Utah Valley University Interim Athletic Director Dr. Jared Sumsion announced today that Cathy Nixon, the long-time head coach of women’s basketball, has accepted the position of senior associate athletic director at UVU, effective immediately.
The change marks an end to Nixon’s 28 total years of coaching at the university. Her 24-year tenure as head coach was longest in the WAC, and among the longest in all of NCAA Division I women’s basketball. Associate head coach Anthony Turner will serve as the interim head coach until a permanent replacement is hired.
“I’m extremely thankful for the opportunity I had to coach so many great student-athletes,” Nixon said. “It takes a team effort on and off the court to succeed, and I’m grateful and indebted to everyone I’ve worked with over the years. I’m anxious to help UVU and its athletics program reach its highest potential with this new opportunity.”
“We have great respect for Coach Nixon and her career at UVU,” Sumsion said. “As the only head coach the program has known in its NCAA Division I era, Coach Nixon has worked on and off the court coaching and supporting hundreds of young women. She started a mentoring program that has positively impacted student-athletes after graduation. Her teams have always had some of the highest GPA’s in the entire nation. As senior associate athletic director, she will continue to mold and shape lives on a broader scale throughout athletics and the community.”
A national search for the new women’s basketball head coach will begin immediately. To submit resumes and letters of interest, please email [email protected].
Coach Nixon’s successes include:
- A career record of 380-345 (.524) in 24 seasons as UVU’s head coach. She spent a total of 28 years at the school, including four seasons as an assistant coach.
- A distinction as the only women’s basketball coach to transition a program from the NJCAA (junior college) directly into NCAA Division I.
- A Great West Conference regular season title in 2012-13, and a GWC Tournament Championship to end the 2009-10 season. The 2012-13 championship earned Nixon the GWC Coach of the Year award.
- A best record of 16-15 overall and 8-6 in WAC play during the 2015-16 campaign. That team also earned the program’s first WAC Tournament win.
- Coaching a three-time All-American in Canadian center Robyn Fairbanks. Fairbanks was named Honorable Mention All-American as a sophomore in 2007 by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) before receiving the same honor from the Associated Press after both her junior and senior seasons.
- Tremendous success of her players in the classroom, with her teams landing on the WBCA Division I Academic Top 25 honor roll nine times. Utah Valley twice claimed the top national spot on the honor roll in 2009-10 with a 3.63 team grade point average, and in 2012-13 with a 3.639 GPA.
