Jessica Olmstead was named the team’s director of scouting and program development in May 2022.
Olmstead reunites with Tillett for the third time after serving on Longwood University’s staff together the last four seasons and joining ranks for a five-year stint at Forest Park High School from 2008-13.
In her first season with the Billikens, Olmstead helped lead SLU to its first-ever Atlantic 10 Tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance. Three players earned All-Conference honors, including Brooke Flowers, who was named co-Defensive Player of the Year.
During the 2023-24 season, the Billikens won the WNIT championship with six straight postseason victories. Peyton Kennedy was named WNIT MVP, and three players earned A-10 postseason honors, including two on the All-Defensive Team.
In her third season, SLU advanced to the A-10 Tournament quarterfinals. Kennedy Calhoun earned her second consecutive A-10 All-Defensive Team selection.
Olmstead joined Longwood's bench as an assistant coach in May 2018, a tenure that culminated with a conference championship, the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance and the Lancers’ first NCAA Tournament victory.
Across the final two seasons, the Lancers went 36-19 and, in addition to this year’s NCAA Tournament, helped Longwood earn a spot in the Women’s Basketball Invitational in 2020-21.
Winners in 15 of their final 17 games in 2021-22, the Lancers turned in their best overall and league records since joining the Big South almost 10 years ago, finishing 22-12 overall and 15-3 in the conference. Five Lancers earned Big South postseason accolades for a second consecutive season, including the league’s Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.
Olmstead, a 2018 Ashtabula County Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, spent five seasons as Tillett’s assistant at Forest Park from 2008-13, during which she helped Tillett amass three Northwest Region Championships and a pair of Virginia State Tournament appearances at the Woodbridge-based high school.
Olmstead spent six total seasons at Forest Park before moving on to C.D. Hylton High School, also in Woodbridge, Va. She spent three more seasons on the Hylton bench from 2014-17 and was promoted to associate head coach in November 2016. In the 2017-18 season, Olmstead was the co-head boy’s basketball coach at Graham Park Middle School, leading the team to an 8-1 record and a trip to the Eastern Regional Championship.
After a decorated prep career, Olmstead played collegiately at Youngstown State University from 2001-04 where she became a starter in her final two seasons, averaging 10.0 points as a sophomore and 8.0 as a junior. She amassed 176 assists and 103 steals and averaged 4.2 rebounds during her three seasons and was honored with the team Hustle Award and Defensive Player of the Year awards in 2003.
After her run at Youngstown State, Olmstead finished her college career at Mercyhurst University, where she captained the team and averaged 11.7 points per game as a senior in 2004-05. She went on to receive her Bachelor of Arts in elementary education in 2006.
As a junior at Conneaut High School in 2000, Olmstead and her softball team won the Ohio Softball State Championship.
