Jenna Burkett joined the High Point University women’s basketball staff as an assistant coach in June 2013. Burkett was most recently an assistant coach at Stetson and previously worked at Lenoir-Rhyne and James Madison.
In her five seasons at High Point, the Panthers have won a Big South regular season title and advanced to the Big South Tournament Championship twice. The team is 86-71 overall, 63-33 in conference play and 47-23 in the Millis Center.
Under Burkett’s tutelage, Kaylah Keys became HPU’s Division I scoring leader as well as the program’s D-I record holder in three-pointers, field goals and free throws made. Keys was named Big South Freshman of the Year in 2013-14 and was a member of the all-conference team. The guard led the Big South in scoring (15.1 ppg) in 2015-16 and earned second team all-league honors. As a senior, Keys locked down another second team selection to become the second Panther to make an All-Big South Team in three different seasons.
Similarly, Burkett helped Emma Bockrath go from runner-up for Big South Freshman of the Year in 2015-16 to the conference’s player of the year as a sophomore. Bockrath became HPU’s third winner and the conference’s seventh sophomore to earn the honor. Meanwhile, she’s the fourth Panther to earn All-Big South First Team honors on multiple occasions.
In each of the past three seasons, the Panthers have rewritten the record book in free throw shooting, while their three-point effort in 2016-17 also topped HPU’s single-season record.
Burkett spent the 2012-13 season at Stetson where she helped the Hatters to a 24-9 record, the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship, and a no. 14 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Burkett worked primarily with the guards at Stetson, coaching a pair of All-Atlantic Sun honorees – Victoria McGowan and Shania Sanders.
Prior to her arrival at Stetson, Burkett served as an assistant coach at Lenoir-Rhyne while working toward her MBA from 2010-12. While at Lenoir-Rhyne, Burkett oversaw all on-floor instruction of guard player development, and coached first team All-South Atlantic Conference and All-American candidate Cameron Sealey for both the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons. She was a staff member of the 2010-11 All-South Atlantic Conference Coach of the Year Todd Starkey.
From 2008-10, Burkett served as the Director of Operations at James Madison University under head coach Kenny Brooks. While Burkett was at JMU, the Dukes advanced to the second round of the WNIT in 2009 and won the Colonial Athletic Association championship and participated in the NCAA Tournament in 2010.
Burkett was a four-year letterwinner at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, Pa., from 2003-07. During her career she set the school record for most three-pointers made (208) and three-pointers attempted (607), and her 114 games played ranked second best in program history. She was also a starter on the 2007 Colonial team that won a school-record 24 games, captured the Northeast Conference Championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
Originally from Altoona, Pa., Burkett graduated from Robert Morris in 2007 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing. She also received her MBA from Lenoir-Rhyne in 2012.
