Jessie Kinder-Vasquez begins her second season as a Redhawk assistant coach. She will serve as the balance beam and assistant floor coach.
Additional duties include serving as the team's recruiting coordinator, where she will oversee all aspects of the team's recruiting process.
The Kansas City, Missouri native, has over 20 years of gymnastics training and coaching.
In her first season at Southeast, Kinder-Vasquez helped transform the balance beam into one of the Redhawks’ greatest strengths. Southeast ranked 31st nationally with regional qualifying score of 48.615 on beam, its best ranking on any apparatus. Southeast also boasted the Midwest Independent Conference’s beam champion in Taylor Westrick, who scored 9.875 at the conference meet.
In 2009-2010, she was a graduate assistant coach at her alma mater, Oklahoma under the tutelage of K.J. Kindler. She assisted in the Sooners recruiting process and was in charge of organizing team events.
As a gymnast, Kinder was a three-year letterwinner for the Sooners where she helped the team to back-to-back Big 12 Championships in 2008 and 2009. In 2008 the team finished a program-best eighth at the NCAA National Championships.
Originally a walk-on, she earned a scholarship her senior season as one of the team's top all-around competitors. She was a two-time Academic All-Big 12 and NACGC Scholar Athlete.
As a junior, she finished 11th on the floor at the NCAA National Championships with a score of 9.850.
Her senior season she recorded a career-best 9.900 on the floor against Arkansas for her first collegiate individual title. In that same meet she scored a 39.175 in the all-around to set a career best.
She earned her Bachelor's in Heath and Exercise Sciences in 2008 before receiving her Master's in Intercollegiate Athletic Administration in 2010. She married her husband, Shaun Vasquez, on June 4, 2011.
