Sacred Heart University

Jessica Smith comes to Sacred Heart after seven years asthe women's basketball head coach at the University of New Haven.During her time with the Chargers, Smith collected tworegular-season conference titles, a pair of trips to the conferencechampionship game and an appearance in the 2007 NCAA NortheastRegional. She led New Haven through the transition to theprestigious DII conference Northeast-10, and reached the tournamentas the No. 11 seed in the first season. In the first round of that2008-09 tournament, Smith led the Chargers to an 80-74 upset of No.6 Assumption.

Prior to working at New Haven, Smith served as theassistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Miami University ofOhio for five season. In her tenure at Miami, the RedHawks won theMid-American Conference regular-season title and advanced to thesecond round of the WNIT in 2004, and in 2003, won the Mid-AmericanConference's East Division.

A 1995 graduate of the University of Rhode Island, Smithstarted her coaching career as a student assistant coach from1992-95, and was hired as a full-time assistant for the 1995-96season. That season, the Rams made their first-ever NCAA Tournamentappearance while winning a share of the Atlantic 10 ConferenceChampionship.