Whenever any athlete looks to the western rafters of the Convocation Center, they see 33. It’s the number that Monica Gibbs wore from 2005 to 2009 as she magnificently put together three all-conference seasons for the Roadrunners.
To this day, Gibbs is the only UTSA women’s basketball player to be granted the ultimate recognition of having her jersey retired. But some day, inevitably, 32 will take its rightful place next to 33 — and it will be because Jordyn Jenkins ’25 earned it the hard way.
Jenkins’ status as one of UTSA’s all-time greats is cemented. She was a two-time conference player of the year, led her team to an American Conference championship and became the first Roadrunner to ever sign a WNBA contract.
But on a spring day in 2023, her legacy in orange and blue didn’t seem so inevitable. During a routine offseason workout, Jenkins planted her leg awkwardly and tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her right knee. As she laid crumpled on the court and the tears began welling in her eyes, she had doubts that her basketball journey would continue.
“That was really hard,” Jenkins recalls. “I knew right away because I tore my left ACL during my senior year of high school. It didn’t feel exactly the same, but I knew something was seriously wrong.”
She also knew that the long recovery from this kind of injury would require patience and persistence.
Growing up in Renton, Washington, Jenkins seemed destined for greatness on the hardwood. She played AAU games against the likes of Caitlin Clark and Olivia Miles, led Kentridge High School to a state championship in 2017 and earned first-team all-state honors in her freshman, sophomore and junior seasons at Kentridge. Her senior year was shaping up to be one for the record books, but a left ACL tear derailed those hopes and delayed her start as a highly-touted freshman at the University of Southern California (USC).
She missed her first eight games at USC and made a modest impact as a freshman for the Trojans, but made up for lost time with a promising sophomore season. Jenkins led USC in scoring during the 2021–2022 campaign and earned the Pac-12 Conference’s Most Improved Player award. Though her basketball career was on an upward trajectory in Los Angeles, Jenkins sought a fresh start when USC head coach Mark Trakh announced his retirement in the spring of 2021. She wanted to attend a university that better fit her personality and wanted to play for a coach that would foster her leadership capabilities.
Dozens of college basketball coaches bombarded Jenkins’ phone after she entered the transfer portal, but UTSA head coach Karen Aston rose above the fray. She told Jenkins that she had the potential to make others around her better and felt her competitive spirit would be contagious for her teammates. The prospect of emerging as a leader and blazing her own trail at UTSA was enticing, and Jenkins appreciated Aston’s sincerity as she laid it all out.
“Coach Aston’s approach was different and it was very genuine,” Jenkins says. “Her vision really pulled me in.”
A visit to the university made Jenkins feel all the more confident about transferring to UTSA. She made meaningful connections with assistant coaches Cameron Miles and Empress Davenport, as well as Jamie Carey, who in May was named the head coach of women’s basketball at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Jenkins also got a great feeling from hanging out in the newly-built Roadrunner Athletics Center of Excellence on the Main Campus. She was heartened by UTSA’s warm, tight-knit community of student-athletes.
Aston recalls that suffering an ACL injury as a high school senior, a freshman year in college plagued by the COVID-19 pandemic and the coaching change at USC as a sophomore had all worn on Jenkins, who was simply looking for a welcoming community where she could flourish and mature. The vibes at UTSA were as encouraging as they were refreshing.
“She needed to find a safe space and a place that felt like home, and even though it was a long way away from her home in the Seattle area, I think she felt comfortable here in San Antonio,” Aston says. “As time went on, I truly feel like she really did make San Antonio her home, and fell in love with the people, and the process of being a college student. She grew to love our football team and other sports, and really embraced being a Roadrunner. In turn, she found personal happiness. Her growth as a person — and her confidence in herself — was the most remarkable aspect of her journey.”
“The biggest thing I’ve always loved about UTSA was the support,” Jenkins adds. “Everyone’s here to help each other grow.”
Growth is exactly what Jenkins and the Roadrunners achieved in her first season at UTSA in 2022–2023. She played well in early-season contests against St. John’s, Texas State and Houston, which ultimately ended up being close losses for the team. Then, after a mostly miserable month of January, the Roadrunners notched what Jenkins feels was Aston’s first signature win at UTSA when they defeated Middle Tennessee 58–53 in a fierce battle that electrified the Convocation Center crowd. At the time, the Blue Raiders were ranked No. 21 in the nation and were the defending Conference USA champions. It was only the third time in program history that UTSA had defeated a Top 25 squad, and Jenkins led the charge with 20 points and 16 rebounds in the game.
“That game was really the beginning of a great stretch for us. We knew we had potential and knew we could be good. But we had six freshmen. We were a young team and we had to grow,” Jenkins recalls. “We grew in that win.”
The Roadrunners won seven of their last nine games in the 2022–2023 season, including a league-rattling upset of Rice in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA Tournament. Jenkins’ efforts had not gone unnoticed by her counterparts, as she was named both the Conference USA Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year. Jenkins was honored to earn these plaudits, but she remembers feeling gratification more than anything at the time.
Jenkins had taken a big risk giving up the spotlight of Southern California to come to San Antonio and forge her own path. But in doing so, she had connected with a university community that embraced her, she had transcended her identity as a talented up-and-comer to emerge as the best player in her league, and the Roadrunners were poised to make a profound leap forward in the 2023–2024 season as new members of the American Conference.
She had come so far. The future was so bright.
These thoughts zoomed and pinged through her mind like pinballs as members of the UTSA Sports Medicine staff tended to the right knee she had inexplicably injured during that routine spring workout in 2023.
“I actually remember coming into the training room after it happened. Everyone was just like, ‘oh my gosh, what happened to her?’” Jenkins recalls. She says that several student-athletes she passed by on the way to the training room could sense the gravity of the situation. “I couldn’t stop crying. I couldn’t walk.”
Within minutes of the injury, Ken Kenneth-Nwosa, MD, received a text message, a phone call and a video clip of Jenkins’ knee from athletic trainer Tam Nguyen. Better known as “Dr. Ken” by every UTSA student-athlete, Kenneth-Nwosa is an assistant professor in the Department of Orthopaedics at UT San Antonio and the lead team physician for UTSA Athletics. Years before UTSA and UT Health San Antonio merged to become one world-class university, Kenneth-Nwosa spearheaded the effort for medical professionals at UT Health San Antonio to collaborate with the UTSA athletic trainers and rehabilitators to provide greater access and an improved standard of care for UTSA’s student-athletes.
Kenneth-Nwosa immediately rushed over to the Roadrunner Athletics Center of Excellence to check on Jenkins, who he lovingly calls “Jordy.” They quickly suspected that she had suffered an ACL tear and booked an MRI for her right away. From there, the team determined that orthopaedic surgeon Thomas DeBerardino, MD, would be the best candidate to reconstruct the ACL through an operation that would put Jenkins on the path to continue her basketball career.
“She trusted Tam, she trusted me and she trusted Dr. DeBerardino to guide her in the right direction,” Kenneth-Nwosa says.
The weeks after the operation were among the most difficult. Jenkins would be first to admit that she was “in the dumps,” crediting Nguyen and Kenneth-Nwosa for their patience and rehabilitation director Marie Charpentier, among others, for helping her maintain her composure.
“After the operation, it’s such a nervous thing. You’re filled with anxiety to see if you’re going to recover correctly. Any little tweak — any little discomfort or pain — can masquerade as a setback, so we’re here to give them reassurance,” Kenneth-Nwosa explains, adding that he and the Sports Medicine staff maintain an open-door policy for all UTSA student-athletes so they can talk with them and answer any questions they have. Mental rehabilitation, he says, is just as important as physical rehabilitation. “You have to start thinking positively. You may not be able to play ball today, but if you do mental tasks and talk to someone about your injury and your recovery, that’s going to help you in the long run.”
Jenkins says her hyper-competitive drive may have been the biggest thing eating away at her.
“I was in my feelings about being the conference player of the year and not being able to play. Other people getting the shine was the worst,” she admits with wide eyes and a slight grin that indicate that she’s partially joking. But it’s apparent there’s some sincerity there as well. “I can’t stand it when other people take my shine.”
It took time, but Jenkins pushed past those envious instincts and found the motivation to get back to elite college basketball form. She boxed out any distractions and intensely focused on two things: studying and making her knee stronger. Working with Nguyen, Jenkins started off small with leg raises and quad sits for weeks while she was still using crutches. Once she shed the crutches, she committed to a wider range of leg exercises — some that were occasionally grueling — to help her get her walking pattern back to normal and maintain the strength in her quadriceps and hamstring while the ACL healed.
As the leaves changed and basketball season approached, Jenkins took on more conditioning exercises to keep up with her teammates as they progressed on the court. She was a mainstay on the AssaultBike and the Versaclimber, and took on more aerobics. These low-impact forms of exercise helped her stay in shape. And even though she couldn’t practice with her team, she went to the gym often to work on her jumpshot.
“My hands and arms weren’t hurting,” she says with a big laugh.
Once Jenkins was confident in her mobility, she returned to practice and says assistant coach Cameron Miles helped her tremendously to get back into “game shape,” whether it was through shooting, dribbling or ball-handling exercises. She was feeling close to 100% by January 2024 and began playfully joining her team at shootaround before each road game — striking fear in UTSA’s opponents that she might come back on any given night. Jenkins could have been cautious and sat out the entire 2023–2024 campaign, but when it became apparent that she would be fully healthy for the final month of the season, she set out to put UTSA’s new conference on notice.
Jenkins made her on-court return to great fanfare at the Convo on February, 11, 2024, in a game against UAB. She played 12 minutes, scored 11 points and the Roadrunners won by 18. Just one week later, she played 24 minutes, scored 29 points and UTSA notched a 66–63 road upset of rival North Texas. Jenkins’ return helped the Roadrunners to a strong closing stretch, finishing in fourth place in the American and earning a bid in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament. It was the first time in 15 years that UTSA Women’s Basketball had reached the postseason.
The notice had been issued. Jenkins was back and the Roadrunners had established themselves as one of the favorites to win the conference championship heading into the 2024–2025 season. “I felt like we were the ones with the targets on our backs,” Jenkins says. “We were circled on everyone’s calendars.”
With that added pressure, Jenkins knew her senior season would provide the ultimate leadership test. Promising sophomore players like Idara Udo and Damar Allen would need mentorship to take the next step, and accomplished graduate student and transfer Nina De Leon Negron would need help acclimating to a new team.
“I’d definitely developed more leadership qualities the year prior, and I knew that I’d have to help develop some players who were 18 or 19 years old, as well as someone like Nina, who stood by me on Senior Day, but was still new to UTSA,” Jenkins explains. “It’s hard to be a leader — to keep people in check and still be their friend at the same time — but I think that comes with maturity. I took on that challenge.”
The team responded to Aston’s coaching and Jenkins’ leadership by stacking win after win after win. Jenkins says she knew the 2024–2025 team was on a different level during a road contest at Memphis in mid-January. UTSA was 5–0 in conference games and atop the league standings at that point, but the Roadrunners were slogging through a tough night against the Tigers. They trailed 62–51 with less than four minutes left in the game. In similar situations the previous two years, Jenkins believes the team would have folded. But not this squad. They believed they could overcome the deficit. They attacked the basket, drew fouls, made free throws and earned key stops on the defensive end. Jenkins ultimately sank the free throws that gave the Roadrunners the lead with 12 seconds left. Final score: UTSA 70, Memphis 68.
Time and time again, the Roadrunners would prove that they had the mental toughness to match their talent.
“I never could have imagined that we’d win as many close games as we did,” Jenkins admits. “We were a much more mature team.”
By the time March 1 rolled around, UTSA had amassed a 24–3 overall record and a 15–1 record in conference play. The Roadrunners needed just one more victory to capture the regular-season championship in the American and break the program record for wins in a single season. Thus, the stage was set for the Senior Day showdown at the Convo against Florida Atlantic. Jenkins and De Leon Negron — the team’s lone seniors — reveled in the hugs from loved ones and the roaring admiration of the Roadrunner faithful. Another UTSA Women’s Basketball record had been shattered before the game had even tipped off; 2,250 basketball fans packed the Convocation Center to break the program’s single-game attendance record.
Powered by the electric atmosphere and anchored by a sweltering defensive effort, UTSA took an early lead and never looked back. The Roadrunners cruised to a 60–42 win. Within minutes, the confetti cannons were blasting, the trophy was hoisted and the conference championship hats and t-shirts had been distributed to the players, coaches and staff. Jenkins high-fived every single Roadrunner fan who’d lined the perimeter of the basketball court while her teammates and cheerleaders snapped selfies and made confetti angels like care-free kids on a snow day.
Jenkins, who couldn’t stop crying in the training room nearly two years earlier, couldn’t stop smiling.
“We’ve always wanted the confetti and we’ve always wanted to win in front of a big crowd at the Convo, so it was really cool and really rewarding,” she says. “We were the most popular people in the building. Our friends were there. Our families were there. So many pictures. So many autographs. It was just everything that we’ve always wanted.”
Her favorite memory was when she ascended the ladder to make the final cut to the net of the basketball hoop. Cutting down the net has traditionally served as the ultimate recognition of a championship season in basketball, and Jenkins wasn’t about to miss an opportunity to do it at a university she’d come to cherish. And, after all, this wasn’t just any championship. This was first title UTSA had won in any sport as a member of the American Conference.
“I have a mental picture of myself standing on the ladder and cutting the net down. That will be in my brain for the rest of my life,” Jenkins reflects. “We’ve been a football school, but now we’re a basketball school, too. I love that I can say that now. We brought the first (American Conference) title to UTSA. That’s special.”
WATCH: Jordyn Jenkins reads a letter to “Young Jordy” about her basketball journey and success at UTSA.
At season’s end, Jenkins was named the American Conference Player of the Year, De Leon Negron was named the conference’s Newcomer of the Year and Aston was unanimously named the Coach of the Year. To Jenkins, it all felt like the preeminent realization of the vision Aston had laid before her as a transfer in 2022 — not just to be a great basketball player, but also a great leader, teammate and groundbreaker. Aston will forever appreciate that Jenkins bought into that vision. From attracting WNBA scouts to leading the team to a conference championship, Aston knows the mark that Jenkins left at UTSA is indelible.
“Jordyn impacted UTSA Women’s Basketball in ways that cannot be measured. She helped us move the needle in so many aspects,” Aston says. “She brought a new recognition that this was a serious program, along with increased attendance and fans across the community. People really started paying attention to UTSA, started coming to games and bringing their kids who wanted to watch Jordyn play.”
“I do believe Jordyn’s jersey will be in the rafters one day,” Aston adds. “She will forever be remembered as a change-maker for women’s basketball at UTSA.”
While the change Jenkins made for women’s basketball at UTSA was profound, it’s the change she made within herself that inspired so many others at UTSA Athletics — from peers to coaches to trainers to doctors.
“It’s the positivity from Jordy that’s infectious. Even on the days when you could tell she was frustrated or a game didn’t go her way, she would exercise different mental health practices to achieve a positive mindset,” Kenneth-Nwosa says. “She really utilized all of the vast array of resources a student-athlete has available to them at UT San Antonio to get to a better place. That was the exciting thing for me to witness.”
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