In her first year of eligibility, Lake Forest College Director of Athletics and former Head Women's Basketball Coach Jackie Slaats will be inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame at the organization's annual banquet on May 2. The ceremony will be held at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois.
Slaats, who served as the team's head coach from 1986-2008, compiled an overall record of 386-133 and a Midwest Conference mark of 220-71 in 22 seasons. Lake Forest won at least 14 games in all but her first season and posted 20 or more victories eight times, including back to back 24-3 and 21-4 seasons, a MWC conference championship, and NCAA second round appearance in her final two seasons. Her .744 career winning percentage ranks 23rd in NCAA Division III women's basketball history.
Under Slaats' direction, Lake Forest reached the conference championship game 10 times and claimed titles in 1992, 1994, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2007. The Foresters advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 1994, hosted a first round game in 2001, and reached the second round at home in 2007. The 1992 title was the first conference championship in Lake Forest women's basketball history, the 1994 season marked the College's first ever NCAA appearance in women's basketball, and the 2006-07 season marks the highest winning percentage and NCAA finish in team history.
Slaats was named Coach of the Year six times by the MWC and five by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association. Her players were named all-conference 54 times during her tenure with 33 first-team citations and three MWC Player of the Year honors. Additionally, Slaats coached the winner of the 2001 Jostens Trophy, which is given annually to the nation's most outstanding NCAA Division III women's basketball student-athlete. Four All-Americans have come through Slaats's program and eight of players she coached are members of the Forester Athletic Hall of Fame.
A native of Cuba City, Wisconsin, Slaats helped lead Cuba City High School to three conference titles and the 1980 state championship before playing four years at Iowa State University. She graduated from Iowa State in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in physical education and began her head coaching career at Lake Forest the next fall. Slaats added a master's degree in education from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 1992, just prior to taking over as Lake Forest's Director of Athletics.
Slaats was also inducted into the Forester Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2012.
The Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame was founded in 1973 to honor the best and most influential players, teams, coaches, media, officials, and friends of basketball in Illinois history. Since then, a new Hall of Fame class has been inducted every year. To be eligible, a coach must be retired for at least five years and have achieved great success while spending the majority of his or her coaching career in the state of Illinois.
