Taja Edwards will be joining the Loyola Marymount women’s basketball staff as an assistant coach, announced by head coach Charity Elliott on Wednesday.
“We are so excited to welcome Taja Edwards back home to LA and to the LMU family,” said Elliott. “She comes to LMU with tremendous experience and a work ethic that is second to none. She has deep ties in So Cal and now has contacts all over this country and the world coming from the prestigious Ivy League. I’ve watched Taja from a distance through the years and always noticed her professionalism and work ethic. Our players will benefit from her playing experience as well as her multiple coaching stops and we are all excited to get her started.”
Edwards enters her eighth season of Division I coaching, while she spent her last two seasons at Dartmouth as the as the director of recruiting, defense coordinator and the career development liaison.
While at the Big Green, Edwards led the team to achieving its first program wins over BCS opponents in its 2017-18 season, while boasting two Second Team All-Ivy Honors.
The Long Beach, Calif., native makes her way back to Southern California, as she had served as an assistant coach for both the University of Southern California for three seasons, where she was responsible for player development, and Cal State Fullerton, where she worked with post players and was responsible for recruiting in the west coast region.
Edwards earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Fresno State University, where as a player she led the Bulldogs to three Western Athletic Conference Championships, as well as four consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament. Edwards went on to earn her Master’s Degree in psychology from Grand Canyon University.
“I am excited to return home to Southern California, with an opportunity to extend my collegiate coaching career at Loyola Marymount University,” said Edwards. “Under the leadership of Coach Elliot, alongside the staff and players, it is with great pleasure to join an institution and program that is on a trajectory of excellence. LMU represents the freedom to think, innovate, and become more than oneself. With that, I am elated to educate, mentor, and teach the current and future players of Loyola Marymount University.”
Elliott also announced that assistant coach Jasmin Holliday has been promoted to the Lions’ recruiting coordinator. Holliday enters her fourth season with the team, as she started as the director of operations before moving into an assistant coaching position.
“I’m also very pleased to announce that Jasmin Holliday will now be moving into our recruiting coordinator position and will manage the day to day organization of our recruiting plan,” said Elliott.
Holliday helped lead the Lions to their first post-season stint in 15 years, while defeating two ranked teams in the 2018-19 season.
“Any time there is a change in the coaching staff, it’s an opportunity to get better and to reorganize job descriptions,” said Elliott. ” Hiring Taja as our director of recruiting and moving Jasmin to the recruiting coordinator position is an exciting new step in how we will organize and take our recruiting to another level. I’m so excited to be surrounded by such amazing people who care so deeply about our players and this program and we can’t wait to get to work with this team.”
