Jill Rankin Schneider To Lead 2011 USA Basketball Women's U16 National Team

Colorado Springs, Colo. • April 18, 2011

Four-time USA Basketball gold medalist and Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, Jill Rankin Schneider of Monterey High School in Lubbock, Texas, has been selected to lead the 2011 USA Basketball Women’s U16 National Team, USA Basketball today announced.

Serving as assistant coaches will be Gail Hook, head mentor at Monarch High School in Louisville, Colo., and Letitia Hughley, head coach at both Mott Community College and Flint Northern High School in Flint, Mich. The coaching selections were made by the USA Basketball Women’s Developmental National Team Committee and approved by the USA Basketball Board of Directors.

“It is an incredible honor to have been selected to coach this team,” Schneider said.  “I had an opportunity to be an assistant to former University of Colorado coach Ceal Barry on a USA junior national team in the early ‘90s and had to turn it down because my son was only a few months old at the time. I am tremendously flattered and excited to have another opportunity to be involved with USA Basketball.”

The trio will lead the USA in the 2011 FIBA Americas U16 Championship June 13-18 in Mérida, Mexico, with the top four teams earning a berth into the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship.

“The committee is thrilled to have an accomplished and experienced coach in Jill Rankin Schneider to lead this group of young women,” said Carol Callan, USA Basketball Women’s National Team Director and non-voting chair of the USA Basketball Women’s Developmental National Team Committee. “Together with assistant coaches Gail Hook and Letitia Hughley, we feel confident that the priorities of USA Basketball, such as teamwork, hard work and excellence, will be demonstrated for and expected of these young athletes – both during the trials and throughout the competition.”

While all three coaches will undertake their first USA Basketball coaching assignment with a team playing in a FIBA or FIBA Americas competition, each comes to the position with experience on the USA Basketball sideline. Schneider led the 1982 USA Women’s Select Team to a 2-1 record in Bolivia, Hook was an assistant coach for the USA Red Team that finished 3-2 at the 2005 USA Basketball Youth Development Festival and Hughley helped the USA North team to a 5-0 record as an assistant coach in 2002 Youth Development Festival.

“I am honored to be selected to coach for USA basketball and to have the opportunity to coach with Jill Rankin Schneider and Letitia Hughley,” Hook said. “I am excited for the experience.”

“I’m honored, grateful and excited,” Hughley said. “I’m looking forward to working with the other coaches and talented players. I enjoy working with young people and seeing them improve. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to coach one of the USA Basketball developmental teams? That is every coach’s dream.”

Trials to select the official, 12-member USA Basketball Women’s U16 National Team will be held May 26-30 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Players eligible for this team must be U.S. citizens, born on or after January 1, 1995.

The USA Basketball Women’s Developmental National Team Committee will extend trials invitations to approximately 35 athletes and also is accepting applications on behalf of participants through May 10, for a total of no more than 200 participants at trials. The Developmental National Team Committee will be responsible for all facets of trials and team selection. More information on a trials application can be found at http://www.usabasketball.com/misc/wu16_player_consideration_form.pdf.

After returning home from trials on May 30, the 2011 USA Women’s U16 National Team will resume training camp June 3-13 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, prior to the team’s departure for Mexico.

First held in 2009, the FIBA Americas U16 Championship will be conducted every other year as the zone qualifier for the FIBA U17 World Championship. The 2009 USA U16 National team conquered all five of its opponents on its way to the gold medal at the inaugural FIBA Americas U16 Championship in Mexico City, Mexico, and the USA currently owns a 5-0 overall record in the event.

In addition to Callan, the USA Basketball Women’s Developmental National Team Committee includes AAU appointees Jody Patrick and Brian Robinson, National Federation of high school representatives Jill Meerman and Sue Phillips and athlete representative Ruthie Bolton (two-time Olympic gold medalist and a member of 11 USA Basketball teams from 1986 through 2000).

Jill Rankin Schneider
Having recently completed her 13th season (1998-99 to present) as head coach at Monterey High School, Schneider led her squad to a 23-11 record in 2010-11.

“Intensity, the will to prepare, mental toughness and defense are areas that I believe lay the groundwork for a successful team,” Schneider said. “We are obviously going to have the opportunity to coach some very talented athletes. Therein lays the challenge of meshing those very talented individuals into one very talented team. These young ladies have the opportunity to be involved in the developmental stages of USA basketball, and we as coaches are going to do everything that we can to help them prepare for the next level.”

She comes to her assignment with experience as a USA Basketball player and coach. As an athlete, she helped the USA to gold medals in the 1979 FIBA World Championship, the 1979 R. William Jones Cup and the 1980 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament and to a silver medal in the 1979 Pan American Games. Additionally, she was a member of the 1980 U.S. Women’s Olympic Basketball Team that did not compete in the 1980 Olympics that were held in Moscow. As a coach, she shared the head coach position for the 1982 USA Select Team that compiled a 2-1 record in Bolivia.

Additionally, she was the women’s basketball representative to the U.S. Olympic Committee from 1980-82 and was a court coach during the 1984 U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team Trials.

Since her arrival at Monterey, Schneider three times has been selected by her peers as the District 2-5A Coach of the Year (2000, 2002 and 2004), and in 2000 and 2011 she was chosen All-South Plains 4A/5A Coach of the Year by the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal  and as a Texas All-Star Game coach by the Texas Girls Coaches Association (TGCA).

Twice Schneider has been honored by Fox Sports Network as a “Coach Who Makes a Difference” when she was featured on “High School Extra” in 2002 and on “High School Scoreboard” in 2004. In July 2004, Schneider was selected by the TGCA as a coach for the Texas-Oklahoma All-Star game.

Schneider also has served as a board member and on the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) Hall of Fame committee for the past seven years.

She began her coaching career at the University of Tennessee where she was a student assistant under Pat Summitt.

Additionally, she served as an assistant coach for the University of Texas for five seasons (1981-82 to 1985-86) under Jody Conradt. In her last season at UT, the Lady Longhorns became the first women’s team to go undefeated to win an NCAA national championship in 1986.

After leaving Texas, Schneider was the head coach at Borger High School. In her 12 seasons there, her teams posted eight winning seasons and three playoff appearances. In 1994, her squad reached the Texas Class 4A state semifinals, and that same year she was inducted into the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame and was named Borger’s Citizen of the Year.

The TABC selected Schneider as the head coach of the 1994 North All-Star Team, and in 1996, she was the recipient of the Mike Newland Sportsmanship Award by the Amarillo Officials Association.

As a collegiate athlete, Schneider played at both Wayland Baptist University (1976-77 to 1978-79) and the University of Tennessee (1979-80).

She helped Wayland Baptist to a 31-5 mark as a freshman in 1976-77, a 33-5 record as a sophomore in 1977-78 and a 24-10 tally as a junior in 1978-79. Overall, she had an 88-20 record (.815 winning percentage) with the Flying Queens.

While at Wayland, Schneider was recognized as a Kodak All-American in 1979; a Hanes Underalls All-American and Street & Smith's Preseason All-American in 1978 and 1979; as a National Scouting Association All-American in 1978; and a NWIT All-American in 1977.

Schneider holds or is tied for No. 1 in Wayland Baptist’s record book for single-game field goals made (20, tied) and attempted (35), single-season field goals made (410) and attempted (698), single-season rebounds (1,000) and single-season scoring average (29.4).

As a senior at Tennessee in 1979-80, she helped the Lady Vols compile a 33-5 record and reach the 1980 national championship game. She was again named to the Kodak All-American team (1980), making her one of a select few athletes to be named as one of the nation’s top ten players at two different universities. Additionally, she was tabbed the 1980 GTE Academic Award Player of the Year.

As a prep athlete, Schneider was a two-time all-state honoree at Phillips High School in Texas, where she led the team to a Class 2A state championship in 1976. She once scored 81 points in a game and still holds several state tournament scoring records.

Inducted into the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002, the Austin American Statesman named Schneider to its All-Time All-State Basketball Team in 1998, and in 1999 she was honored as one of the Top 100 Sports Legends of the Texas Panhandle by the Amarillo Globe-News.

In 2008, Schneider was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., and the University of Tennessee Lady Vol Hall of Fame; and in 1997 she was named to the All-Time GTE Academic All-American Team for colleges and universities.

She obtained a master’s degree in mathematics education from the University of Texas and currently teaches college algebra at Monterey.

Gail Hook
Having completed her 13th season (1998-99 to present) as head coach at Monarch High School, Hook has led Monarch to nine state tournaments, including the championship game in 2009, the final four in 2003 and 2010, the elite eight in 2002, 2004 and 2011 and the round of sixteen in 2001, 2005 and 2008.

Most recently in 2010-11, Hook led Monarch to a Front Range League title, her fourth (2002, 2003, 2010 and 2011), a 22-4 record and the elite eight of the Colorado 5A state tournament.

Hook played for USA Basketball in the 1978 U.S. Olympic Festival, earning a gold medal with a 4-0 record. On the USA sideline, she has been a court coach for USA Basketball during the 2000 USA U18 National Team Trials, and in 2005 she was an assistant coach for the USA Red Team that finished 3-2 to claim the bronze medal at the USA Basketball Youth Development Festival. Additionally, in 2006 she acted as co-director for the 2006 FIBA Americas U18 Championship, helping USA Basketball to coordinate the seven-team tournament that was played at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Four times honored as the Front Range Coach of the Year (2002, 2003, 2009 and 2010), Hook also was recognized as the Boulder County Coach of the Year and the Dave Sanders Colorado Coach Award recipient in 2009, and she was named the State Farm Colorado Coach of the Year in 2001.

Since 2006 she has served on the WBCA committee responsible for selecting the high school All-America team and coach of the year, and she was on the nomination committee for Sportswomen of Colorado from 2005-2010.

Hook’s previous high school coaching experience includes a year as the girls basketball coach and the Dean of Students in 1995-96 at Smoky Hill High School in Aurora, Colo., and eight seasons (1986-87 to 1993-94) at Centaurus High School in Lafeyette, Colo.

Hook led Centaurus to the 1991 Colorado 5A state title, the 1992 state semifinals, the 1993 state quarterfinals and the state title game in 1994. She captured league and district championships in 1992 and 1994 and a district championship in 1993.

While at Centaurus, she was recognized as the Colorado Coach of the Year, Skyline Conference Coach of the Year and the county Coach of the Year in 1991 and as the Skyline League, county and Joint Effort Coach of the Year in 1992.

Hook also has experience in the collegiate and professional ranks. She was an assistant coach to the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting in 2003 and for the American Basketball League’s Colorado Xplosion from 1996-98. She also spent one season as an assistant coach at Purdue University in 1994-95. Her first coaching position came in 1985-86 as a graduate assistant at Northern Colorado.

Hook attended the University of Maryland for two years and played basketball in 1978-79, helping the Terrapins win the inaugural Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament in 1979. She transferred to the University of Colorado, where she earned a bachelor’s of science in physical education and coaching in 1982 and played basketball in 1979-80 through 1981-82.

She also earned a master degree in physical education/athletic administration from the University of Northern Colorado in 1986 and an administrative degree in education administration from the University of Denver in 1994. She teaches physical education and health at Monarch.

Letitia Hughley
Hughley previously helped the USA North team to a 5-0 record and gold medal as an assistant coach in 2002 USA Basketball Youth Development Festival.
Currently in her sixth season as head coach at Mott Community College (2005-06 to present), Hughley has led Mott to six NJCAA Division II National Tournament appearances (1999, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008), including a third-place finish in 2007.

Hughley also is the head mentor at her alma mater, Flint Northern High School, where she has led her team to no fewer than 14 City Series championships, seven Saginaw Valley Conference crowns, nine district titles, five regional trophies and two state championships.

As a player at the University of Washington from 1981-82 to 1984-85, Hughley led the Huskies in scoring, assists, steals and blocked shots as a senior. Her 13 assists against BYU on Dec. 16, 1983, is tied with two other players for UW’s single-game assists record, her 748 field goals made and 342 steals are career records at Washington and she holds the freshmen record for assists with 92. Named All-Northern Pacific Athletic Conference first team in 1984 and 1985, she went on to serve as a graduate assistant in 1985-86.

As a student at Flint Northern High School, she was a member of six state championship teams, including three in basketball and three in track and field.  She was All-Saginaw Valley second team in her sophomore year and was named to the Saginaw Valley first team her junior and senior years, as well as being named Student Athlete of the Year as a senior. 

She played two seasons professionally in Sweden and Australia and was inducted into the Greater Flint Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.

USA Basketball
Based in Colorado Springs, Colo., USA Basketball is a nonprofit organization and the national governing body for men's and women's basketball in the United States. As the recognized governing body for basketball in the United States by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), USA Basketball is responsible for the selection, training and fielding of USA teams that compete in FIBA sponsored international basketball competitions, as well as for some national competitions.

Since 2008, USA Basketball men’s and women’s teams have compiled a sterling 96-2 win-loss record in FIBA or FIBA Americas competitions. USA teams are the current men’s and women’s champions in the Olympics, FIBA World Championships; U19 and U17 FIBA World Championships; and U18 and U16 FIBA Americas championships. USA Basketball currently ranks No. 1 in all five of FIBA's world ranking categories, including combined, men's, women's, boys and girls.

For further information about USA Basketball, go to the official Web site of USA Basketball at www.usabasketball.com and connect with us on facebook.com/usabasketball, twitter.com/usabasketball and www.youtube.com/therealusabasketball.