Jones prowling the hardwood

By: Dustin Looney
Courier Staff

After the Monmouth College women's basketball team concluded their 2004-05 season with a victory over Knox College, their head coach, Dennis Mann resigned.  Coach Mann had been in charge of the MC women for 13 years, but the choice for his replacement as head coach for the 2005-06 season was an easy one.           MC athletic director, Terry Glasgow, hired Monmouth alum Melissa Jones to lead the Fighting Scots.

"Melissa is a full-time member of our athletic department staff, and we certainly feel she is qualified and capable of taking the program to the next step and helping the Fighting Scots become one of the elite teams in the Midwest Conference," said Glasgow.

Coach Jones says she always wanted to be a coach, but it was not until she started playing basketball for Monmouth that she set her goal to be a coach at the collegiate level. She attended MC from 1999 to 2003, and she also played volleyball and ran track while she was a student here.

Jones was named to the All MWC Conference basketball team in each of her four years at MC while compiling an amazing 1,318 points during her career. Her accomplishments did not stop there: in 2003 she was also named Illinois' NCAA Woman of the Year and a top 10 finalist for the National NCAA Woman of the Year award. 

After getting her masters degree from Western Illinois University (WIU), Jones returned to her alma mater to serve as assistant basketball and track coach. 

Now that she is head coach of the basketball squad Jones said she will focus exclusively on coaching basketball since the Fighting Scots finished last season with a 6-17 record, many people do not think that they can finish higher than 7th or 8th place in the MWC Conference standings this year.

Jones says if the practices are any indication on how this season will be, those predictions should prove false.  She says practices have been very intense and the team has good morale. 

The 2005-06 team will be led by its two Seniors, Courtney Scherrer and Lisa Curry.  Scherrer will be the "coach on the floor" and run the team. She is the only returning player who made the All MWC Conference squad last year.

Lisa Curry is also expected to play a crucial role on this year's team. She will play center and Coach Jones said she is counting on Curry to lead the team in several statistical categories. 

The team's goal is to make the playoffs in the MWC Conference, which will require a finish among the top four teams in the league. They begin the season on Saurday, November 19th when they host Robert Morris College at the Huff Center.