Jen Grassel is in her ninth season as the primary assistant coach to the women’s basketball team at her alma mater in 2015-16. Grassel was a four-year letter-winner for the Raiders from 2001-05 and has been a part of 127 victories during her coaching tenure.
Grassel is integral to the team’s game-day preparations and provides assistance with game and practice duties as well as travel arrangements, recruiting and scouting.
Much like current head coach Kristy Trn, one of Grassel’s many strengths as a student-athlete was her free-throw shooting. For her career, Grassel made 405-of-510 attempts for 79.4 percent, making 85.2 percent of her attempts as a senior.
For six of the last seven seasons, Shippensburg has ranked among the Top 3 teams in the PSAC for free-throw percentage and twice has led the league. In 2010-11, Shippensburg ranked third in Division II with a 77.6 percent free throw proficiency.
Individually, Dana Wert and Shawna Wert – who also attended the same New Jersey high school as Grassel – finished their playing careers in 2013 having combined for 825 made free throws in three seasons as a Raider. The duo attempted an incredible 988 free throws in three seasons and converted 83.5 percent of their attempts.
A native of Turnersville, New Jersey, Grassel spent the 2006-07 season as the assistant varsity coach at her high school alma mater, Washington Township, while also working as a ninth grade math teacher. As an assistant on the varsity squad, she helped lead the Minutemaids to a 21-7 record, an Olympic Conference championship and a berth in the sectional semifinals.
Immediately following her playing career with the Raiders, Grassel was an assistant coach at Shippensburg Area Senior High School during the 2005-06 season where she worked with the guards.
As a player at Washington Township High School, Grassel was a two-year captain and 1,000-point scorer en route to earning All-South Jersey First Team and All-State Honorable Mention honors. She was inducted into the Washington Township High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.
Jen (Scaffidi) Grassel returned to Shippensburg in 2007. Her highly successful four-year career with the Raiders included two All-PSAC Western Division honors, including a First Team selection in 2005. She is currently ranked eighth on the school’s career scoring list with 1,583 points and held school records at the time of her graduation for career and season free-throw percentage.
She is also the only player in SU history to record 100 or more assists in all four of her competitive seasons and led the team in assists for four consecutive years. Grassel concluded her career with 481 assists, the third-most in SU history.
A Daktronics, Inc. All-East Region Second Team selection as a senior, Grassel is the only player since Trn during the 1992-93 season, to lead the team in both scoring and assists, a feat she accomplished twice as a sophomore and a senior. She played in all 114 of the team’s games during her four-year career, starting in 111 of them. During that time, the Raiders had a record of 69-45, a winning percentage of 60.5 percent.
Her athletic performance at Shippensburg resulted in her selection to the Shippensburg University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2015.
Grassel graduated in 2005 with a degree in mathematics and secondary education and in December 2011 she received her master’s degree in organizational development and leadership.
She and her husband Mike reside in York and are the proud parents of daughter Kailie, born December 2013.
