WBB WINS ZIPPY CUP!!!

Last night The University of Akron held its welcome back picnic for all the athletic teams. It was a great night filled with good food and fun games. To cap off the evening Athletic Director Tom Wistrcill announced the recipent of last year's Zippy Cup Winners. The Zippy Cup is an competiition amongest all the athletic teams. The compeition is based on hours of community service, academic standards, and supporting other athletic teams. We are pleased to announce that our team took top honors! Our team did 678 hours of community service last year! This is a great accomplishment and we are so proud of our girls for all the work they have done off the court! With winning the Zippy Cup we received a trophy and a 1,000 check that will be used for our program!

Zips Welcome New Staff Members!!!

Head Coach Jodi Kest has announced the hiring of assistant coach Ashley Armstrong and graduate assistant Tyler Tully to the women's basketball staff. Armstrong joins the Zips after spending last season as the director of women's basketball operations at Rice University, while Tully previously served as the video coordinator for the Rutgers women's basketball program.

"We are very excited to have Ashley as part of our Akron basketball family," said Coach Kest. "She will bring instant enthusiasm, passion and a winning attitude to our program. Ashley has been a part of successful programs in high school and college, and we believe that success will carry over to our program." Her major responsibilities for the Zips will be equipment and scheduling, assisting with recruiting and scouting, and working with the guards.

"I am really looking forward to joining a program that is on the upswing," said Armstrong. "Coach Kest has brought her successful ways to Akron and has already done so much to bring Akron women's basketball to the top. I am thrilled to be a part of a program and team that will work its way to the top and find a way to stay there. It is especially rewarding to be able to return to my home state, particularly northeast Ohio. This should prove to be nothing short of an exciting and winning season."

Joining the staff as a graduate assistant, Tully hails from Cincinnati, Ohio. As the video coordinator at Rutgers, Tully was responsible for all of the team's video needs, including opponent and self scouting, film exchange and assisting the office in day-to-day internal operations.

"We are very lucky to have Tyler on our staff," said Kest. "He is very experienced, and his knowledge of video production will be a great asset to our team."

My Summer- Jasmine

My name is Jasmine Mushington and I am a member of the University of Akron Women’s basketball team. During the summer I spent 3 weeks at home with my family. During this time I hung out with my friends, went on vacation to the beach and spent quality time with my family. Once I got back to school I moved in my apartment with my roommates Natasha and Denver. Although, I was at summer school I was also working out and completing 300 hours for my internship. The organization I interned with was the Mental Health Recovery and Services Board of Stark County. As an intern at MHRSB I did a lot of projects and assignments. I sat in on over 25 job interviews, updated performance appraisals, updated attendance records, formatted forms that were in the hand book but the company did not have yet, created spread sheets for resumes that where coming in and did many revisions on the hand book.

New Weightroom!!!

We have shown you some of the pictures of the construction of the new team lounge. Now it's time to show you some pics of our brand new weightroom. This weightroom will be located in the JAR right next to the team lounge. This weightroom will be used by both the men's and women's basketball teams as well as women's volleyball. We are excited about our new additions and can't wait to show you the final project!

My Summer- Tasha

My name is Natasha Williams and I am part of the University of Akron women’s basketball team. During this summer I spent about a month home with my family. I would hang out with my friends, play basketball and relax at home. Once I returned back to school for the summer, I moved in with my two roommates Jasmine and Denver. While at some school, I am doing basketball summer workouts and I also had an internship with the Stow Police Department.

During the internship, I did ride-a-longs with the police, went to the courthouse, worked with the youth services program, and spent a day in dispatch. The ride-a-longs were fun and interesting. We arrested several people and gave people speeding tickets. At the courthouse, I had the opportunity to sit in on cases and to meet the judges and magistrates. I went to the Stow area middle schools and talked to the children. I also got an opportunity to work at the dispatch where I got to listen to the police calls. Between my internship and summer workouts, this took up most of my time during the first summer session.

Team GPA Among Best In The Nation!!!

The University of Akron women's basketball program was recognized by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) for its 3.405 team GPA. This ranked the team 14th nationally.

"I'm very proud of our team and excited for our program," said Kest. "To be ranked 14th in the country academically among all Division I programs shows how committed our young ladies are both on and off the court. All the hard work and dedication has paid off, and we are very lucky to be surrounded by outstanding academic support at The University of Akron."

The WBCA Academic Top 25 annually recognizes NCAA Divisions I, II and III; NAIA; and junior college/community college teams across the nation that carry the highest combined grade point averages (GPAs) inclusive of all student-athletes on their rosters for the entire season. The 2010-11 season is the 14th in which the WBCA has presented the standings.

A team's GPA is calculated by dividing the total number of quality points earned by the total number of hours attempted by all team members in the academic terms (semesters or quarters) that the season spans. Weighted grades are converted to a 4.0 scale. The GPAs are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point. Teams are nominated for the honor by a WBCA-member head coach. A team must have a 3.000 or better GPA to be nominated.