Jennifer Ogee

Honors & Awards
2002 Midwest Region Staff of the Year

Jennifer Ogee (formerly Cline) enters her seventh season at Nebraska in 2008, where she serves as the Huskers' hitting coach. Ogee's other responsibilities include working with the catchers and infielders, as well as coordinating Nebraska's recruiting efforts.

Under the instruction of Ogee, Nebraska has put together some of its best offensive seasons in school history over the past few years. Upon arriving at Nebraska in June of 2001, Ogee had an immediate impact on the Huskers' success at the plate. Nebraska hit better than .275 as a team in 2002 and 2003, marking the first time in six years that the Huskers had reached the mark in back-to-back seasons.

In her first season as the NU hitting coach, Ogee guided the Huskers to a .278 average. The mark was the fourth best in school history and the highest in seven years.

Nebraska bettered the mark one year later in 2003, finishing the season with a .287 average, which ranked first in the Big 12. Ogee coached two of the top 10 hitters in the conference in 2003, including Anne Steffan (third, .362) and Lisa Wangler (eighth, .347).

In Ogee's six seasons in charge of the hitters, Nebraska has posted a team batting average of .270 or better four times. Prior to her arrival, the Huskers had hit .270 or better just five times in the history of the program, dating back to 1976. Nebraska has also scored 230 or more runs in each of Ogee's first five seasons, an unprecedented stretch in Husker history. Prior to her arrival, Nebraska had only posted one stretch of four consecutive seasons with 200 runs scored.

In only six seasons, Ogee has helped NU produce four of its top seven season batting averages in program history, along with four of the top eight marks in runs scored. With Ogee at the helm of the Husker hitters, Nebraska has hit at a .269 clip while averaging more than four runs per contest. In 25 seasons prior to Ogee's arrival, NU was hitting just .253 all-time and averaging just better than 3.5 runs per game.

"Jen has already put her signature on this program," NU Head Coach Rhonda Revelle said. "She claims a piece of this team as much as (associate head coach) Lori Sippel and myself do. We are so fortunate to have someone on our staff who loves the game, loves the Huskers, and is willing to pay the price to reach the pinnacle. She is a diamond."

While Ogee's impact was immediate and led to two of the most prolific offensive seasons in her first two years, her success is not limited to her first few seasons in Lincoln.

The Huskers enjoyed an offensive explosion in 2006. The Huskers tallied six games where they produced 10 or more runs, including a season-high 21 against Illinois on Feb. 24, one shy of the school record. The Huskers scored 269 runs in only 56 games, an average of nearly five runs per game, the fourth-best total in the 32-year history of NU softball and the highest since the 2003 team averaged 5.0 runs per game under Ogee's tutelage.

Nebraska hit .273 as a team and saw marked improvement in the home run category. After hitting a total of 43 home runs the previous two seasons combined, the Huskers slammed 39 homers in 2006, led by Crystal Carwile's 12. A freshman in 2006, Carwile was able to make an immediate adjustment to the Division I level with Ogee's guidance. Carwile finished with 12 homers, one shy of the freshman school records and also led the team with 41 RBIs.

Ogee also led NU to improvements in slugging percentage and on-base percentage, as the Huskers developed a consistent approach at the plate that led to increased efficiency on the scoreboard and in nearly every statistical category. The Big Red posted a .350 on-base percentage, the fourth-best mark in school history and the second-highest total since Ogee arrived in Lincoln.

The Huskers also cut down their strikeouts in 2006, striking out just 290 times while drawing 144 walks and setting a new school record after being hit by a pitch 35 times on the year. Nebraska's strikeout-per-game total was the second-lowest in the Big 12 Conference and was nearly one strikeout per game lower than the previous season.

In 2006, Ogee led Nebraska to several top national rankings including runs per game, where the Huskers ranked 37th in the nation. In 2007, Ogee had the challenge of working with one of the youngest lineups in NU history. Although the team's offensive numbers weren't as high as past Ogee-coached teams, the Huskers were one of the toughest teams to strike out in the Big 12 Conference while striking out the fewest times (275) since 1996.

Guiding a lineup that featured as many as seven freshmen and sophomores penciled in on numerous occassions, NU boasted an opportunistic offense that made the most of its hits. The Huskers hit .255 with both runners on base and runners in scoring position, marking a .029 point increase from Nebraska's average with the bases empty and a .015 point increase from the Huskers' season average.

Before arriving at Nebraska, she served as an assistant at the University of Washington for four years.

While at Washington, Ogee's responsibilities included helping develop offensive strategy and working with the catchers. During her tenure at UW, the Huskies advanced to four NCAA Women's College World Series, where they posted a fifth-place finish in 2000, third-place finishes in 1997 and 1998 and a runner-up finish in 1999, when the Washington coaches were named the Pacific Region Coaching Staff of the Year. The Huskies combined to post a 215-61 (.805) record during Ogee’s four years as an assistant.

Ogee also had a successful run as a player for UW. A four-time team captain, Ogee was a part of the inaugural Washington softball team in 1993. She started all but three of the first 264 games in Washington softball history. As a senior in 1996, she led the Huskies to a second-place finish in their first-ever WCWS berth, earning a spot on the All-WCWS team as well as NFCA All-America honors. Ogee still ranks highly in the Washington record book and holds the school career record for walks.

When her collegiate career was over, Ogee competed for the Virginia Roadsters' 1999 Women's Professional Softball League championship team. She was the seventh overall draft pick by the Tampa Bay Firestix in the WPSL's 2000 Elite/Supplemental draft.

Ogee also has extensive international experience. She was a member of the 1997 U.S. Women’s National Team that won a gold medal at the Pan Am Qualifier in Medellin, Colombia, and she was a two-time Olympic Festival Gold Medalist and a four-time Olympic Festival participant.

Originally from Westminster, Calif., Cline graduated from Washington in 1997 with a bachelor of arts degree in sociology.

Ogee was married to Tom Ogee, the brother of former Husker and NFCA All-American Kim Ogee (2000-03) on July 31, 2004. Jen gave birth to the couple's first child, daughter Ellie Marie Ogee, on Feb. 27, 2006.