Tennessee State hires Jessica Kern as new women's coach

By AP
Published

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Tennessee State has hired Jessica Kern as the Tigers' new women's basketball coach.

Athletic director Teresa Phillips announced the hiring Wednesday. Kern will be the 11th head coach in the program's history.

Kern was head coach for one season at Mississippi Valley State, which ranked in the Top 25 of most improved Division I women's programs. She also was an assistant at Furman and Wisconsin-Milwaukee and head coach at Division II Lincoln in Pennsylvania. Kern was an assistant and recruiting coordinator at Arkansas-Pine Bluff in 2008-10.

She played basketball at Penn State.

Kern replaces Larry Joe Inman, who resigned last month after going 65-80 the past five seasons. An NCAA Tournament berth in 2015 was the program's first in 20 years.