Jenny Palmateer Jenny Palmateer will be looking to create more fond memories at Monmouth University as its women’s head basketball coach. As a high school basketball player at Hoffman High School (now South Amboy High School), she made some lasting memories at Monmouth.
Palmateer was introduced last Thursday as Monmouth’s seventh women’s head basketball coach, and she brings with her an extensive coaching as well as playing background to the West Long Branch campus. Palmateer played for and was an assistant head coach at North Carolina State for the late Kay Yow. She was also an assistant at the University of Virginia under Debbie Ryan, and last year she was the recruiting coordinator forAnne Donovan at Seton Hall University. All three coaches are Hall of Famers.
Palmateer was perfectly happy at Seton Hall, but when the Monmouth University position became open, the South Amboy native had to go for it.
“It’s such a great opportunity in many ways,” she said. “I get to stay in New Jersey at a great institution. The coaches support each other here.
“Iwanted to go somewhere where the team was successful [Monmouth was one game away from the NCAATournament, losing the Northeast Conference Tournament final],” she added. “It’s the total package to me.”
Palmateer replaces Stephanie Gaitley, who resigned to become the head coach at Fordham. She led the Hawks to a 23-10 season.
Coming to Monmouth also rekindled some fond memories of the university for Palmateer.
“I’ve come full circle,” she pointed out. “I hit the game-winning shot in the old gym [Boylan Gymnasium] that put us [Hoffman] in the Tournament of Champions final. I have great memories of Monmouth.”
It seems she was destined to coach at the college where she made such a memorable shot for Hoffman High School.
Hoffman would go on to win that TOC final in 1989, the first year the tourney was held. Palmateer, formerly Jenny Kuziemski (she married Terry Palmateer in 2002), had a brilliant high school career, scoring more than 1,000 points. Her teams won four state titles and the first-ever TOC.
After starring at Hoffman (four state titles and a TOC championship), Palmateer enjoyed a successful college career at North Carolina State University. The Wolfpack were 82-37 during her four-year career, won Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season and tournament titles, and twice made it to the round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament. She was a co-captain both her junior and senior years at North Carolina State.
After coaching in North Carolina for 20 years, Palmateer took the position at Seton Hall last year to return to New Jersey and be close to her family. She had no idea that a year later she would be the head coach at Monmouth University.
“I’m so excited,” she said. “I keep pinching myself to see if I still have the job.”
One of the first things that Palmateer did as the Hawks’ new head coach was ask her former high school coach, Reggie Carney, recently retired, to join her as an assistant. He jumped on board.
“We kept in touch over the years,” she said. “I always told him if I became a head coach I’d want him to coach with me.
“He’s a basketball junkie,” she added. “He has so much experience as a head coach. He’ll give me great advice. He’s got so may ties in New Jersey.”
As the recruiting coordinator for Seton Hall, Palmateer established her own ties in the state last year and will use them for recruiting.
“I love it [recruiting],” said Palmateer. “Recruiting is the lifeline of a program.”
Palmateer said she met the team last week and plans to have individual meetings with all the players this week and set up offseason training programs for them. Having missed the NCAA by a game last year, Palmateer said she has a very hungry group of players returning for next year.
As a coach, Palmateer said she wants to build a program that has true competitors who work hard in practice and games and also have fun doing it.
“I want people to see that win or lose, the team plays hard and gives an all-out effort,” she said.
The Hawks no longer play in the Boylan Gymnasium. Home court is now the Multipurpose Activities Center (MAC).
“The facility is unbelievable,” said Palmateer. “It has everything.”