Utah State head women’s basketball coach Kayla Ard announced Friday the addition of Taylor Ignoto (pronounced Ig-No-Toe) as the Director of Operations and Special Assistant to the head coach.
“Taylor is a very hard worker and an absolute steal,” Ard said. “She is very knowledgeable and experienced from her time as both a head coach and an assistant, which fits in well with the rest of the staff. Aggie women’s basketball just got better, and I’m delighted to have Taylor working with us.”
Ignoto joins the Aggies after spending the 2019-20 season as an assistant coach at Omaha, where she worked primarily with the guards and was the staff liaison to the athletic academic staff for current player academics.
“I am grateful for the chance to join coach Ard’s staff,” Ignoto said. “I’ve seen first-hand what kind of coach and person she is, and I’m confident this program is headed in a great direction. Utah State has the facilities, administration and resources to be one of the top programs in the Mountain West, and I’m excited to be a part of the building process. I’m looking forward to getting to know the student-athletes and the Logan community.”
Prior to her time at Omaha, Ignoto spent the 2018-19 season as the head coach of NJCAA Division III Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill., where she garnered North Central Community College Conference (N4C) and Region IV Coach of the Year honors. At Rock Valley College, she led the Golden Eagles to a 25-6 record, a N4C Championship with a perfect 14-0 record, a Region IV Division III Championship and came one win away from advancing to the NJCAA National Tournament.
Ignoto also spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Western Illinois (2016-18), where she helped the Leathernecks to an overall 48-17 record. In her first season, Western Illinois won the Summit League regular season and tournament championships and earned its first NCAA Division I Tournament berth in 22 years. The Leathernecks also broke a total of 15 individual and team program records in those two seasons and saw four players earn a combined 10 all-Summit League awards.
Ignoto began her coaching career as a student assistant at Washburn University in Topeka, Kan., where she recruited potential student-athletes and assisted with individual workouts and skill development.
Ignoto, a native of Thousand Oaks, Calif., played collegiately at Washburn, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in social work with a minor in psychology. As a senior, she started 24 out of 27 games, and led her team in scoring at 14.0 points per game as she garnered honorable mention all-Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) honors. Ignoto, transferred to Washburn from Mineral Area College in Missouri, where she averaged 17.2 points per game as a junior and earned honorable mention All-America honors, as well as being named first team all-region and all-conference. Prior to Mineral Area College, she played her freshman season at Southern Illinois University.
