Bob McLellan, Westminster College

Jenteal Jackson’s golf game isn’t what it used to be.

The former collegiate golfer and women’s basketball player at BYU and Westminster College has become more of a casual player lately, but her days hauling sticks on groomed pastures helped shape her into the basketball coach she is today.

“It’s allowed me to have a calm, steady, very even-keel demeanor. You can be playing great and literally one shot can cost you a tournament, so it’s a game where you have to be focused, you have to stay on task, you have to stay in the moment,” Jackson said.

“I’m very emotionally invested in the game, I’m one of the most competitive people, but to me, showing that range of emotion doesn’t necessarily benefit you. Sometimes I think it actually hurts you. And I think that’s a lesson I learned from golf: you don’t have time for the high and the low on every shot of a tournament. You have to be able to move on to the next shot.”

That’s the approach Jackson now brings to the Dee Events Center where she’s tasked with moving Weber State women’s basketball out of inertia and into a competitive state. Jackson was named the program’s seventh head coach on April 12.

Photo supplied, Weber State Athletics

She took that news to both of her teams a couple days before that. First, to the Westminster College team she’s coached for 11 years, including the last two as head coach, where she said goodbye to the Salt Lake City program she’s called home for nearly 15 years. Then she drove north to Ogden and introduced herself to a group of anxious Wildcats.

“I think there are kids in there that I can tell they’re excited, they’re hungry, they’re ready to get to work. They want to be successful,” Jackson said. “They’re not satisfied, they want to find a way to get this job done and work together to be successful.”

Jackson signed a four-year contract at an annual salary of $130,000, according to documents obtained via a public records request, with standard bonuses for her and assistant coaches for on-court and classroom achievement. The contract includes a $5,000 signing bonus and a $20,000 buyout.

Jackson was hired one month after five-year head coach Velaida Harris stepped down following a 6-25 campaign in the 2022-23 season. Attempts to reach WSU athletic director Tim Crompton for comment on the search process were not successful.

“We look forward to the enthusiasm and knowledge (Jackson) will bring to our women’s basketball program,” Crompton said in a news release upon her hire. “Jenteal’s commitment to excellence is evident and her vision for our student-athletes is clear, she is eager to get to work.”

Photo supplied, Weber State Athletics

Jackson is a Utah lifer, born in Salt Lake City. After quickly learning dance wasn’t in her future like her two older sisters, she launched into soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, tennis and golf.

“My parents gave me the opportunity to dabble in any sport I wanted to,” Jackson said gratefully.

She remembers one year when she played on three basketball teams at the same time just to get every minute she could on the court.

“It was my first love, I was super drawn to it,” she said.

By the time she hit high school, she’d narrowed her focus to basketball and golf. The former drew her in with the X’s and O’s, the strategy. The latter refined her mental focus and self-reliance, pitting her against only herself and the course.

Skyline High coaching legend Deb Bennett was the first of many big women’s basketball names Jackson got to rub shoulders with. It was under Bennett that Jackson began to embrace the game within the game, and Jackson won the Deseret News designation “Miss Basketball” as the top prep player in Utah for her senior season in 2008, scoring 15.4 points per game.

Jackson eschewed hometown Utah and began her college career under Jeff Judkins at BYU so she could continue hooping and playing golf, too. After two seasons, she transferred to Westminster and played both sports there, too.

She averaged 9.0 points, 3.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.4 steals over three seasons on the hardwood at Westminster (where she also won two conference golf titles). Jackson played for Shelly Jarrard for one season and coached with her for nine more. That’s who she credits for teaching her how to manage a team culture, create relationships and generate buy-in.

Jackson was also coached by and later coached with Utah legend Elaine Elliott, who helped Jackson understand how to scout opponents and plan a practice, among many other things.

“She’s elite. I can’t say enough about her basketball brain, her X’s and O’s, her philosophy, her strategy,” Jackson said.

And Betsy Specketer, the 23-year Salt Lake Community College head coach, pitched in at Westminster for one season post-retirement and worked alongside Jackson. The two remain good friends.

“We saw the game really similarly and I learned a lot from her and continue to do so, and she’s just someone I trust a lot as a person and a coach. She has great insight,” Jackson said.

In Jackson’s two seasons as head coach, the Griffins went 31-12 (.721) in conference play. In the 15-team RMAC, Westminster finished in fifth place this season (15-7) and third in 2021-22 (16-5).

Most notably, her teams were the best field-goal shooting teams in the league, finishing 17th nationally in 2023 (45%) and third nationally in 2022 (47.3%) at the Division II level while committing 15.2 turnovers per game.

“She likes an up-tempo, fast-paced style of play. She also likes to give players the freedom to explore on a fast break,” said Ashley Greenwood, a guard who played her final three seasons at Westminster and scored 17 points per game in each season with Jackson as head coach. “She’s really big on being disciplined and what’s a good shot versus a great shot … that’s what led to the success of shooting such a high percentage as a team.”

Jackson takes over a team that won just 15 league games in five seasons under Velaida Harris (15-81, .156). Those teams shot less than 40% from the field in every season, including a woeful 35.8% clip this past season. WSU averaged 17.9 turnovers per game in the last five campaigns.

“That’s one area where I feel I can get this group better. Not just shot selection, but breaking down things offensively to help them get themselves in better situations and get good shots for the team,” she said.

Jackson seems unfazed by leading a program that has finished better than fifth place in the Big Sky Conference only once in the last 16 years. The phone call to discuss her background and coaching philosophies during her second official day on the job interrupted her latest film-watching session of WSU’s current players.

“I love the strategy and getting kids to be really good at the little things. I’m always going to be teaching, helping the players understand the game,” Jackson said. “There are so many pieces to help a team execute and be in the right spots, just do all the little things that great teams do.”

She described her offensive style as a structure that sets her players up to read the defense, play freely to their strengths and make plays for each other.

“So no matter what the defense does, they’re wrong. No matter what they do, we have a counter,” Jackson explained. “So just teaching things like that, breaking it down, repping it, so they have those reads and once you get to game time, it’s second nature so we can understand the game and work for better shots.”

Westminster was Greenwood’s third college stop after what she said were unhealthy experiences at BYU and then-Dixie State.

“(Jackson) made me feel a lot more comfortable to just be who I am as a player and do what I’m good at,” Greenwood said. “It definitely helped my confidence for sure, especially with her style of play giving us that freedom.”

Aiming for a steady approach to teaching the little things, Jackson says she tries to channel her investment and competitive nature into places other than emotional displays during games.

“It shows up in me being super invested in my team, giving everything I have to those kids every day in practice, taking time to talk with them individually, taking time to develop relationships with them,” she said. “In my preparation for practice, for games, for scouts — it’s very detailed and extensive. I’ll put as much time in as I need to and then I’ll probably put more in after that to make sure our team is as prepared as possible.

“There are definitely times I’m passionate in games. I get passionate at bad calls just like any coach, but I try to stay fairly steady because your players feed off of that a lot so if they can mess up and still feel that confidence from me, I think it goes a long way for them to be able to play their best basketball.”

Greenwood said the culture Jackson cultivated at Westminster was making sure everyone mattered and felt heard, whether that player played 40 minutes per night or zero, and the Griffins’ success grew out of a relatively clique- and drama-free environment.

“She’s extremely competitive. She cares about winning a whole lot but she treats her players as people first and players second,” Greenwood said.

Jackson began her first orders of business even before her hire was official. Knowing the job was a real possibility, Jackson said she began watching film of WSU players and thought ahead about who could possibly join her coaching staff.

One position is sure: Cydney McHenry will follow Jackson from Westminster to be on staff at Weber State. Her addition has not yet been announced but McHenry has changed her social media bios to remove Westminster references and her Twitter bio simply says “(heart emoji) Weber.”

McHenry has deep RMAC ties; she played at Adams State, was a graduate assistant for Adams State’s men’s program, and was a women’s assistant coach there and at Fort Lewis College before joining Jackson at Westminster.

Jackson said she’s fielded considerable interest from coaches wanting to join her at Weber State and likes the direction that process is heading. She said one aim for the remaining spots on her staff is boosting regional recruiting ties outside of Utah. Jackson says she possesses considerable such connections with high school, club and junior college coaches throughout the West but would like to deepen those as she completes her coaching bench.

Meeting with WSU players individually is an ongoing process, as coach and players get to know each other and assess their next steps together. She anticipates needing to add somewhere around five new players to play for the Wildcats next season.

“Early on, I just wanted to provide a space for them to get a feel for me, and me to get a feel for them, to see if we’re a fit. I told them ‘I didn’t recruit you, you didn’t choose me, so we’re in this together. Let’s navigate that and I’m just going to be as honest as possible.'”

She said she envisions a “good chunk” of her roster hailing from Utah most years.

“There’s a high-enough level talent here. I think BYU going to the Big 12 probably helps with that, too,” she said. “Kids who are from Utah, they tend to really like it here and want to stay here. I’ve had a lot of success with Utah players in the past. Building that buy-in, that loyalty, that love for Utah is going to be a nice piece of our program.”

The seventh head coach for Weber State women’s basketball will officially tip off her first season in November.

“I believe in Weber State and the people here. It feels like a good fit for me and the type of program I want to run,” Jackson said. “I’m really looking forward to getting this program to where I know it can be and I’m grateful for the opportunity and the trust.

“I’m excited for people to be part of this. I truly believe we’re going to get this program to a place where it’s highly competitive, competing every year for conference championships. I look forward to meeting people and getting people out to games and enjoying success together.”

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