Jenna Santi Joins Roosevelt As New Assistant Coach

CHICAGO – Roosevelt women's basketball head coach Deon Thomas announced Jenna Santi as the program's new assistant coach Monday.

Santi joins the Lakers after spending her entire collegiate and professional career at William Penn University in Iowa. The native of Oak Creek, Wisconsin played four seasons for the Statesmen from 2015-19 then joined the staff as a graduate assistant after wrapping up her playing career. After one season as the graduate assistant, Santi was promoted to a full-time assistant coach for one season before spending the past two seasons as the William Penn head coach.

"Jenna fills a critical role in our program and it's an honor to welcome her to our staff," Thomas said. "Jenna's experience made her the ideal candidate to help us continue to build our program to a championship level."

Santi was 14-44 in her two seasons at the helm of her own program, but coached five players to all-conference honors for the Statesmen. In her two seasons as an assistant, Santi helped mentor all-conference players, including four who also earned All-American laurels. In addition, four of her players were named NAIA Scholar-Athletes this past season and six earned the accolade during her time as an assistant.

In her playing career, Santi helped William Penn reach two NAIA Tournaments, winning the Heart of America Athletics Conference regular-season title once and winning the conference tournament once. She was a two-time all-conference honorable mention selection and averaged 6.4 points and 4.4 assists per game in her final two seasons at William Penn. Santi was also twice a all-conference Scholar-Athlete and a two-time NAIA Scholar-Athlete for her work in the classroom.

"I want to thank Coach Thomas, (Vice President of Athletics and Student Success) Mike (Cassidy) and the rest of the Roosevelt leadership team for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the bright future of the Lakers women's basketball program," Santi said. "I'm excited to get to work and help fulfill Coach Thomas' vision of success for this program on the court!"

The Lakers are coming off a 12-15 campaign last season that included the team's first postseason appearance in seven years. Roosevelt is scheduled to return two of its four leading scorers from a year ago, including leading scorer Jayla Turchin.