William Jewell College has announced the appointment of Jenni Croy as head women’s basketball coach. She becomes the ninth head coach in program history after beginning her duties on April 21.
Croy, a former local standout, returns home to the metro after 18 years as the head coach at North Central Missouri College where she amassed more than 320 wins, for an average of nearly 18 per season. During her tenure, she led the Pirates to seven Region XVI championships, including four of the last five with three additional runner-up finishes. In the Central Plains District, NCMC won four titles which resulted in NJCAA National Tournament appearances, highlighted by a sixth-place mark in 2022 and seventh place in 2023. Most recently, the Pirates were 24-9 overall, including 12-1 at home, and finished the 2025 season in the second round of the national tournament.
A seven-time Region XVI and four-time Central Plains Coach of the Year, she has mentored 41 All-Region performers and eight NJCAA All-Americans during her time at North Central Missouri. Her teams have also been outstanding in the classroom with multiple NJCAA All-Academic honorees.
A product of nearby Kearney High School, the former Jenni Miller, is the all-time leading scorer for the Bulldogs and was a 2017 Hall of Fame inductee. She continued her playing career at Pittsburg State University (Kan.) where she starred for four seasons, setting records for three-point field goals in a game (11) and graduated as the all-time scoring leader with more than 1,800 points, a mark that is still among the top-5 today. A four-time All-MIAA performer, she earned DII Bulletin All-America honorable mention honors as a senior and led Division II in three-point field goals (116) as a sophomore, finishing her career with 364, second most in Division II history at the time. She led the Gorillas to a 1996 regular season conference title and made two trips to the NCAA-II National Tournament during her career. In 2007, she was inducted into the Pittsburg State Athletics Hall of Fame, followed by an enshrinement in the MIAA Hall of Fame in 2018.
Croy earned her bachelor’s degree in education with an emphasis in mathematics from Pittsburg State followed by a master’s in secondary administration from William Woods University. She is married to husband Wes and the proud mother of three children, son Lathan, who is the head women’s golf coach at Northwest Missouri State, and daughters Salem, and Kaegen.
https://jewellcardinals.com/news/2025/4/22/jenni-croy-named-head-womens-basketball-coach.aspx
