Youngstown State head women’s basketball coach John Barnes announced two new members of his coaching staff on Thursday. Amber Reeves will join the staff as the Director of Basketball Operations, and Jason Pacanowski will serve as the Director of Player Personnel.
Reeves comes to Youngstown after spending the last two years as a graduate assistant coach at her alma mater, UNC Wilmington. Pacanowski begins his second stint at YSU, having previously been the Director of Basketball Operations for the men’s basketball program from 2008-13.
“I can’t explain how excited I am to have Amber and Jason join our staff,” Barnes said. “The energy and experience this duo brings is outstanding, and we are very fortunate to have them. Both are very talented and have bright futures in the profession.”
Reeves will oversee areas pertaining to student-athlete housing, meals, financial aid and academics in her role as Director of Operations. She will also organize the team calendar, serve as the contact for elite and team camps, supervise the team managers and coordinate the day-to-day functions of the office.
In Reeves’ two years at UNCW, she assisted with on-campus visits, maintained the program’s recruiting database and oversaw the team’s equipment needs, team managers and practice players. Reeves helped with individual workouts, assisted with practice planning and also contributed to the Seahawks’ social media accounts.
As a student-athlete at UNCW, Reeves appeared in 123 games from 2013-17, which is the fourth-most in program history. She was a three-time honoree on the Colonial Athletic Association All-Academic Team, and she was the school’s NCAA Woman of the Year nominee in July 2017. Reeves also earned the Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports-Scholar Award and the Coaches Award at UNCW, and she was a four-year member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
Pacanowski will coordinate the program’s travel and meals, and he will also oversee the team’s community service activities and programming. Additionally, he will be charged with video exchange, running the youth summer camp and overseeing the gameday ball girl program.
Pacanowski comes back to collegiate athletics and Youngstown State after serving as a mathematics teacher and the head varsity boys basketball coach at Beaver Local High School. In the classroom, he instructed and developed the curriculum for Algebra, Algebra II and Calculus classes. As the Beavers’ head coach, he managed and oversaw all aspects of the program, including coaching, skill development, budgeting, fundraising, academics and publicity.
Pacanowski served as the Director of Basketball Operations for the YSU men’s basketball team under previous head coach Jerry Slocum during the 2008-09 through 2012-13 seasons. During his first stint as a Penguin, he was responsible for the daily administration and operation of the men’s program. His primary areas of focus were team travel, business operations, video exchange and academic monitoring.
https://www.ysusports.com/sports/wbkb/2019-20/releases/reeves-pacanowski-announcement-0725
