Penn State women’s basketball’s new coaching additions have high expectations for Lady Lions
Sarah Jenkins was fresh off of a strong season with the Delaware Blue Hens.
Delaware’s women’s basketball team went 24-5, took the Colonial Athletic Association 2021 regular-season title and went to the WNIT semifinal. As associate head coach and recruiting coordinator, Jenkins helped the team add three All-CAA players including Jasmine Dickey, who won CAA Player of the Year in the 2020-21 season with averages of 23.6 points per game and 8.8 rebounds per game. Then, the opportunity to coach with Penn State women’s head coach Carolyn Kieger arose in May.
Jenkins obliged.
“Just to be honest, the biggest draw for me in making this transition was Coach Kiegs (Kieger),” Jenkins said. “I think she’s a phenomenal coach with a phenomenal vision and I’ve watched her as a head coach from Marquette — watched her turn the program around and make them a top program in the country. I feel that she is fully capable and will do that here at Penn State and I’m really excited for the opportunity to be a part of that ride with her.”
Jenkins was announced as the Lady Lions’ newest assistant coach on May 12, just over two weeks after Kieger added Aaron Kallhoff to her coaching staff. The pair replaces Ashley Earley, who joined the staff at Vanderbilt, and Ginny Boggess, the now-head coach at Monmouth. Both Jenkins and Kallhoff have plenty of coaching and recruiting experience, as well as high expectations for the Lady Lions’ future.
Jenkins coached seven years at the Division I level, including four years at Delaware and three years at her alma mater Georgetown. During her four years with the Blue Hens, she helped guide them to a 71-50 record and a 46-26 record in conference play. At Georgetown, the Bowie, Maryland, native saw her Hoyas go to two consecutive WNIT appearances in 2016 and 2017.
Jenkins holds an extensive background in recruiting, serving as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator with Delaware from 2017-20, then being promoted to associate head coach and recruiting coordinator during the 2020-21 season.
Her experience with bringing in top-tier talent from the Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia areas has put her among the most dogged recruiters in college basketball. Six of Delaware’s 13 players last season were from the Baltimore-Washington region. Five of ESPN’s top 100 players in the Class of 2021 were from the area.
With Penn State only being a little over three and a half hours away from her hometown, she looks to bring a special DMV flavor to State College.
“It’s a no-brainer to be so close to home and to recruit the DMV area because again, the DMV has some of the top talent in the country,” Jenkins said. “So, to position yourself in the region where you can effectively recruit that area on a regular basis is huge. I’ve been recruiting that area very heavily since I’ve been a college coach. All of my stops have been in the area and that’s definitely intentional. I’m very excited and strategic about being able to be in a place to be able to consistently recruit the DMV.”
Prior to Jenkins joining Penn State, Kieger reached out to Kallhoff about an opening with her staff following LSU’s 9-13 season in April.
He began his Division I coaching career at Arkansas State, coaching the Red Wolves from 2013-15 — winning 46 games, including the team’s first postseason game since 2017. Arkansas State’s 24 victories during the 2014-15 season were the second-most wins in program history. Right before he got to LSU, Kallhoff saw success with the Texas Christian Horned Frogs, aiding them to postseason play in two of the three years he coached there.
“She knew what she was looking for and I was a fit and we’ve got a pretty good relationship,” Kallhoff said. “She’s got a lot of credibility in the coaching profession because of her work ethic and the trajectory of how she’s done as a head coach. I looked at trying to find a good fit, not just for me, but community-wise for my wife and three children. State College is exactly what we’re looking for.”
Kallhoff has made his bones in recruiting as well, bringing in LSU standouts Faustine Aifuwa and Ayana Mitchell to the program. Aifuwa made the second-team All-SEC Defensive Team averaging 1.77 blocks per game and 0.77 steals per game in the 2020-21 season. Mitchell made first-team All-SEC (2019) and the 2019 All-SEC Second Team with career averages of 11.1 points per game, 1.57 steals per game and 8.5 rebounds per game.
With the talent that Kallhoff has brought to his respective programs and the multiple cities in proximity to State College, he believes that the Lady Lions will be a powerhouse in the near future.
“I think that you look at what the talent level is in Pennsylvania and then you also have some of the states that border it,” Kallhoff said. “Just within a 3-4 hour radius, you’ve got a lot of great talent and that is intriguing. When you’re at Penn State, you’re the flagship program of the state. You want to keep local talent at home.”
Sitting a 9-15 last season, Penn State was on the outside looking in at Big Ten teams that made the NCAA Women’s Tournament. However, the team’s highlight of the season was a victory over then-15th-ranked Ohio State on Feb. 24, Penn State’s first win over a top-15 team since 2016. To make matters better for the Lady Lions, they’ll return leading-scorer Kelly Jekot, who averaged 15.9 points before suffering a season-ending injury.
Former Notre Dame freshman guard Alli Campbell announced that she would return home to Penn State in March. The Altoona native attended Bellwood-Antis High School, where she scored 3,019 career points, grabbed 964 rebounds, had 534 assists, 477 steals and 177 blocks. She was additionally named as a three-time PIAA Class 2A Player of the Year and four-time All-State selection, as well as being selected as 2019 Miss Pennsylvania Basketball, the 2019 USA Today Pennsylvania Player of the Year and a 2020 Naismith High School All-American.
Penn State also added 6-foot-4 center Ali Brigham, who stood out at George Washington, averaging 11.9 points per game on a 50.4 field goal percentage — ranking sixth among Division I freshmen. Brigham made the Atlantic 10 All-Freshman team, as she led all freshmen in the league in previous categories. She led the Colonials with 26 blocks and finished third on the team in rebounding with 4.7 per game.
“I think that we have a really good core group of players,” Jenkins said. “I think we have a core group of kids that love the game and are excited about getting better and growing and I think they want to win. I think that we take what we have and continue to build on the foundation Coach Kiegs has set, we continue to compete, develop and get better and there’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll be able to compete with anybody in the Big Ten. There’s no doubt in my mind that we can win the Big Ten.
“We all know and understand that it’s a process, but I think that we’re on the right track. A couple years from now, we’ll be looking back on this interview and saying, ‘Yeah, we said we were going to do that and we did it.’ “
This story was originally published June 8, 2021 at 7:11 PM.
