 8,397 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master's and law degrees. Distinguished nationally by the third-highest graduation rate among all U.S. master's universities, California's oldest higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. The More information is online at www.scu.edu.