Utah State women’s basketball head coach Kayla Ard announced the promotion of Taylor Ignoto to assistant coach on Monday. Ignoto previously served as the team’s director of basketball operations and a special assistant to the head coach.
“This promotion for Taylor is a no-brainer in my eyes and well deserved,” Ard said. “She’s done a great job this past year in our director of operations role, but she is a very talented coach that deserves to be on the court teaching. Any task I throw at her she tackles and works hard to do what’s best for our program. Our players respond well to her and I’m looking forward to having her as an assistant coach.”
Ignoto joined the USU staff in April 2020 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.
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. She’s also made coaching stops at Western Illinois and Washburn University.
“Utah State is truly a special place and I am thankful Coach Ard has given me this opportunity to continue on as an assistant coach here,” Ignoto said. “I am excited to contribute on the floor and help our players grow on and off the court. I believe in the vision Coach Ard has for this program and I look forward to this upcoming season. I’m proud to continue to be an Aggie!”
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.
