Craig Jackson begins his fourth season as the head coach of the MontreatCollege women's basketball program after going 45-49 his first three seasons at the helm and orchestrating one of the biggest turnarounds in the country. The Cavaliers' 21 wins totaled 12 more than the previous season.
The Montreat women's team started out on fire during the 2009-10 campign, going 11-3 over the first 14 contests. The Cavaliers finished the season with a 21-10 record and an 8-8 AAC record; both marks were the school's best in almost a decade. The season included two overtime losses, a buzzer beating loss and a 72-60 win over AAC Tournament Champion Tennessee Wesleyan College.
Statistically, the Cavaliers finished in the Top 25 in the country in six different categories, including being the 2nd best defensive rebounding team in the nation. Individually, Janel Cox and Whitney Boone were named to the AAC All-Conference Third team, while Kera Bryant was named to the All-Defensive team. Academically, Boone and Cox along with Stephanie Morrison and Alicia Wallace were named to the AAC All-Academic team. In addition, Boone and Cox were cited as NAIA Academic All-Americans.
The 2008-09 season was a tale of close calls, with the Cavaliers scoring differential being just 1.7 points. It was another successful statistical year for the Cavaliers finishing the season in the Top 10 in the national rankings in four different categories and the Top 20 in five. Individually Coach Jackson saw four different players finish in the national ranking and Chazaree Wright and Whitney Mace each eclipsed the 1000 pt. mark during the 2008-09 season.
Janel Cox and Whitney Boone were each named to the AAC Academic All-Conference team for the second time, while Chazaree Wright earned 1st Team All-Conference for the second consecutive season. Additionally, the Cavaliers had a player on the All-Freshman team for consecutive seasons, with Alicia Wallace being honored.
Jackson's first season as the head coach of the MontreatCollege women's basketball program ended with the Cavaliers posting a 14-17 record. The nine game turnaround from the prior season constitutes one of the biggest one year gains in the country. The fourteen victories by Jackson's Cavaliers were the most wins at Montreat since the 2001-02 season.
Jackson saw his team finish in the Top 10 in the national rankings in three different categories, while finishing in the Top 50 in eight. Individually, Jackson's players appeared in the final national Top 20 in nine different statistical categories.
In addition to the national recognition, the Cavaliers ranked in the Top 3 of the Appalachian Athletic Conference in 15 team or individual categories, including leading the conference in blocked shots.
Individually the Cavaliers had Janel Cox and Whitney Boone named to the Academic All-Conference team and Kim Staley (All-Freshman and All-Defensive Team) and Chazaree Wright (1st Team All-Conference) were also honored.
Prior to coming to MontreatCollege, Coach Jackson spent eight years at the University of the Pacific, as both an assistant and head coach. During his tenure at Pacific, Jackson helped lead the Tigers to a program record six consecutive winning seasons and two appearances in the Big West Conference Championship. In his eight years as a Tiger, Jackson's team finished with and overall record of 105-102 and a conference record of 66-46, finishing lower than tied for second place only once.
Jackson's Pacific teams also hold the records for most consecutive wins (9), most conference wins to start a season (6), and the best two conference seasons in school history. Jackson is one of two coaches at Pacific ever to beat a ranked opponent and is only the third coach in Big West Conference history to lead his team to the Big West Conference Championship game in his first season.
The success of the Tigers took place despite repeatedly playing one of the toughest schedules in the country. Along with Coach Jackson's defeat of No. 19 UC Santa Barbara, the Tigers had eight games, over a four year span, against past NCAA National Champions. These past Champions included Stanford, Baylor, Texas Tech and Purdue. In addition to these opponents, the Tigers took on national and regional powers Duke, Kentucky, Illinois, Rutgers, Colorado, Marquette, Wisconsin Green-Bay and Utah with Coach Jackson on the bench.
Coach Jackson's teams also proved to be crowd favorites, as they set both the top two single game and single season attendance records. The 2002-03 version of the Tigers saw over 11, 000 fans watch the Tigers play in 13 home contests.
Accolades did not escape the Tigers during Coach Jackson's time on the bench. The Tiger players received twenty-four All-Big West Conference selections during his eight years, including four players on the All- Freshman team and four 1st team All-Conference selections. The Tigers were awarded for classroom success as well, with two Big West Scholar Athletes of the Year, five Verizon District VIII Academic All- Americans, and a National Athletic Directors Association Basketball Scholar Athlete of the Year award winner, while Jackson was with the Tigers.
Overall, this is Coach Jackson's 19th season as a coach and his 17th at the college level. Along with Pacific, he was a head coach at Linn-BentonCommunity College and an assistant at WillametteUniversity and Lewis and ClarkCollege.
Jackson graduated from WillametteUniversity with a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science and was a decathlete on the track and field team.
Coach Jackson is married to the former Brooke Carrigan, a Hall of Fame member and All-American from Colorado Christian and Co-head Coach at Montreat. The couple resides in Greenville, South Carolina.
Brooke Carrigan-Jackson - Associate Head Coach - 1st Season
Associate Head Coach
Brooke Carrigan-Jackson joins the Montreat Cavaliers for the 2010-11 season as Co-head Coach. Carrigan-Jackson comes to Montreat after serving 4 years as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Furman University, a Div. 1 program and member of the Southern Conference. During her time at Furman, Carrigan-Jackson saw five Paladins claim All-Conference recognition, including Jessica Lange, the all-time leader in blocked shots, and Melissa Liebschwager, the ESPN 3-point Challenge champion in 2009. Carrigan- Jackson also got to witness success in the classroom as 14 Paladins were recognized for their outstanding work in the classroom by being named Academic All-Conference during her tenure.
Carrigan-Jackson got her first Div. 1 victory as acting head coach, in a 66-63 overtime victory at UNC Greensboro. Prior to joining Furman, Carrigan-Jackson spent one year as an assistant at the University of the Pacific, on the staff of current Co-Head Coach Craig Jackson. She has also served as an assistant at Southern Oregon University and Colorado State-Pueblo.
About her addition, Coach Craig Jackson had this to say," We are very excited to have someone of Brooke's caliber join our coaching staff. She has a unique ability to break down individual player development will be a great asset to our players. She brings a very diverse background of what it takes to play and coach at the highest level and I am excited to be able to work with her again."
As a player at Colorado Christian University, Carrigan-Jackson was a Women's Div. II Bulletin All-American as a Junior and Senior, Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year , RMAC All- Conference four times and All- Region four times. She left Colorado Christian as the single season record holder for points, made field goals, field goal attempts, free throws made, free throw attempts and the career record holder for points, made field goals, 3-point percentage, made 3-point field goals, free throws made and free throw attempted. She was the first women's basketball player inducted into the athletic Hall of Fame in 2007 and was nominated for the RMAC Hall of Fame in 2009. She was also a middle hitter/blocker on the Colorado Christian University Volleyball team that was ranked as high as #16 in the nation.
Following her collegiate days, Carrigan-Jackson played seasons in both Holland and Germany, for BC Utrecht and TV Hofheim, respectively, as well as spending training camp with the Colorado Chill in 2002.
Carrigan-Jackson is active with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Athletes in Action, doing a tour of Mali and Senegal in the summer of 2008. She is married to current Co-Head Coach Craig Jackson and the couple resides in Greenville, SC.
