Purdue Fort Wayne women’s basketball head coach Kate Peterson Abiad announced her assistant coaches for the 2026-27 season: Kevin McManaman, Rachel McLimore, Jauwan Scaife and Destiny Leo.
McManaman has spent over 30 years on coaching staffs across all levels of college basketball. He has served on staffs at the junior college level and all three Divisions in the NCAA. He has several ties to Horizon League hoops, coaching at UIC while the Flames were in the league, Milwaukee, Northern Illinois and Cleveland State. He was an assistant under Peterson Abiad at Cleveland State. He was most recently at Division II programs Lewis and Roosevelt.
McLimore comes to Purdue Fort Wayne after three years as an assistant coach at NAIA institution Taylor. Prior to joining the Trojan staff, she played professionally for the St. Louis Surge of the Global Women’s Basketball Association and for the Hills Hornets of the Women’s NBL1 East in Sydney, Australia. She played for four years at then-IUPUI, where she was an All-Horizon League player, and Butler for one season.
Scaife comes to the Summit City with several years of Division I experience. He spent last season at Furman, helping the Paladins to an 18-win season. Prior to his time in South Carolina, Scaife was at Virginia Tech for a year that resulted in a trip to the NCAA Tournament. He coached at his alma mater, Ball State, for the 2022-23 season and helped orchestrate a trip to the WNIT. He also had stops at Utah State, Murray State and Southeast Missouri. He was a 1,000-point scorer for the Cardinals in his time in Muncie (2010-13).
Leo is no stranger to fans of Horizon League hoops, as the 2023 Horizon League Player of the Year spent four years at Cleveland State. She averaged 15.2 points per game for the Vikings over four years and spent her final year of eligibility at UNLV. Leo led Cleveland State to the WNIT Fab 4 in 2025, the WBIT in 2024, the NCAA Tournament in 2023, and the WBI in 2022.
The Mastodons will open the 2026-27 season in early November.
Tagged with: Horizon League
