Jill Rankin Schneider

2011 USA Women's U16 National Team Head Coach

Four-time USA Basketball gold medalist and Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, Jill Rankin Schneider of Monterey High School in Lubbock, Texas, was named head coach of the 2011 USA Basketball Women’s U16 National Team on April 18, 2011.

“It is an incredible honor to have been selected to coach this team,” Schneider said.  “I had an opportunity to be an assistant to former University of Colorado coach Ceal Barry on a USA junior national team in the early ‘90s and had to turn it down because my son was only a few months old at the time. I am tremendously flattered and excited to have another opportunity to be involved with USA Basketball.”

Having recently completed her 13th season (1998-99 to present) as head coach at Monterey High School, Schneider led her squad to a 23-11 record in 2010-11.

“Intensity, the will to prepare, mental toughness and defense are areas that I believe lay the groundwork for a successful team,” Schneider said. “We are obviously going to have the opportunity to coach some very talented athletes. Therein lays the challenge of meshing those very talented individuals into one very talented team. These young ladies have the opportunity to be involved in the developmental stages of USA basketball, and we as coaches are going to do everything that we can to help them prepare for the next level.”

She comes to her assignment with experience as a USA Basketball player and coach. As an athlete, she helped the USA to gold medals in the 1979 FIBA World Championship, the 1979 R. William Jones Cup and the 1980 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament and to a silver medal in the 1979 Pan American Games. Additionally, she was a member of the 1980 U.S. Women’s Olympic Basketball Team that did not compete in the 1980 Olympics that were held in Moscow. As a coach, she shared the head coach position for the 1982 USA Select Team that compiled a 2-1 record in Bolivia.

Additionally, she was the women’s basketball representative to the U.S. Olympic Committee from 1980-82 and was a court coach during the 1984 U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team Trials.

Since her arrival at Monterey, Schneider three times has been selected by her peers as the District 2-5A Coach of the Year (2000, 2002 and 2004), and in 2000 and 2011 she was chosen All-South Plains 4A/5A Coach of the Year by the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal  and as a Texas All-Star Game coach by the Texas Girls Coaches Association (TGCA).

Twice Schneider has been honored by Fox Sports Network as a “Coach Who Makes a Difference” when she was featured on “High School Extra” in 2002 and on “High School Scoreboard” in 2004. In July 2004, Schneider was selected by the TGCA as a coach for the Texas-Oklahoma All-Star game.

Schneider also has served as a board member and on the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) Hall of Fame committee for the past seven years.

She began her coaching career at the University of Tennessee where she was a student assistant under Pat Summitt.

Additionally, she served as an assistant coach for the University of Texas for five seasons (1981-82 to 1985-86) under Jody Conradt. In her last season at UT, the Lady Longhorns became the first women’s team to go undefeated to win an NCAA national championship in 1986.

After leaving Texas, Schneider was the head coach at Borger High School. In her 12 seasons there, her teams posted eight winning seasons and three playoff appearances. In 1994, her squad reached the Texas Class 4A state semifinals, and that same year she was inducted into the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame and was named Borger’s Citizen of the Year.

The TABC selected Schneider as the head coach of the 1994 North All-Star Team, and in 1996, she was the recipient of the Mike Newland Sportsmanship Award by the Amarillo Officials Association.

As a collegiate athlete, Schneider played at both Wayland Baptist University (1976-77 to 1978-79) and the University of Tennessee (1979-80).

She helped Wayland Baptist to a 31-5 mark as a freshman in 1976-77, a 33-5 record as a sophomore in 1977-78 and a 24-10 tally as a junior in 1978-79. Overall, she had an 88-20 record (.815 winning percentage) with the Flying Queens.

While at Wayland, Schneider was recognized as a Kodak All-American in 1979; a Hanes Underalls All-American and Street & Smith’s Preseason All-American in 1978 and 1979; as a National Scouting Association All-American in 1978; and a NWIT All-American in 1977.

Schneider holds or is tied for No. 1 in Wayland Baptist’s record book for single-game field goals made (20, tied) and attempted (35), single-season field goals made (410) and attempted (698), single-season rebounds (1,000) and single-season scoring average (29.4).

As a senior at Tennessee in 1979-80, she helped the Lady Vols compile a 33-5 record and reach the 1980 national championship game. She was again named to the Kodak All-American team (1980), making her one of a select few athletes to be named as one of the nation’s top ten players at two different universities. Additionally, she was tabbed the 1980 GTE Academic Award Player of the Year.

As a prep athlete, Schneider was a two-time all-state honoree at Phillips High School in Texas, where she led the team to a Class 2A state championship in 1976. She once scored 81 points in a game and still holds several state tournament scoring records.

Inducted into the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002, the Austin American Statesman named Schneider to its All-Time All-State Basketball Team in 1998, and in 1999 she was honored as one of the Top 100 Sports Legends of the Texas Panhandle by the Amarillo Globe-News.

In 2008, Schneider was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., and the University of Tennessee Lady Vol Hall of Fame; and in 1997 she was named to the All-Time GTE Academic All-American Team for colleges and universities.

She obtained a master’s degree in mathematics education from the University of Texas and currently teaches college algebra at Monterey.