Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Siena To Name Ali Jaques New Women's Coach

After 22 seasons the Siena women's basketball team will have a new head coach.

The school has set a 2 p.m. press conference for tomorrow (Thursday), at which it is believed it will announce Ali Jaques to succeed long-time coach Gina Castelli, who was fired last month.

Jaques, according to sources at Siena, has officially accepted the position. Several other upstate New York media outlets are also reporting that Jaques is believed to be the school's choice.

But, your scribe has an impeccable source confirming Jaques' hiring.

Jaques' candidacy was aided by a strong recommendation by another former Siena head coach Jim Jabir's (Castelli's predecessor). Jaques was an assistant for one season (2005-06) under Jabir at Dayton.

A 1998 graduate of New York University, she began her coaching career as an assistant at Rider for one season. She also served as an assistant for three seasons at Sacred Heart Univerity and, then, three seasons at Furman University.

After Dayton she was an assistant at George Washington University for two seasons, moving from there to Northwestern prior to the 2008-09 season.

Over her time at Northwestern that program had a 58-68 record, but was 51-45 over the past three seasons.

Castelli had been at Siena since the 1989-90 season serving one year as an assistant (under Jabir) before becoming the program's head coach prior to the 1990-91 season.

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