Why both trips to Kansas City in past month brought a smile to KC Roos’ new hoops coach
The timing was slightly off for UMKC.
The woman introduced as the school’s new women’s basketball coach on Wednesday — Dionnah Jackson-Durrett — was in Kansas City a week before the position opened.
Jackson-Durrett was Texas’ associate head coach, and the Longhorns were putting the finishing touches on a Big 12 tournament title, upsetting Baylor in the championship game at Municipal Auditorium.
While UMKC athletic director Brandon Martin was starting his search for a new coach to replace Jacie Hoyt, who had been hired as Oklahoma State’s head coach, the Longhorns had embarked on an NCAA Tournament quest, reaching the Elite Eight.
“We had a phone conversation during the run, and we connected really fast,” Jackson-Durrett said. “But I like to be locked in with what we (Texas) were doing. I owed it to the players, and they deserved that.”
After the Longhorns were stopped one game short of the Final Four, Martin traveled to Austin to meet with Jackson-Durrett. He soon offered her the job, and she accepted.
So it was quite a month in Kansas City for Jackson-Durrett: cut down nets, and then, a few weeks later, be introduced as the KC Roos’ next head coach.
Jackson-Durrett might be a first-time head coach, but she’s arriving with an impressive background. In Austin, she was the top aid to UT head coach Vic Schaefer. She came to Texas with Schaefer from Mississippi State, which reached the NCAA championship game in 2017 and 2018.
Now she has a program of her own, one that is coming off a 23-9 season and third-place finish in the Summit League.
“My journey has led me to this moment,” Jackson-Durrett said. “From my playing days to my coaching days, understanding how to do things the right way.
“So I was very comfortable going from working for Coach Schaefer these last years to begin searching for a head-coaching job, and now being a head coach.”
Southeast Missouri was the first coaching stop for the St. Louis native. She’s also worked at George Mason, and having that mid-major experience should provide the right muscle memory as she transitions from a university whose athletic revenues of $150 million in 2021 were about 10 times greater than UMKC’s.
It’s not only possible, but to Jackson-Durrett, expected, to build and maintain Power Five ambitions on a mid-major budget.
“I’ve been at this level,” she said. “You get a staff that’s willing to work, that knows how to grind and become creative. That’s what we have.”
Her new assistant coaches fit the bill. Associate head coach Jessica Grayson comes from Oklahoma State and spent several years in the Ohio Valley Conference. The most recent job for Paul Fessler, also an associate head coach, was at Bradley, and he also spent 16 seasons as the head coach at Division II Concordia-St. Paul. Assistant Sandra Abston played at Georgia Tech and Emporia State and coached at North Dakota State.
As a player, Jackson-Durrett was a point guard. A first-round WNBA Draft selection, she spent most of her professional career in Israel and Switzerland. She was a two-time all-state player at Parkway West High, and the most outstanding player of the 2004 Big 12 tournament while playing for Oklahoma and coach Sherri Coale.
On the court, she ran the team. And now, for the first time, she’ll run a program.
This story was originally published April 12, 2022 at 3:24 PM.