Johnson County Community College women's basketball coach Ben Conrad was honored with the 2015 Spalding® NJCAA Women's Division II National Coach of the award, announced by the NJCAA Wednesday, April 8.  Greg Franlkin at Chipola and Misty Opat at Rock Valley were the D-I and D-III recipients respectively. These awards are presented annually to the top coach in each division of NJCAA women's basketball.

Conrad, now in his seventh season at JCCC, led the Lady Cavaliers to a national title with a 66-64 win over top-seeded Parkland, and finished the season with a program record mark of 34-2. The win over Parkland also gave Conrad his 300^th win as a collegiate head coach.  Conrad stands 207-32 at JCCC, and has led the program to 30 or wins for six consecutive seasons. He is the only coach in Kansas Jayhawk Conference history to make that claim.

Conrad has also won three East Jayhawk Conference titles, finished as the number one or two ranked team in the final poll four times, and reached the national tournament four times. He also became the first coach in the program's history to be selected the Kansas Jayhawk Conference East Division Coach of the Year following the 2009-10 season. He also earned that honor following the 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons.

"The conference award are cool because your peers vote on it," said Conrad. "But anytime you are recognized nationally it is once in a career type stuff. Our game though is about players, period. No one gets coaching awards without great players. We had some really good ones on our team this year. I also look at this as a staff award too. All our assistants deserve recognition as well."

Through seven seasons at Johnson County, Conrad has coached 11 NJCAA All-Americans, nine WBCA Al-Americans, four National Tournament selections, one National Tournament MVP, 26 All-Region VI performers and 18 All-East Jayhawk Conference, including two conference MVPs.

Even more impressive, Conrad has helped thirty-six of his players at JCCC earn a scholarship to four-year schools, including 13 at NCAA Division I programs.

Through 10 seasons as a community college head coach, Conrad has averaged nearly 28 wins per season and has amassed an overall record of 278-59. Amazingly, in six of those 10 seasons, Conrad has managed to break or tie the school's record for wins, twice with Des Moines Area Community College and four times at JCCC, including this season.