🔵 WIN Girl Boss Luncheon

Jennie Baranczyk (Buh-RON-check) just wrapped up her third year as the head coach of the Oklahoma women’s basketball team. In just three seasons as a Sooner, Coach Baranczyk has continued to elevate Oklahoma onto the national stage.

She has led the Sooners to back-to-back Big 12 championships, OU’s first back-to-back titles in 15 years. Her teams have made three straight NCAA (N-C-double-A) tournaments, advancing to the second round each year.

As Oklahoma’s head coach, she has developed four All-Americans and 13 Big 12 honorees. Additionally, two of her student-athletes have gone on to earn spots in the prestigious “So You Want to Be a Coach” program hosted by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, which selects a limited number of graduating seniors who aspire to be the next great leaders in the game.

She was recognized as the 2024 Big 12 Coach of the Year and is a back-to-back-to-back national Coach of the Year finalist.

A native of Des Moines, Iowa, Baranczyk spent nine years as the head coach at Drake before coming to Oklahoma in 2021. Baranczyk earned a bachelor's degree in communication studies from Iowa in 2004 and a master's degree in counseling and student development from Kansas State in 2006. She was a three-time All-Big Ten selection while playing for the Hawkeyes and the recipient of the 2004 Big Ten Conference's Medal of Honor, the award given annually to a student in each university's graduating class who demonstrated proficiency in scholarship and athletics.

She lives in Norman with her husband, Scott, and their three children.

Audra Cohen is entering her ninth year at Oklahoma and has propelled the OU women's tennis program to new heights.

During the Cohen era, the Sooners have compiled a 142-59 record; earned a total of 24 All-Big 12 honors, including Cohen winning the 2022 Big 12 Coach of the Year award; and have made NCAA tournament appearances in the last four years the event has been held, highlighted by a 2022 National Runner-Up finish to mark the most successful season in Oklahoma history.

Additionally, the Sooners have earned a total of 37 Academic All-Big 12 honors under Cohen while being named an ITA All-Academic Team in each of her seasons at Oklahoma.

Prior to her arrival at OU, Cohen spent five seasons as the head coach at North Florida where she led the program to four NCAA Tournament appearances while winning four Atlantic Sun tournament titles.

A native of Plantation, Fla., Cohen began her collegiate career at Northwestern where she earned All-America honors in singles and doubles, was named Big Ten’s Player of the Year as a freshman and the ITA’s Rookie of the Year, while advancing to the NCAA Singles championship final.

Cohen transferred to Miami where she won the 2007 NCAA Women’s Individual Singles Championship in 2007. She finished her collegiate career at Miami with five All-America selections as a Hurricane while winning ITA National Player of the Year honors twice as well as the Honda Sports Award for women’s tennis in 2007. Cohen was a two-time ACC Player with the Hurricanes and posted a 76-4 record in singles. In 2017, Cohen was inducted into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame.

KJ Kindler enters her 19^th season as the head coach of the six-time national champion Oklahoma women’s gymnastics team. In her 19 seasons at the helm of the Sooners, Kindler has led her program to record-breaking heights.

A four-time National Coach of the Year, Kindler has taken the Sooners to the absolute height of NCAA gymnastics with six national titles, 12 top-three finishes, 14-straight regional titles and 14 Big 12 titles. Twice have Kindler’s programs gone back-to-back, winning national championships in 2016 and 2017 along with 2022 and 2023.

As Oklahoma’s head coach, she has developed 17 individual national champions, 189 All-Americans, 84 individual conference champions and 35 Big 12 major award honorees. Additionally, two of her student-athletes have gone on to earn the Honda Sport Award for Gymnastics, with Anastasia Webb being the first top three finalist in program history. Maggie Nichols, the 2019 Honda Sport Award winner, was named the 2020 AAI Award Winner, the first in program history.

She was recognized as the 2024 Big 12 Coach of the Year for the 16^th time in her career and the 2024 National Head Coach of the Year after leading the Sooners to an NCAA record 198.950 team score.

She is the first and only coach to NCAA history to take two separate programs to the NCAA Finals as she led her alma mater, Iowa State, to the NCAA Championships in 2006. Kindler was the head coach of the Cyclones from 2001-2006 and was the first individual regional qualifier in program history as a student-athlete.

She lives in Norman with her husband, Lou Ball, and their two daughters, Maggie & Adelaide.