Jennifer Hoover has been named head women's basketball coach at High Point University, Athletic Director Craig Keilitz announced on Tuesday. Hoover was most recently the top assistant coach at California for three seasons, where she helped guide the Golden Bears to an NCAA Sweet 16 appearance and helped sign the nation's No. 1 recruiting class.

“We're extremely excited to name Jennifer Hoover as our new women's basketball coach,” said Keilitz. “She is a proven winner who has been successful at great academic and athletic institutions. She has great ties and a great understanding of this region as it relates to recruiting. We think she'll be a tremendous asset and role model for our current and future women's basketball players, both on and off the court.”

Hoover's assistant coaching career began in 1994 and includes stints at Cal, Virginia and Memphis. In three seasons as assistant at Cal, Hoover helped lead the Bears to a cumulative record of 69-36, its first-ever NCAA Sweet Sixteen in 2009 and the 2010 Women's NIT Championship. Prior to Cal, Hoover was associate head coach at Memphis, helping the team to more wins in 2007-08 than the previous two seasons combined. She spent four seasons at the University of Virginia, the final two as recruiting coordinator.

“Looking at what High Point University has to offer, it's an unbelievable opportunity for student-athletes to come here and flourish,” said Hoover. “With the success the team has had in the past and the amount of work and dedication we're going to put in, I'm confident we're going to bring championships to High Point. I'd like to thank President Qubein and Craig Keilitz for the opportunity to lead this program and work toward winning championships.”

A post player herself, Hoover has an impressive reputation for developing forwards at the highest level. Hoover was named one of the ACC's top-50 all-time players and is still Wake Forest's all-time leader in scoring and rebounding. She is the only Wake Forest player to surpass 1,000 career points and rebounds and was inducted to the school's Hall of Fame in 2002. Among the post players Hoover coached at Cal were All-Americans Ashley Walker and Devanei Hampton as well as All-Freshman selections DeNesha Stallworth and Gennifer Brandon.

At Cal, Hoover worked with all aspects of the program, including on-court coaching, recruiting and scouting and helped the Golden Bears to postseason appearances in all three of her seasons. She helped bring in back-to-back top 10 recruiting classes, including the No. 1 class in 2009.

Hoover went to Berkeley after spending the 2007-08 season as the associate head coach at Memphis and helped the Tigers make significant improvements in her one season.

After her first stint as an assistant coach at Memphis in 2002-03, Hoover spent four seasons at the University of Virginia and became the Cavaliers' recruiting coordinator for her final two years. She helped sign top-15 recruiting classes in 2005 and 2006 and helped the team to two 20-win seasons, an NCAA appearance and two WNIT berths. She helped Virginia ink junior college All-American center Aisha Mohammed and the 2006-07 ACC Rookie of the Year, Monica Wright. Wright also was a McDonald's All-American. While at Virginia, Hoover coached under Hall of Famer Debbie Ryan.

Hoover started her coaching career at the University of Missouri-Kansas City from 1994-96, then became an assistant at Virginia Commonwealth for two seasons (1996-98). She then spent two seasons at East Carolina (1998-00) before moving on to James Madison (2000-02), where she helped the Dukes to the WNIT Final Four.

Hoover then made her first stop at Memphis in 2002-03, where she recruited and coached the Lady Tigers' post players. She also oversaw academics and the mentor program until she left in August of 2003 to join Ryan's staff at Virginia.

As a player, Hoover was a three-time All-ACC selection at Wake Forest and still holds the Wake Forest career records for points (1,728) and rebounds (1,006). She was also a member of the ACC Academic Honor Roll and was a member of the South team that won the bronze medal at the 1989 Olympic Festival in Oklahoma City, Okla. She helped Wake Forest to the second round of the 1988 NCAA Tournament. Hoover graduated from Wake Forest in 1991 with a degree in communications.

Following her collegiate playing career (1987-91), Hoover played professionally overseas for the Solna IF Basketball Team in Stockholm, Sweden, from 1991-92. She played the 1993 season with Athletes in Action on the USA Fall Exhibition Tour and the Australian spring tour before starting her coaching career.

Hoover married her husband, John, in 2000 and the two have one daughter, five-year-old Maggie.