BLACKSBURG — As a high school basketball player, Jen Hoover used to wear the orange and maroon of William Byrd. Now she’s back in Southwest Virginia — this time wearing orange-and-maroon Virginia Tech clothing. Hoover is one of the three assistant coaches who were hired in April by new Hokies women’s basketball coach Megan Duffy. “It’s been awesome, just being back where I grew up, kind of,” Hoover, 54, said in an interview last week. “So many of my former classmates on Facebook are excited. “I love the area.” The former Wake Forest head coach spent the past two seasons as a Kentucky assistant. But Kyra Elzy was fired as Kentucky’s head coach in March. Kenny Brooks stepped down as Tech’s coach to replace Elzy. No, Hoover and Brooks have not swapped houses. “He’s on a different pay scale than me,” Hoover said with a laugh. ‘Dream come true’ Hoover was known as Jenny Mitchell when she grew up in the Roanoke Valley. Her late father worked for Norfolk Southern, while her mother worked for Rowe Furniture. “I knew nothing but hard work,” Hoover said. Hoover used to work at the same furniture factory as her mother during her summers home from college. Hoover’s mother now lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (where Wake Forest is located), but she will be moving back to Southwest Virginia because of Hoover’s new job. Hoover played basketball and volleyball for William Byrd. She once attended a team camp at Tech, back when Carol Alfano was the Hokies women’s basketball coach — and when women’s basketball was not the box-office hit it has become at Tech in recent years. “What women’s basketball means to this area, to the Blacksburg community, I don’t know if I ever dreamt that it would be that when I was … in a high school gym in William Byrd High School in the same colors,” Hoover said. “It’s been a real dream come true for that.” Alfano recruited Hoover, but Hoover opted to play basketball (and volleyball) for Wake Forest. “You could pretty much draw a two-hour radius around Roanoke and I was going to stay within it, so [her finalists were] UVa, JMU, Virginia Tech and Wake,” Hoover said. “[The Hokies] were in the Metro [Conference] at the time and I had kind of grown up an ACC girl and was leaning towards the two ACC schools.” Hoover wanted to play two sports in college. When she was eventually told she could not play both basketball and volleyball at Tech and JMU, she eliminated those schools and picked Wake over UVa. She went on to become an All-ACC first-team pick in basketball. ‘Pretty humble’ Hoover served as Wake Forest’s head coach from 2012-22. She recruited Elizabeth Kitley and Cayla King when the two were high school players in North Carolina, but they opted for the Hokies instead of Wake. Hoover and Kitley’s father, Ralph Kitley, played basketball for Wake at the same time. “When I first got the [Tech] job he was like, ‘Welcome to Hokie Nation!’” Hoover said. “I said, ‘Now we’re Deacon family and Hokie family.’” Hoover was fired by Wake after her team went 16-17 overall and 4-14 in ACC play in the 2021-22 season. She was 142-172 overall at the helm of the Demon Deacons, breaking the school mark for career wins. Her team made the NCAA Tournament in 2021 for only the second time in school history. Losing the Wake job was “really, really hard,” said Hoover. “I still don’t know the reasoning,” she said. Hoover had been an assistant at seven colleges, including VCU, JMU and Virginia, before becoming the head coach at High Point. She was at High Point for one year before getting the Wake Forest job. What was it like for her the past few years to go back to being an assistant after spending so many years as a head coach? “I’m a pretty humble person, so that wasn’t hard,” she said. “I actually sleep a little better at night because you don’t have a thousand things going through your head. “I’m probably even a better assistant now than I was before because I know what it’s like to be in those shoes and I know the amount of stress.” Hoover would love to be a head coach again. “But for me, the biggest thing is I want to work for good people and I want to work somewhere that’s supported and resourced and really wants to win,” she said. ‘ACC girl’ After two years at Southeastern Conference member Kentucky, Hoover is grateful to be back in the ACC. “I’m an ACC girl,” she said. “It’s the best conference there is.” Hoover is living in the commonwealth for the first time since she was a UVa assistant under Debbie Ryan from 2004-07. One of the other new Tech assistants, Sharnee Zoll-Norman, was a UVa player at that time. Unlike Zoll-Norman and new Tech assistant Itoro Coleman, Hoover did not know Duffy before interviewing for a spot on the Tech staff. “When things started popping and jobs started opening, [being a Tech assistant] was definitely one that was very attractive,” Hoover said. “I’m very much a faith-driven person, so I felt [after losing her Kentucky job] like God had a bigger plan. One door shuts, another one opens. “From the very first conversation with [Duffy], I loved her energy, her belief, her vision.” Duffy said the interview process with Hoover was like “speed dating.” “We align in a lot of things with our philosophies and the type of high character and integrity we want to coach with,” Duffy said. “She’s been great already, just a bright light in our office. … She connects well with the players. “I know she’s excited to be back closer to home, where she grew up.” The hiring of Hoover wound up helping Tech land former Kentucky signee Ramiya White. The 6-foot-5 center signed with Kentucky last fall, when Hoover was on the Wildcats staff. White, who is from a Louisville high school, reopened her recruitment in April and signed with Tech last month. “As a post coach, I had dealt a lot with her,” Hoover said. “I had recruited her. [Zoll-Norman] had recruited her [for Penn State] before she … signed with us at Kentucky. So she knew a couple of us.” Hoover and her husband, John, will be closing on their new house this month. They have a daughter, Maggie, who will be a college freshman in the fall. “It’s been an amazing journey,” Hoover said. “I still think there’s a lot of it left to go. I can’t wait to see what the future does hold for us here.”