KARYN Ridgeway
Women's Basketball Head Coach

Coaching record following 2002 season:
MSU Billings (2 years): 40-15

Karyn Ridgeway recently finished her second year at the helm of the Lady Yellowjackets.  Her 2002 squad finished the season with a 23-5 mark and the No. 3 ranking in the NCAA West Region.   After leading the Jackets to a 17-10 record in her first season, her second year saw Ridgeway guide MSU Billings to its seventh NCAA Tournament appearance since 1994.  

Ridgeway and the Jackets played a diverse schedule in 2001-02..  That schedule took them to such places as California, Washington, Alaska, Texas, Nebraska, and New Mexico to showcase their talents.  The Yellowjackets proved up to the challenge, posting a 12-5 record on the road.

Ridgeway has been involved as an athlete or coach with the game of basketball for over 20 years. It goes way beyond X's and O's, and wins and losses. Ridgeway sees the game as a means of learning life's lessons.

"It is about developing courage to embark on new challenges, and about having faith to stick it out through tough times," says Ridgeway. "It is about getting an education and learning to prepare for success, whether it be on the basketball court or outside of athletics with family and careers."

Ridgeway is no stranger to success in the Big Sky State. She has deep roots with Montana basketball that were first set as an all-state player for Hellgate high school in Missoula. After high school, she continued her playing career as a member of the University of Montana Lady Grizzlies basketball team under current head coach, Robing Selvig. While at U of M (1985-88), Ridgeway set a single-game assist record (1987), started at guard (1988) and was selected to the Big Sky Conference all-academic team (1988). In her senior season, the team went an amazing 29-2, and was eliminated from the NCAA tournament by Stanford in a second round overtime thriller. That Cardinal squad was the same team that went on to win the national championship one year later, and featured Jennifer Azzi, now a member of the Utah Starzz in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).

Ridgeway's next stop came in Bozeman, where she served as a volunteer assistant coach for the MSU-Bozeman Lady Bobcats. Ridgeway worked for head coach Judy Spoelstra, who is now head coach at Oregon State. During Ridgeway's one year with MSU-Bozeman (1992-93), the team wrestled the Big Sky Conference title away from the University of Montana.  Ridgeway's first head coaching call came from Dillon, where she coached at Western Montana College for three seasons, from 1993-95. Her 1994-95 team finished 15-13, and made the Lady Bulldogs' first appearance in the championship game of the Frontier Conference tournament.

Before coming to Billings, Ridgeway led the Lady Mountaineers as head coach at Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado (1997-99). This NCAA Division II program made remarkable strides towards competing for the conference championship in those three years. Ridgeway's teams produced six all-conference players for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

In addition to her coaching duties at MSU Billings, coach Ridgeway teaches in the Biology department. She "truly enjoys teaching," and at previous colleges has taught microbiology, cell biology, exercise physiology and general biology classes for both majors and non-majors.  Ridgeway earned her master's of science in plant pathology from MSU-Bozeman, and her bachelor's in microbiology from the University of Montana.

Her history of excellence with basketball and academics will enable Ridgeway to mesh well with the current student-athletes in the MSU Billings program.

"The Lady 'Jacket program at MSU Billings has experienced great success in the recent past," says Ridgeway. "We are all currently united in our goals to maintain a high level of excellence in the classroom and on the basketball court."