Jessica Keller enters her third year as Head Coach for the Columbia College Women's Basketbal team. Keller is only the second head coach in the history of the women’s basketball program since it was reinstated in 2001. In her first year as head coach, she led her squad to an overall record of 22-11 (.667) and to a conference record of 16-8.
In her second year with the Cougars, Keller led the squad to an overall record of 27-6 and a conference record of 20-4. In addition, Keller coached her team to a national championship appearance, but fell to Baker University in the opening game.
Keller currently holds an overall career coaching record of 49-17 (0.742).
Keller served as the assistant coach at Minnesota State University in Mankato, Minnesota for the past three seasons where she specialized in the development of the post position. Within the three seasons, Keller was a part of 67 victories including being the Northern Sun Conference regular season runner-up the past two years.
In addition, Keller served as the team academic coordinator for the Mavericks and helped the squad to place in the Top-25 of team GPA in the NCAA Division II. She also served as the athletics liaison to the admissions office at Minnesota State.
Prior to her time in Mankato, Keller was a two-year graduate assistant coach at Quincy University, where she completed her Master's in Business Administration. The Belle, Missouri native also played women's basketball at Quincy from 2005-2009. Keller was a three-time All-Great Lakes Valley performer and was named the GLVC Player of the Year in her senior season. She left Quincy as the school's career record holder in point scored (1,823), steals (324), free throws made (487) and free throws attempted (652). She also collected numerous academic awards during her career as a double honors major in Accounting and Finance. At the completion of her Quincy career, Keller earned the GLVC's Richard F. Sharf Paragon Award which is an award that combines academics, athletics, leadership and character.
A Belle High School Valedictorian, Keller was a three-time Missouri Basketball Coaches Association All-State Selection and at the time of graduation ranked in the Top-10 state wide for most career points at 2,735. During her senior season she set a state high school record for single season scoring average with 37.5 points per game and holds another state record of most free throws made in a game with 33.
