Illinois State head women’s basketball coach Barb Smith announced Jessica Grayson as the third assistant coach to her staff.
"I am very excited about Jessica Grayson joining the Redbird family," Smith said. "I spent a year traveling the country watching practices, and a side benefit from that experience was the opportunity to assess assistant coaches. Jessica immediately stood out with her court presence and her ability to get the players to work hard in practice. She is a terrific asset to the program’s continued growth."
Grayson has eight years of combined experience in coaching high school and collegiate basketball as an assistant and head coach.
"I am excited, but humbled and blessed to have been afforded the opportunity to join the Illinois State University family," Grayson said. "Illinois State is not only a great university, but also a great place to work. It is situated in a wonderful location and competes in a very good league. I am so excited about the opportunity to work with Head Coach Barb Smith. She is a proven winner. I am looking forward to competing at a high level, and just as importantly, I’m looking forward to working with a group of great people."
Most recently, Grayson was the head coach at Clarksville Academy, one of the top private schools in Tennessee, for the past year. Prior to Clarksville Academy, Grayson has served as an assistant in Division I women’s basketball since 2007. From 2010-12, she was the assistant coach at Austin Peay. At APSU, Grayson collaborated with the head coach to develop on-court strategies and evaluated potential student-athletes. She also prepared scouting reports of opponents, monitored and developed academic strategies for student-athletes and implemented individual workouts with perimeter players.
Grayson also worked at Tennessee-Martin for three seasons as an assistant coach, where she created a recruiting strategy for the entire program and evaluated and scouted opponents, while breaking down video. She also developed and monitored academic strategies for student-athletes and coordinated team travel.
Grayson served as a graduate assistant coach for two seasons at Valdosta State, while obtaining a Master’s degree in health and physical education.
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