Storm to return to coaching ranks as Grizzlies' J.V. coach
ASC veteran also to direct basketball program's academic progress
ALAMOSA, Colo.— Former Adams State College head women’s basketball coach and current human performance and physical education professor Jeff Storm will be returning to the coaching ranks this fall as the Grizzlies’ junior varsity men’s basketball coach, new Grizzly head coach Louis Wilson has announced. Storm, a mainstay on the ASC campus for the last 14 years, will also direct the Grizzlies’ academic progress monitoring program for both the varsity and junior varsity squads.
Storm, who first came to ASC in 1996-97 as a graduate assistant coach for Larry Mortensen and the Grizzly men’s basketball program, also has coaching experience at Aspen High School and Eastern Wyoming College and played NCAA Division I Basketball at Boston University.
“Jeff brings a wealth of experience both as a player and as a coach to our program. He is a serious professional who understands the importance of academics above athletics. He has coached at a high level and he is a first rate teacher in both the athletic and academic fields,” Wilson said.
“We are lucky to have him directing our junior varsity program on the court and equally lucky to have him coordinate our overall academic efforts in the classroom. This was a no brainer for our program.”
“I appreciate Coach Wilson for the opportunity to work with the men’s basketball program at Adams State. I’ve had a nice four years off from coaching but am ready to get after it again,” Storm noted.
Storm guided the Grizzly women’s program for six years coaching 13 players to 15 total All-Rocky Mountain Athletic-Conference honors. The women also earned a combined 22 Academic All-RMAC honors during his 2000-06 stint with the program.
That academic commitment has aided Storm since he resigned the women’s coaching position in March, 2006, as he has served as professor teaching health and coaching courses. He also has dabbled in the athletic world serving as the Grizzlies’ public address announcer for the 2009-10 basketball season and lending his voice and basketball knowledge as a color commentator for televised Grizzly games and the RMAC Shootout Championship, which aired on Altitude Sports & Entertainment, in March.
A 1993 broadcast journalism graduate of BU, Storm played for the Terriers for two seasons and was named as the team MVP as a senior after starting his collegiate basketball career in Torrington, Wyo. at Eastern Wyoming.
An Aurora native and Gateway High School product, Storm then became the assistant boy’s basketball coach at Aspen helping turning the Skiers’ program around from a 0-18 squad to a winning 10-8 record in just two seasons before returning to Eastern Wyoming as an assistant coach in 1995.
Coming to ASC a year later, Storm also served as the Grizzlies’ sports information director for two years before being elevated to full-time status as an assistant for Mortensen, who is now the Grizzlies’ athletic director, for the 1999-2000 campaign.
Then, just three days before the 2000-01 season was to begin in October, Storm was hired as the Grizzlies’ head women’s basketball coach and quickly guided the team to wins in their first three games en-route to what was its best season since 1994. He then guided the Grizzlies’ to a then NCAA Division II era (1992/93-Present) school record 11 wins during the 2003-04 campaign.
A year later, Storm coached the Grizzlies to another 10 wins and guided the school’s first of so far only two all-region players at the NCAA Division II level in Meagan Hoffman, who is now playing professionally in England.
In the last two years Storm has become a triathlon enthusiast and has competed in several races. He is now training for the San Francisco Triathlon that will be held this August.
Storm and his wife Susan reside in Alamosa.
The new junior varsity men’s basketball program is one of many new athletic offerings at ASC under what has become a unique 2-phase “enrollment based” sports model. New partial-scholarshiped varsity programs in men’s golf, men’s soccer and women’s swimming were started in 2009-10 and significantly helped ASC set a new record for enrollment during the recently completed academic year. Varsity programs in men’s swimming and men’s and women’s lacrosse are being started this coming fall along with junior varsity programs in both men’s and women’s basketball, women’s softball and women’s volleyball. The women’s soccer program will also have a reserve team and the women’s track and field program will significantly expand.
These new programs, which give many more opportunities for ASC to attract students who wish to be involved with collegiate athletics, will each have a separate junior varsity coach, hired and supervised by the head coach of that sport’s varsity program.
The teams will play against other junior varsity, junior college and club programs in the extended region.
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