"I feel so blessed for the time that I spent at Southern Utah and for the wonderful people there. As I move on to Santa Clara, I am so excited about the opportunity to be the Bronco's next women's basketball coach," said Payne.
"We are excited to welcome back JR Payne to the Santa Clara family," said Bronco Athletic Director Dan Coonan. "We were drawn to JR during our national search for so many reasons. She has impressive Division I head coaching experience - completely turning around the Southern Utah program in her time there."
During her 14-year career as a women's college basketball coach, Payne has been a part of four conference championships and five post-season appearances as well as an undefeated league season. She has helped coach two All-Americans, three conference players of the year, 32 all-conference players and 31 all-academic honorees.
Payne led the Thunderbirds to the school's first-ever Big Sky Championship this season, winning a share of the regular season title. They defeated Colorado State, 71-56, in the first round of the WNIT, before falling at host-Colorado, 79-68, in the second round. Setting four school records including points scored (2,454), field goals made (830), free throws made (629) and free throws attempted (839), their scoring average (74.1) and field goal attempts (1,925) were the second-best marks ever at SSU.
Payne coached Hailey Mandelko, Lori Parkinson, Andrea Jones and Carli Moreland to a number of accolades this season as well. Mandelko was honored on the All-Big Sky First Team after ranking among the league's leaders during conference play by averaging 15.8 ppg. Mandelko was also named to the Big Sky All-Tournament Team.
Prior to coming to SUU, Payne served as the top assistant at Santa Clara University under then-first-year head coach Jennifer Mountain for the 2008-09 season. Payne also served as an assistant coach at Boise State University and Gonzaga University. During her time in Boise, the Broncos enjoyed a wealth of success, winning conference titles two of the three years and advancing to the NCAA postseason. BSU posted back-to-back 24-8 seasons, including a perfect 14-0 mark at home during the 2007-08 season.
As a player, Payne was a four-year letter winner at St. Mary's College (Calif.), helping the Gaels earn their first trip to the NCAA Tournament in school-history during the 1998-99 season. The former point guard was an All-West Coast Conference first team selection and was also named to the West Coast Conference All-Tournament First Team twice.
Payne is a native of North Vancouver, British Columbia and went to Windsor Secondary School.