St. John’s University women’s basketball head coach Kim Barnes Arico will travel to Indianapolis, Ind., to serve as a guest lecturer at the Achieving Coaching Excellence (ACE) Program, which is designed for minority assistant coaches. The two-day clinic runs June 5-6, and Barnes Arico, the 2006 BIG EAST Coach of the Year, will be joined by other coaching greats including Ohio State’s Jim Foster.

“I’m excited for this chance to share some of my experience to aspiring coaches,” Barnes Arico said. “It will be a great opportunity.”

The ACE clinic, in association with the Black Coaches Association (BCA), will be held at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Barnes Arico took over as head coach of the Red Storm in 2002-03 and has since catapulted St. John’s women’s basketball onto the national scene. Last year’s squad finished 22-8 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to eventual national champion Maryland. It was the first year the Red Storm had earned an NCAA Tournament berth since 1988.

Barnes Arico also led her 2005-06 team to its first national ranking in more than 20 years, as the Red Storm was ranked as high as No. 23 by the Associated Press. For her efforts, she was recognized by the BIG EAST Conference as the Coach of the Year. She was also honored by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MWBA) as the Met Coach of the Year.

She began her head coaching career at Fairleigh Dickinson-Madison before spending two years at New Jersey Institute of Technology. Barnes Arico then moved on to Division II Adelphi, where she led the Panthers to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen and a 28-3 record in her final season.