Former Eagle Amber Jacobs To Be Honored As An ACC Legend
March 04, 2016 | Women's Basketball
By Reid Oslin
When Amber Jacobs Osborn was the sharp-shooting point guard for Boston College's 2004 Big East Conference champions, nobody ever called her "slow."
That's why when she volunteered to help her newly-wed husband David coach his prep school basketball team through some drills earlier this year, she was surprised to hear him say, "Gosh, honey, you're slow!"
    Amber who will be BC's representative to the 12th Annual Class of "ACC Women's Basketball Legends" at the upcoming league championship in Greensboro, N.C., was one of the quickest guards in college hoops during her Eagle career, averaging a hefty 12.6 points-per-game and earning All-America accolades for her dazzling play in leading the Eagles to the conference title in her junior year, plus three consecutive NCAA appearances and a pair of "Sweet 16" finishes in the Big Dance.
    "I guess I don't have it now like I once did," laughed Osborn, who followed her BC career with five professional seasons in the WNBA, originally drafted by the Minnesota Lynx, and subsequently signing with the Washington Mystics and Los Angeles Sparks.
    She also launched an outstanding coaching career, which saw her joining the staffs at University of Toledo and University of Rhode Island before becoming head coach and assistant athletics director at Division III Summit University in her hometown of Clark's Summit, Pa.
    Currently – in addition to occasionally helping out husband David's coaching career at Wheaton Academy just outside of Chicago – she is operations director for PGC Basketball, an elite national summer basketball camp program, where she helps to hone the skills of many of the country's top high school hoop prospects.
But Amber has never forgotten her time at Boston College during the "golden era" of her sport on the Chestnut Hill campus. And BC has not forgotten her: Amber Jacobs was inducted into the Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 2011 in recognition of her outstanding Eagle hoop career.
Osborn was always s top athlete. She had to be in a family where both of her parents were former student-athletes and her Dad was a long-time soccer and basketball coach at the collegiate and high school levels. Amber and her younger brother were constantly joining their parents in informal competition. "It was always normal for us to be playing some type of sport while growing up," she said. Later both children became stars at the prep level.
When it came time to choose a college, Amber wisely turned to her parents for guidance. "When I began being recruited, I was very appreciative of how my parents and I went through the process. They took the time during my junior year to bring me to about 15 schools to get a feel for what was out there – state schools, private schools, big schools, little schools, everything.
"Each time, my Mom would ask me, 'What did you like – what didn't you like?' Then, we starting looking a little more toward the basketball side.
"So," Osborn said, "when I stepped on Boston College's campus, I knew that it was beautiful, that I liked the size of [the school], the fact that it is such a tight-knit community, and then I just loved the coaching staff – Cathy Inglese and her assistants. I knew her system would give me, as a point guard, the type of structure that I wanted. She [Inglese] harped on the fundamentals and she really liked to run. I knew I would have the freedom to play my game in that structure."
More importantly, Osborn felt that the Eagles would win. "I liked the players, and they had just started hitting the Top 25," she recalled. "I had a desire to be a part of continuing that, and I felt that I could be someone who would help that.
"I chose Boston College; I have never looked back; and I am so appreciative of my four years there. I am so proud to call myself a BC grad and an 'Eagle.'"
Osborn, who earned a degree in human development from the Lynch School of Education, can easily pinpoint the high point of her BC career: "My favorite memory of all time – my entire basketball career –has been the BIG EAST Conference Championship when we won four games in four days, beating Connecticut in the semifinals and then crushing Rutgers in the championship game.
"That was my most favorite team," she said. "We only had four upperclassmen - two seniors, two juniors and then five sophomores and four freshmen. The younger kids followed the upperclassmen – and they could see a vision both in what Coach Ingelese said and then the upperclassmen helping in rounding them. We were a very tight-knit group. We were all for each other. You have that in a lot of great teams.
"It was a phenomenal year."
Â
When Amber Jacobs Osborn was the sharp-shooting point guard for Boston College's 2004 Big East Conference champions, nobody ever called her "slow."
That's why when she volunteered to help her newly-wed husband David coach his prep school basketball team through some drills earlier this year, she was surprised to hear him say, "Gosh, honey, you're slow!"
    Amber who will be BC's representative to the 12th Annual Class of "ACC Women's Basketball Legends" at the upcoming league championship in Greensboro, N.C., was one of the quickest guards in college hoops during her Eagle career, averaging a hefty 12.6 points-per-game and earning All-America accolades for her dazzling play in leading the Eagles to the conference title in her junior year, plus three consecutive NCAA appearances and a pair of "Sweet 16" finishes in the Big Dance.
    "I guess I don't have it now like I once did," laughed Osborn, who followed her BC career with five professional seasons in the WNBA, originally drafted by the Minnesota Lynx, and subsequently signing with the Washington Mystics and Los Angeles Sparks.
    She also launched an outstanding coaching career, which saw her joining the staffs at University of Toledo and University of Rhode Island before becoming head coach and assistant athletics director at Division III Summit University in her hometown of Clark's Summit, Pa.
    Currently – in addition to occasionally helping out husband David's coaching career at Wheaton Academy just outside of Chicago – she is operations director for PGC Basketball, an elite national summer basketball camp program, where she helps to hone the skills of many of the country's top high school hoop prospects.
But Amber has never forgotten her time at Boston College during the "golden era" of her sport on the Chestnut Hill campus. And BC has not forgotten her: Amber Jacobs was inducted into the Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 2011 in recognition of her outstanding Eagle hoop career.
Osborn was always s top athlete. She had to be in a family where both of her parents were former student-athletes and her Dad was a long-time soccer and basketball coach at the collegiate and high school levels. Amber and her younger brother were constantly joining their parents in informal competition. "It was always normal for us to be playing some type of sport while growing up," she said. Later both children became stars at the prep level.
When it came time to choose a college, Amber wisely turned to her parents for guidance. "When I began being recruited, I was very appreciative of how my parents and I went through the process. They took the time during my junior year to bring me to about 15 schools to get a feel for what was out there – state schools, private schools, big schools, little schools, everything.
"Each time, my Mom would ask me, 'What did you like – what didn't you like?' Then, we starting looking a little more toward the basketball side.
"So," Osborn said, "when I stepped on Boston College's campus, I knew that it was beautiful, that I liked the size of [the school], the fact that it is such a tight-knit community, and then I just loved the coaching staff – Cathy Inglese and her assistants. I knew her system would give me, as a point guard, the type of structure that I wanted. She [Inglese] harped on the fundamentals and she really liked to run. I knew I would have the freedom to play my game in that structure."
More importantly, Osborn felt that the Eagles would win. "I liked the players, and they had just started hitting the Top 25," she recalled. "I had a desire to be a part of continuing that, and I felt that I could be someone who would help that.
"I chose Boston College; I have never looked back; and I am so appreciative of my four years there. I am so proud to call myself a BC grad and an 'Eagle.'"
Osborn, who earned a degree in human development from the Lynch School of Education, can easily pinpoint the high point of her BC career: "My favorite memory of all time – my entire basketball career –has been the BIG EAST Conference Championship when we won four games in four days, beating Connecticut in the semifinals and then crushing Rutgers in the championship game.
"That was my most favorite team," she said. "We only had four upperclassmen - two seniors, two juniors and then five sophomores and four freshmen. The younger kids followed the upperclassmen – and they could see a vision both in what Coach Ingelese said and then the upperclassmen helping in rounding them. We were a very tight-knit group. We were all for each other. You have that in a lot of great teams.
"It was a phenomenal year."
Â
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