{"id":239516,"date":"2026-04-20T21:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T21:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/239516\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T21:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T21:59:08","slug":"jacksonville-university-extends-womens-basketball-coach-special-jennings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/239516\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville University extends women\u2019s basketball coach Special Jennings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under Jennings’ leadership, the team became ASUN champions and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second time ever.<\/p>\n

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 It\u2019s official. Jacksonville University is making a strong commitment to the future of its women\u2019s basketball program, extending head coach Special Jennings’ contract.<\/p>\n

Reports say the extension is through the 2032 season.<\/p>\n

Jennings, who took over the program in 2023, has quickly engineered a turnaround for the Dolphins. In just her third season at the helm, Jacksonville delivered a breakout year, capturing the ASUN Championship and advancing to the NCAA Tournament<\/a> for only the second time in program history.<\/p>\n

The rapid success marks a significant milestone for a program that had been searching for consistency in recent years. Under Jennings\u2019 leadership, the Dolphins have established a new standard, combining disciplined play with postseason results.<\/p>\n

“We’re thrilled to have Coach Jennings at the helm of our women’s basketball program long into the future,” said Jacksonville senior vice president and athletic director Alex Ricker-Gilbert in a statement.<\/a> “The program’s ascent over the last three years was clear, resulting in a historic championship run. The 2025-2026 season was a tremendous moment for our program and university, and we’re excited to continue building on this success under Coach Jennings’ leadership.”<\/p>\n

Securing Jennings long-term signals confidence from the university in both her vision and the program\u2019s upward trajectory. With a conference title and NCAA appearance already on her r\u00e9sum\u00e9, expectations will continue to rise as Jacksonville looks to build on its recent momentum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Under Jennings’ leadership, the team became ASUN champions and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-239516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}