Photo courtesy of JMCSS
Madison Academic will open the 2021-2022 basketball season in a new district lineup and with a new head coach. Jen Hicks has been selected to take over for Coach Shekia Allen as Allen will take on a district-level role in health and athletics. Hicks joins Madison after directing the girls basketball program at Shelbyville High School.
Prior to serving as head coach at Shelbyville, Hicks entered the high school head coaching ranks at Liberty Technology Magnet High School. It was her first head coaching post in a school environment. She started coaching in the AAU circuit during her senior year at Mars Hill University.
“That adjustment from AAU to high school is realizing some girls don’t have that desire to play at the college level and that’s ok. We’re still going to instill life lessons through the game of basketball that can help them no matter what they’re doing in life,” Hick said.
Hick is familiar with the basketball program at Madison. The Lady Mustangs made three appearances in the state tournament under Steve Patterson (2013, 2009, 2006); including a runner-up finish in 2009.
“When I was at Liberty Tech, Coach Patterson was running the program at Madison. I saw that you didn’t need a large roster of stars, but you had a couple of talented kids and you could roll with it and compete. I saw him do that. If we can build around those diamonds in the rough, we can have a lot of fun,” Hicks said.
Coach Hicks will be assisted by her husband, Andrew Hicks. Andrew was named head coach of the Madison boys basketball team Wednesday. Madison, Adamsville, Bolivar, Riverside and Scotts Hill make up the new District 13-AA lineup.
“Coaching together worked out better than we anticipated at Shelbyville,” Jen Hicks said. “We coached against Scotts Hill and Coach Tracy Chandler during our team camp at Shelbyville recently. It will be fun to compete in this district,” Hicks said.