Jacey Brooks is in her third season as Cortland's women's basketball head coach.
During the 2019-20 season, Brooks led the Red Dragons to a 22-7 record, the finals of the SUNYAC tournament and an NCAA Division III tournament at-large berth. Cortland won its NCAA first-round game and tied for 17th place nationally. Brooks was named the D3hoops.com East Region Coach of the Year, and she and her assistant coaches were selected as the SUNYAC Coaching Staff of the Year. Brooks also guided Cortland to a SUNYAC tournament appearance in her first season in 2018-19.
A former standout player at Buffalo State College, Brooks worked with Division I coaching staffs 11 years prior to her arrival at Cortland, most recently as an assistant coach for five years at Bowling Green State University in Ohio from 2013-18.
Brooks was part of a Bowling Green program that finished 30-5 overall, captured the Mid-American Conference (MAC) regular-season title with a 17-1 mark, and won three games in the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) in the 2013-14 season. She co-managed the Falcons' offensive scheme, including in-game decisions, from 2013-16 and served as the program's defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator from 2016-18. The program had the fifth-highest team grade point average among Division I women's squads in 2014-15 and the seventh-best team GPA in 2016-17.
In August 2015, Brooks was one of just 50 coaches across the nation selected to participate in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's (WBCA) Center for Coaching Excellence's inaugural session for assistant coaches in Atlanta, Ga. She is a June 2017 graduate of the NCAA Women Coaches Academy (WCA) Class #41 in Denver, Colo., and she also attended the NCAA/National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA) Women's Leadership Symposium in Kansas City, Mo., in May 2016.
Prior to her work at Bowling Green, Brooks spent three seasons on the coaching staff at Canisius College. She primarily worked with the team's backcourt players while assisting with the day-to-day operations of the program. Brooks also worked at St. Bonaventure University, where she moved into an assistant coach role for the 2009-10 season after spending two years as the director of basketball operations. The Bonnies finished 23-10 and made their second straight WNIT appearance in 2009-10.
A native of Machias, N.Y., Brooks graduated from Buffalo State in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science in Health and Wellness. During her four seasons on the hardwood for the Bengals (2002-05 and 2006-07) she recorded 1,219 points and 554 rebounds, earned two All-SUNYAC honors, and helped lead the team to three straight conference tournaments. She currently ranks sixth in school history in scoring and 15th in rebounding. Brooks is also the Bengals' career free throw percentage leader (84.5 percent), and she holds the school single-season records for 3-point shooting percentage (43.4 percent in 2003-04) and free throw percentage (87.0 percent in 2004-05).
Brooks has also coached in the Empire State Games, serving as an assistant coach for the Western region in the women’s open division. She earned a Master of Science in Sport Administration from Canisius in May 2012.
Twitter - @Coach_JBrooks
