Courtney Jaco has been a rising star for a big chunk of her life.
From being the country’s No. 3 ranked high school women’s basketball player during her senior year at Winwood to getting recruited by USC and then playing professionally overseas, Jaco is now one of the NCAA’s young assistant coaching stars as an assistant for her alma mater.
Jaco achieved multiple honors throughout her playing career at USC. Up until last year when she was surpassed by JuJu Watkins, Jaco was USC’s career-leader in 3-point goals with 217. Additionally, she was a two-time All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention. Just recently, however, she was recognized with her first major award for being a coach. In March of this year, she was named as a WBCA 30 Under 30 honoree.
“[It’s a] really cool thing anytime you can be awarded for hard work… It feels great.” Jaco said in an interview last friday responding to a question asked how she felt about being recognized that way. “Obviously, it’s not why I do it, I coach because I really enjoy the relationships I have with the players and trying to (share) my experiences to help them navigate their own journey.”
Jaco’s path to being recognized as one of the best young coaches in women’s basketball is an unusual one. She mentioned that she at one point she wasn’t even interested in coaching at all.
“I think when I was a player I kinda got boxed into ‘Your gonna be a coach,’ all the coaches that I played for boxed me into that. So, I wasn’t really sure I’d wanna settle into that right away. I didn’t wanna be boxed in and was a little defiant that way. But coaching kind of found its way to me naturally.”
What she means by that is after playing overseas in Greece for a season, she was offered a coaching internship at Stanford, which she ended up taking. There, she learned under the great Tara VanDerveer for a season, leading her to take a job at her alma mater USC, and moving herself up the ranks to assistant coach.
“I think that experience at Stanford really helped push that forward.” She said at the end of her response.
Jaco has also received high praise from USC women’s head basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb.
“Courtney Jaco is a rising star in the coaching profession,” Gottleib said. “A Trojan alum, she has a deep love for our school and program, and has dedicated herself to becoming one of the best assistant coaches in the business. She is intelligent, relatable, hard working and creative. She has an ability to connect with players, both teaching the game at a high level but also mentoring them on and off the court.
“Our rise in stature as a program is a result of the people that have invested to elevate this program, and Coach Jaco has her fingerprint all over our success.”
Former sports journalist and current professor at USC Annenberg Myra (Miki) Penelope Turner also talked about Jaco.
“Having covered women’s sports for such a long time, It’s rather easy for me to pick out the people who will make a significant impact on a program. I knew that about Courtney right away. She has a truly high IQ when it comes to basketball, but more importantly, she has an intense commitment to the players and the program on and off the court. She’s going to make a terrific head coach one day—probably sooner than we think.”
At age 29, Jaco has done what most athletes fail to do, which is stay in the business of the sports she loves and she’s crushing it. What’s next for this rising star? Will she be a future head coach of women’s basketball at USC or somewhere else? Will she be the first woman to be a head coach in the NBA?
The possibilities are endless for Courtney Jaco.