Women's Basketball
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Email:
- jbogia@memphis.edu
- Phone:
- 901-678-4120
Jessica Bogia joined head coach Melissa McFerrin’s staff in July of 2013. Bogia works with the Tigers guards and brings a significant recruiting background with her.
“Jessica brings with her a great background in recruiting and analyzing basketball talent, along with a significant national recruiting network,” said McFerrin. “She already has recruiting contacts on the East Coast, in Ohio and in the Upper Midwest, including the Chicago area, all areas important in our recruiting plan here at the University of Memphis.”
In her six seasons in the Bluff City, Bogia has played a major role in the development of the Tigers guards. Bogia coached Ariel Hearn to back-to-back-to-back All-American Athletic Conference honors (2013-14 first-team; 2014-15 and 2015-16 second-team). Hearn also reached the 1,000-point milestone the fifth-quickest of any player in the program’s history.
She also played an instrumental role in a pair of All-AAC honors for guard Brea Elmore. Elmore, along with Cheyenne Creighton, earned third-team honors in 2016-17 and 2017-18 and became the 25th member of the 1,000-point club at Memphis in 2018.
Most recently, Bogia oversaw the development of AAC All-Rookie team member Jamirah Shutes. Shutes, who started 27 of the 29 games she played in 2018-19, led the Tigers in scoring with 13.9 points per contest, racking up 404 points as a true freshman. Shutes’ scoring total was the sixth-highest for a freshman in program history. The Brownsville, Tenn., native finished the season seventh in the AAC in scoring, leading all freshmen in the conference.
Guard play was also instrumental in the comeback bid in the first round of the AAC Championship. The Tigers, who trailed by 19 with nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, were led by Shutes’ 12 points, eight rebounds and six assists, as well as junior college transfer Gazmyne Herndon’s 15 points and seven rebounds in what was the greatest comeback in AAC Championship history.
On the recruiting path, Bogia helped bring in the highest-ranked recruiting class in the Melissa McFerrin era. With four incoming freshmen, including hometown talents Lanyce and Lanetta Williams and Madison Griggs, plus four junior college transfers, Memphis was able to land the 31st-ranked class in the country. The class also came in as the second-highest in the American, behind only UConn.
In her first season in 2013-14, Bogia had two guards — Mooriah Rowser and Breigha Wilder-Cochran — earn American Athletic Conference All-Freshman Team recognition.
Bogia was as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Eastern Illinois University for the 2012-13 season, helping the Panthers to an Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) co-championship and the WNIT second round. At Eastern Illinois, she guided two Panthers to All-OVC first team honors. She also served as the liaison between the academic department and the team.
She moved to Eastern Illinois after spending the 2011-12 season at the University at Buffalo as an assistant coach and assistant recruiting coordinator. There, she coached the guards and guided Brittany Hedderson to Mid-American Conference first team honors. She also spent part of 2011 as the head coach of the Philadelphia Belles 13U team.
Prior to her assistant position at Buffalo, Bogia served as the head women’s basketball coach at Keystone College from 2008-10. Under her guidance, the team doubled their win totals in her first season.
Her first head coaching job came on the heels of a one-season stint at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) in 2007-08, where she served as an assistant coach and as the department’s marketing director. At USMMA, she helped lead the Lady Lightning to a 12-win improvement and its best season in school history.
A graduate of Lafayette College (one in business and economics; another in government and law), Bogia has a significant background in developing elite level prep talent. She was an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Belles Nike National U16 Team in 2003-04, and then served as the Event Director of the U.S. Junior Nationals and the Blue Star National Invitational Camp in Las Vegas and Washington, D.C., with Blue Star Scouting Services from 2003-05.
Following the 2012-13 season at Eastern Illinois, Bogia returned to Blue Star Media as a consultant and evaluator, helping with player evaluations for the Blue Star Report.
She left Blue Star to take an assistant coaching position at Goldey-Beacom College in 2005, becoming an integral part of the third-largest turnaround in college basketball in the 2006-07 season. She also received her MBA from Goldey-Beacom.
Bogia is a native of Hockessin, Del.
