EKU assistant coach Alexander returns to basketball, home following Army stint
RICHMOND, Ky. (BVM) — Eastern Kentucky University women’s basketball assistant coach Jackie Alexander has helped the Colonels run practices with military-like efficiency. This is no coincidence. Alexander, who has been a member of the coaching staff for the past year, once was a leader in a much different environment, serving as an Army officer from 2014-2017 and eventually reaching the rank of captain.
A native of Brodhead, Ky., Alexander was not expecting to take this route to her basketball coaching career. In fact, when Alexander first began high school at Rockcastle County, she certainly didn’t have her mind on joining the armed forces.
“I had no intentions of ever being in the military to be honest with you,” Alexander said with a laugh. “If somebody had asked me at the beginning of my junior year and the end of my sophomore year if I was interested in being in the military, I probably would’ve said ‘heck no.’”
During her time at Rockcastle County, Alexander put the small school on the basketball map. She lettered for the Lady Rockets all four years of high school and helped lead the team to three 47th district titles and two 12th region championships in 2008 and 2010. It was during the 2010 season that Alexander brought notoriety to the program.
As a senior, Alexander led Rockcastle County back to the Kentucky High School Athletics Association tournament for the second time in three years and scored a game-high 20 points to push the Lady Rockets past Murray High School in the first round, marking the program’s first win at the tournament. Rockcastle County wasn’t done there, as the next day Alexander added 23 points and eight rebounds in a win over George Rogers Clark High School, further extending the team’s historic run.
Though the team would lose in the semifinal round against Scott County High School, the impact left by the Lady Rockets could be felt all throughout Rockcastle County.
“For us to be able to go there and win not only one game, but two games and then kind of make it to the final four was something,” Alexander said. “Where I’m from it’s very rural. The only thing going on if there’s a basketball game going on is the basketball game. The whole town is going to be in the gym. Everybody kind of rallied around us so it was pretty incredible to be a part of that.”
Over her four seasons with the Lady Rockets, Alexander, a 5-foot-10 forward, averaged 16.8 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists. During her senior campaign, Alexander was a participant in the Kentucky all-star game and scored her 1,000th career point during the regional championship. For her efforts, Alexander earned a scholarship to play Division I basketball, only the third player in Rockcastle County program history to do so, when she signed to play at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
“When West Point started recruiting me at that time it was the No. 1 school in the country in the Forbes academic rankings,” Alexander said. “I had a couple offers to play D-I regionally, but when I started comparing the opportunity at West Point to the opportunities at those other schools it was just a no brainer.”
However, the first year at Army weighed heavily on the young athlete. It was a culture shock and one she felt she couldn’t overcome, and so she made the decision to leave.
“I was young and immature,” Alexander said looking back on her decision. “With your freshman year there come a lot of changes as far as life changes. … When the school year started, I was a typical freshman. I was homesick. … I transferred really quick and I remember on the plane ride home thinking, ‘What have I done? Why did I make this decision?’ Just because of the opportunity I had not only athletically, but academically as well.”
Rather than being deterred by this change in her life, Alexander picked herself up by her bootstraps and signed on to play the rest of her college basketball at the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky., bringing her back home.
Although she would try to reapply into the military academy following her sophomore year, Alexander was rejected due to a smaller incoming class.
“I didn’t make the cut,” Alexander said. “Why would they let me in when someone else who was just as competitive as I was didn’t have that opportunity yet?”
But this did not stop her from missing a beat on the court. During her time with the Patriots, Alexander was named team captain as both a junior and senior and was a two-time All Mid-South Conference selection and a two-time NAIA Academic All-American, scoring nearly 1,000 points in just three seasons.
“I think I’m not someone who wallows in self-pity,” Alexander said. “I think everybody has those moments where they get sad or disappointed, but I don’t really let myself stay in that place too long. … I just always wanted to be the best no matter what I was going to do.”
It was during her time at the university that Alexander was presented with a new opportunity. Alexander, following her failed attempt to return to West Point, joined Cumberlands’ ROTC program her junior year. Although she would have to balance her love of her sport with her love for service, she was able to while also excelling in the classroom, though she admitted she didn’t have much free time. But Alexander still has no regrets.
“I felt like something was missing,” Alexander said on joining the ROTC. “It was the best decision I ever made to do that.”
Upon graduating with a bachelor’s degree in biology and minors in Spanish and military science in 2014, Alexander was commissioned as a second lieutenant through the EKU Army ROTC into the United States Army, completing her goal.
During her nearly four years of service, Alexander served mostly at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. In 2016, Alexander sought out a new unit that would ensure her deployment to go to Iraq.
“I didn’t want to get out of the Army without having done a deployment,” Alexander said. “I felt I would be unfulfilled if I had done time and didn’t deploy because that’s what you’re always training for. Your entire experience you are getting ready for that environment. … I still remember the flight landing in Kuwait, the boots hitting the ground and you’re like ‘Oh my goodness.’”
During her Iraq deployment, Alexander served as the executive officer for Zulu Company, where she helped coordinate training and movement of personnel and supplies throughout the area. While completing her service at Fort Campbell, Alexander got an itch to return to basketball, not as a player, but this time as a coach.
“I think my whole life I wanted to coach,” Alexander said. “It was always my passion. I always wanted to do it. I was just kind of afraid it wouldn’t work out for me.”
Alexander had served briefly as an assistant girls basketball coach at Northwest High School in Clarksville, Tenn. and for the Clarksville SOL AAU team during breaks in her service from 2015-2017, but she yearned for more. Following her service, Alexander became the video coordinator for the women’s basketball team at the United States Air Force Academy.
During her time at the academy, Alexander would meet Samantha Williams, who was coaching at Louisville at the time, when she worked with the coach to coordinate a campus tour for the team. The chance encounter would play dividends in the future as after a year working as the director of operations and interim assistant coach at the University of Albany for the 2018-2019 basketball season, Alexander would hear the news that Williams had agreed to become the head coach at Eastern Kentucky. As fate would have it, Louisville would be in Albany for the Sweet 16 and Alexander took her shot, sending an email to the coach she had once met and ultimately getting to sit down with Williams.
“To be honest I didn’t have a lot of interaction with the coaching staff one on one (at Air Force),” Alexander said. “But it kind of just goes to show you that she was watching and how you carry yourself and how you act, how professional you are, people notice those things. … We were able to meet face to face and honestly I told her why I wanted to be on her staff and why I wanted to work for her.”
Now with just over a year of experience, Alexander has been able to fully immerse herself into the culture at Eastern Kentucky. She is still learning her way through the coaching ropes, admitting her military intensity may sometimes be too much for her players, but said she is working on it. Her military experiences have also helped her be extremely organized while also able to balance all the additional work coaches do. At the end of the day, Alexander lives by the mottos “It’s about the mission first” and “No individual is greater than the mission.” As she grows at Eastern Kentucky, she is just enjoying the ride and hopes it will be a long one.
“I’ve learned so much,” Alexander said. “I think having the opportunity to be on the court with players is something that I’ve wanted for so long so finally having that opportunity is awesome. I love my job. There is never really a day I dread going to work. … I’ve been really lucky to spend the last year here and hopefully many more to come.”
Though she is only about 30 minutes away from her hometown, Alexander’s path back home was a complex one, taking her from West Point to Kentucky to Iraq and back. Alexander wouldn’t have it any other way.
