Jamie Carey, a standout basketball player for the University of Texas from 2002-05, has been named an assistant coach with the Longhorns women’s basketball program, head coach Karen Aston announced on Thursday.
Carey was a member of UT’s 2003 NCAA Final Four team and also played four years in the WNBA. She has top-caliber experience at every level, including four years at USA Basketball as the assistant women’s national team director. She returns to her alma mater after spending the past two seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Colorado.
“I am so thrilled to welcome Jamie Carey back to the Forty Acres and to Texas Basketball,” Aston said. “This was a national search process to find the right fit for our program and, in particular, our student-athletes. As we combed the country, Jamie kept coming to mind. She brings a wealth of knowledge regarding guard play and offensive schemes that is exciting.
“Jamie, due to her experiences with USA Basketball understands the highest level of play, which will transfer over to recruiting the types of players we are identifying here at Texas,” Aston continued. “How can anyone not appreciate the passion with which she played the game during her time at Texas? She put her stamp on this program as a player and I expect her to do the same as a coach.”
Carey’s responsibilities at Texas will include instructing players at the guard position, coordinating the team’s offensive schemes and recruiting, which are similar to the responsibilities she had during her two seasons in Boulder.
“I am thrilled to be back at the University of Texas,” Carey said. “This is a fantastic opportunity and one I am really excited about. I want to thank Chris Plonsky, Mike Perrin, Karen and the entire Austin community for welcoming me back to the Forty Acres. I am looking forward to the opportunity to work with all of the elite athletes in this program and am excited to get to work.”
During her time at USA Basketball, Carey worked with all levels of the women’s national team program, helping to identify coaches and athletes for participation. She assisted with organizing logistics for trials, training camps and international competitions, supported the athletes and staff on-site internationally and assisted with practice for all national teams.
While working with USA Basketball, Carey was head coach at Sand Creek High School in Colorado Springs from 2011-14, directing the program to a 62-16 overall record, three Colorado Class 4A Great 8 State appearances and a pair of Pikes Peak Athletic Conference titles. She was the Pikes Peak Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in her final season.
Carey served as head coach at Legacy High School in Broomfield, Colo., from 2008-10, helping the team to a Colorado Class 5A runner-up finish in 2010. Her five-year high school coaching record was 106-25 (.809).
Carey’s story of perseverance is well known. The 1999 Miss Colorado Basketball was the 2000 Pac-10 Conference Freshman of the Year at Stanford University before concussions sidelined her for the next two seasons. After a year free of post-concussion symptoms, Carey transferred to the University of Texas, where she was a two-time All-Big 12 Conference selection.
A member of Texas’ 1,000-point scoring club, Carey still ranks 37th in program history with 1,074 career points. She was a finalist for numerous national awards during her time in Austin, including the Margaret Wade Trophy, the Naismith Award and the Nancy Lieberman National Point Guard of the Year.
Carey was the 2004 recipient of the Jim Valvano Comeback Player of the Year Award and, as a senior in 2005, was named the NCAA Woman of the Year and earned the Big 12’s Dr. Prentice Gautt Postgraduate Scholarship.
Despite playing in just 96 games during her UT career, Carey’s name is found throughout the Texas all-time career records. She is the school’s all-time leader in three-point field goal percentage (.418) and ranks second all-time in minutes per game (31.4). Carey’s 193 made three-pointers ranks fourth all-time in school history, while her free-throw percentage of .801 is seventh all-time.
She is the namesake for the Jamie Carey Comeback Award, awarded by UT Athletics annually to a student-athlete who has experienced and worked to overcome adversity during her intercollegiate athletics experience.
Carey was the 31st pick in the 2005 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury and later signed with the Connecticut Sun. She played four years for the Sun, which advanced to the postseason each of those seasons, including an appearance in the 2005 WNBA Finals.
Carey holds a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Texas in 2004 and completed her master’s of education in sport management on the Forty Acres in 2006. She was a two-time third-team CoSIDA Academic All-America selection and a two-time first-team All-District selection.
FORMER UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO HEAD COACH LINDA LAPPE ON JAMIE CAREY
“Jamie is one of the best in the business, there’s no doubt about that. Her talents of being extremely bright, very well spoken, and her ability to be able to teach the game of basketball to young players is unbelievably unique. It’s been really fun to see how she’s had an impact on every player that she’s coached. The thing that she brings more so than any coach I’ve ever worked with is just her presence. Jamie has great presence and that’s what made her so successful as a player. A lot of times, players can’t transfer that skill into the coaching world and be able to teach it, and she can. With her presence, she’s really able to mentor players and teach them how to have a championship mindset.”
http://www.texassports.com/news/2016/4/28/jamie-carey-named-womens-basketball-assistant-coach.aspx
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