UIC Women's Basketball Coach Lisa Ryckbosch Signs Contract Extension

Aug. 6, 2008

CHICAGO - University of Illinois at Chicago athletic director Jim Schmidt announced on Tuesday, Aug. 5 that head women's basketball coach Lisa Ryckbosch has signed a two-year contract extension that will keep her at UIC through the 2010-11 season.

"As great as it has been to guide the program to a certain level of success, we are just getting started," said Ryckbosch. "Our goal is to win a Horizon League Championship and gain an NCAA berth on a year-by-year basis."

"Lisa and her staff have great passion for their student-athletes' welfare and academics," said Schmidt. "We have a great nucleus returning who should get us back to the top of the league."

UIC's women's basketball program has reached milestones in six seasons under Ryckbosch, who is just two victories away from becoming the school's all-time winningest coach. She has accumulated 88 wins since 2002-03 while guiding the Flames to second-place finishes in the Horizon League on two occasions.

Prior to a rebuilding season last year, the Flames had a record-breaking campaign in 2006-07. UIC broke school records in wins (19), consecutive victories (11), points (2,184), three-pointers made (200) and total assists (492) in a season and went on to make its first-ever postseason appearance at the 2007 WNIT. Ryckbosch also had three seniors complete their fine careers by reaching the 1,000-point plateau that year.

"The achievements of that season served as a milestone that proved the program had taken a major step forward," said Ryckbosch. "We can talk about the things we plan to achieve, but for the first time in the history of the program, we could hang our hat on a postseason appearance."

In Ryckbosch's first year at the helm of the program in 2002-03, the Flames jumped from a seventh-place conference finish the year before to a program-best second-place league finish.

Ryckbosch has produced 12 All-Horizon League performers at UIC, including returning junior guard Jessie Miller (Burnsville, Minn./Academy of Holy Angels).

"It has been very gratifying to watch our program improve and grow," said Ryckbosch. "Those things take time to surface, and now that it has been six years, I am very proud to step back and realize that we have done things no other UIC women's basketball program has done."

Along with the team's unprecedented on-court achievements under their tutelage, Ryckbosch and her coaching staff have helped players achieve goals off the court following graduation.

"Equally gratifying is to see the success our student-athletes have had after attending UIC," said Ryckbosch. "We have nurses and architects working in the world, as well as young women who were the first in their families to graduate from college. Ultimately, we have student-athletes who are now putting the lessons they learned in basketball to a productive use in their lives."

--Story provided by the UIC office of sports information.