Jessica (Ridgill) Taylor begins her second year on the sidelines for the UNF women's basketball team.
With 12 years of coaching experience in different roles at the Division I and Division II levels, achieving all sorts of success thus far in her coaching career, Taylor works primarily with the point guards.
In her first season with UNF, Taylor helped Newcomer of the Year Claire Ioannidis set the single-season record for three-pointers in a season (80). She oversaw then-sophomore Sierra Shepherd become one of the most effective point guards in the Atlantic Sun as she averaged 12.4 points per game and led the league in steals and assists. Taylor also oversaw the academic success of the team.
Taylor spent four years at Wofford, her alma mater, starting initially as an assistant coach before being elevated to associate head coach for the 2014-15 season. She helped with the Terriers’ recruiting efforts and game scheduling, while also coordinating the team’s academic obligations.
Taylor began her coaching career at Erskine College, beginning as an assistant coach for five years and then becoming Erskine’s head coach from 2008-2011. She led the Flying Fleet to three Conference Carolinas Tournaments. In her first season as head coach, Taylor’s squad tied for second Most Improved NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Teams in 2008-09, totaling a program-record tying 17 wins. Erskine established a new team scoring record, averaging 83.0 points per game that ranked fifth nationally, while registering four 100-point games during the 2008-09 campaign. As a result, Taylor was selected as the Conference Carolinas Coach of the Year
Taylor had a successful playing career as a point guard at Wofford from 1998-02. She dished out 387 assists, a mark that is currently third in Wofford’s record books. As a sophomore, she recorded 117 helpers, including a then-program record 13 in a single game. Taylor’s single-game mark stood for over a decade was broken in 2011.
An inductee into the Clarendon County Athletic Hall of Fame, Taylor earned her bachelor’s degree in business economics from Wofford in 2002.
Taylor married Tracy Taylor in September 2015.
