Jackie Slaats Will Resign as Forester Basketball Coach after 22 Seasons
Slaats will remain Lake Forest College’s Athletic Director and assume senior advisory role

Jackie Slaats

The Foresters are 373-130 in Slaats’ 22nd year as head coach and she entered the season ranked 20th in NCAA Division III history with a .739 career winning percentage. Slaats has led the team to a 208-69 mark in Midwest Conference play and league championships in 1992, 1994, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2007. She has been named MWC Coach of the Year six times since 1995, the first year of the award, and has also earned five Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year honors. Before assuming athletic director responsibilities in 1992, Slaats served as the College’s head volleyball coach and posted a six-year record of 100-84.

Lake Forest currently owns an 8-1 record and was recently ranked 14th in the nation by D3hoops.com and 15th in the USA Today/ESPN/WBCA Coaches Poll. The early-season victories come on the heels of the most successful year in team history. The 2006-07 squad won a school record 24 games against just three losses, claimed the program’s sixth Midwest Conference championship, and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Foresters also rattled off a program-best 18 consecutive victories late in the season and have now won 26 of their last 28 contests.

Slaats will take on various major assignments of College-wide importance in her new role as Senior Advisor to the President. The first of these will involve fundraising for the proposed expansion of the Sports Center and renovation of the ice rink, which will provide exciting new recreation and athletic facilities for students, faculty, and staff, as called for in the College’s Five Year Plan. She will also advise College President Stephen D. Schutt in a range of other areas, including campus and community relations, alumni engagement, auxiliary business development, long-term planning, and other special projects and strategic initiatives.

“This was obviously an extremely difficult and emotional decision,” stated Slaats. “I can’t begin to describe how enjoyable and rewarding coaching has been over the last 22 years. I also relish my role as athletic director and look forward to the new opportunities as Senior Advisor to the President. If there were more hours in a day, I would continue in all three capacities, but unfortunately that is not the case. The growing demands of my current positions, along with the exciting prospect of fundraising and building new recreation and athletic facilities that will benefit the entire Lake Forest College community, made the timing right for this decision. Although I’m sad about ending my coaching career, I’m excited about working with President Schutt and the opportunities that lie ahead for me professionally.”

“I know I speak for the entire College and all of Jackie’s current and former players in expressing gratitude for her dedicated and successful coaching for more than two decades,” begins Schutt. “Her accomplishments as Athletic Director have been equally exceptional and the skills she uses in that capacity will be valuable to the entire College as she assumes this important advisory position.”

Slaats, a native of Cuba City, Wisconsin, received her undergraduate degree from Iowa State University and a master’s degree in education from the University of Wisconsin –Whitewater. As a student-athlete at Iowa State, Slaats was a four year varsity basketball letter winner and a three-time recipient of a Big 8 academic award.