Jody Powell joined the W&J women's basketball coaching staff for the 2021-22 season.
Powell helped W&J to PAC regular season and PAC Tournament titles in 2021-22. The Presidents finished with a 23-5 overall mark and a 17-1 record in PAC play. The PAC tournament title was the first for W&J since 2006. The Presidents qualified for the 2022 NCAA Tournament, which was their first NCAA apperance since 2010. Junior forward Victoria Koeck earned PAC Defensive Player of the Year award.
Powell served as Associate Head Coach at Chatham University during the 2020-21 academic year. Coach Powell has amassed experience at the collegiate and high school levels. Powell led Moon High School to the WPIAL Class 5A Playoffs in 2020. Prior to that, she spent four years at Seton Keough High School in Baltimore, Maryland. Powell inherited a Seton Keough team that lost the entire starting five of Division I recruits to graduation. She quickly built a competitive team that regularly finished in the top four of the highly competitive Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland (IAAM). Coach Powell was also awarded the coveted IAAM Coach of the Year award. Seton Keough finished ranked #12 in the state of Maryland by the Baltimore Sun in 2015.
Powell served as the head coach at D. W. Daniel High School in South Carolina from 2007-2011. While at Daniel, she boasted an overall record of 76-16, won the South Carolina Upper State Championship, and made it to the state championship game in three short years. She garnered a South Carolina Region 1 title as well as two Coach of the Year awards.
Before taking her talents to the high school level, Powell spent time as a Division 1 assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at two east coast universities. Coach Powell was part of a University of Rhode Island program that was an Atlantic 10 Tournament semifinalist and earned an A-10 NIT selection. In 1995, Powell joined a Manhattan College program that finished the season as Mid Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Champions and an NCAA Tournament appearance.
Jody Thornton-Powell is a native of Pittsburgh and a graduate of North Catholic High School, where she was a member of three WPIAL championship teams, two PIAA state championship teams, and earned a Fabulous Five selection. She played at Division I American University where she is a 1999 Hall of Fame inductee. She currently holds the all-time assist record at AU. Powell is married to Andre Powell, who is the Running Back Coach/Special Teams Coordinator with the University of Pittsburgh's football program. They have three children - Andre, Alayna, and Mikala.
