Navy All-Patriot League guard Jennifer Coleman’s sparkling game speaks volumes about her ability and her love for basketball. Turns out, “volume” has always been an issue regarding her game thanks to her father, James Coleman.

“He was always the loudest one in the gym when I was playing,” Coleman laughed. “Then when I got to high school, I had to tell him, ‘Dad, just relax.’ He doesn’t say much during the games now, but he definitely helps me out after the games.”

James Coleman, his wife, Elsie, and eldest daughter, Jessica, can all relax at Jennifer’s games a bit more these days. Coleman is so good she leads the Mids with averages of 22.8 points, 10.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.8 steals per game, figures that also lead the Patriot League save assists, where she’s only second.

Better yet, Navy is beginning to plot a straighter course with two victories in the last four games. A 61-54 win against Loyola Feb. 5 pushed the Mids to 7-14 overall and 4-7 in the Patriot League. Coleman led the way with 16 points, 10 rebounds and four assists against the Greyhounds, her 16th double-double this year.

Navy sails into Lafayette Feb. 9 and on to Army Feb. 12 before coming home to meet American Feb. 16. If the Mids are going to make more waves in the Patriot League, they’ll look to their top player to man the battle stations.

Coleman is an end-to-end athlete with a great feel for the game, a maturity as a player beyond her years. No surprise that Dad made her watch video of old-school NBA workaholics like Michael Jordan and Dennis Rodman. She’s a grinder with a competitive drive and skills to back up her occasional trash-talking.

“She rebounds, she handles the ball, we post her up and she defends,” Navy head coach Tim Taylor said. “She has to do a little of everything for us to be successful. She’s just a playmaker.”

The Richmond, Va., native can trace her personal dominance on the court back to when she was 9 years old and playing in a recreation league where she was one of few girls hooping with the boys. At a skills competition, she won three trophies, including one-on-one and for shooting.

“I was just killing it and killing the guys,” she recalled. “That day really made me want to play.”

Dad remembers another pivotal day in Jennifer’s young career. In seventh grade she showed how serious she was about the game.

“We were worried maybe I was pushing her too much when she was younger, but I knew she wanted it when I stopped waking her up early to go work out and stopped arranging her time with a [personal] trainer,” James said. “She started getting up on her own to get me out for workouts and started making her own calls, setting her [training] schedule. That’s when I knew.”

Rough Seas Ahead

Taylor, who inherited Coleman and a program that hadn’t posted a winning season since 2017-18 when he came aboard last year, knew right away what he had in the flashy, 5-foot-9, do-it-all dynamo.

“She’s very competitive and she really wants to win,” said Taylor, who was previously a top assistant at North Carolina before taking the head job at Navy. “She really wants to be good and there are a lot of kids that feel that way, but Jennifer is willing to put in the time.”

Just how much does Coleman want to be good? Her trainer back home at DNA Fitness, Darryl Ellis, still uses tape of Coleman to show new students the level of intensity they should aspire to in their workouts.

Coleman has always made the most of her time, and time is often a commodity in short supply at a service academy. The regimented, demanding lifestyle drew Coleman, but it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. Losing weighed hard on her.

After a 110-8 record as a four-year starter at Highland Springs High School and three trips to the Virginia 5A state championship game, Coleman was part of 42 losses at Navy during her first two seasons.

“It got to the point where she wasn’t really happy,” her father said. “She almost walked away.”

A concussion her sophomore season pushed her off the court and took a toll on her classroom performance. Coleman was declared academically ineligible midway through the 2019-20 season and in such a bad place mentally, James and Elsie drove to Annapolis on a winter Wednesday to bring their youngest daughter back home.

But Coleman didn’t ride home that day. She unpacked some of her issues and returned to her team.

“The Academy is rigorous and hard, and she always thought basketball would be the enjoyable part for her,” the elder Coleman said. “But the basketball didn’t end up being joyful and it affected her. We talked it out, and she went in and talked to [the athletic director] and he said things were going to change. She decided to stick it out.”

The younger Coleman did more than that. One of her instructors had noted how exceptional her performance in his class had been prior to her head injury. He offered a chance for her to retake the class, something she had to do during second semester, fitting that extra work around an already-jam-packed 21-credit schedule.

Again, though, hard work didn’t deter Coleman. She used her daily lunch break and other free time she could muster to do the extra classwork and made an A, battling back to rejoin her teammates on the floor for the last five games of the 2019-20 season.

“It was a grind,” she said. “When everything was going down you couldn’t help but think what things might have been like at another school, but I believe things happen for a reason and I’ve grown from all these situations. It’s going to help me in my future.”

That future includes assignment next year as a Surface Warfare Officer on a major ship in the Naval fleet. Coleman got excited about such prospects the first time she set foot on Academy grounds. The environment at football games enticed her and “the sisterhood” among women athletes at Navy sealed the deal.

“It’s a family, a sisterhood because of all the hard work you go through and how much you grow,” she explained.

Taylor Makes Alterations in Her Game

The last two seasons, with Taylor at the helm, have seen even more growth and been a better personal environment for Coleman. The new coach immediately proved trustworthy.

“His initial call with me, one of the first things he said was ‘Jen, I believe in you,'” Coleman said. “I thought that was so important. All you need sometimes is a little belief.”

Coleman certainly needed belief because while Taylor loved her game, he saw flaws in her shot that he wanted to fix. Coleman almost slung the ball early in her career, moving it from the left side of her body to the right to shoot. Now she’s more compact and fluid with her stroke. Taylor talked about the time Coleman put in to make difficult changes and the trust it took. It’s the kind of building block with player that will serve Navy well moving forward. It also has had tangible benefit immediately.

“It has opened up the drive more, too,” Coleman said.

Now she and Taylor are both happy with the results and it has been full speed ahead. Her 44.2 percent shooting from behind the arc this season is far and away a career high. Her percentages from the field and free-throw line have also significantly improved the last two seasons. Her dreams of playing professionally, after her service commitment, are enhanced, too. If Coleman decides to go that way, don’t bet against her.

“She is reaping the benefits of all the hard work she is putting in,” Taylor said. “What makes her special is she wants to be good. She’s coachable. She wants to work at it, and those intangibles are going to make her very successful, not only on the court but in life.”

Time is a bigger basketball issue now, Coleman in her two final months of collegiate competition.

“I wish I had two more years,” she lamented, looking ahead at a great recruiting class coming in next year and looking back at time already well spent.

Photo Credit: Phil Hoffmann/Navy Athletics

Mike Ashley

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