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Kayla Laine Ard (born February 10, 1984)[1] is an American college basketball coach who is currently women's basketball head coach at Utah State.

Kayla Ard

Current position
Title	Head coach
Team	Utah State
Conference	Mountain West
Record	15–39 (.278)
Biographical details
Born	(1984-02-10) February 10, 1984 (age 38) Hammond, Louisiana
Playing career
2003–2004	Chipola
2004–2006	Southeastern Louisiana
Position(s)	Guard/forward
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2005–2006	Hammond HS
2010–2012	Pensacola State (asst.)
2012–2013	Troy (asst.)
2013–2015	Clemson (asst.)
2015–2017	Dayton (asst.)
2017–2020	Denver (asst.)
2020–present	Utah State
Head coaching record
Overall	15–39 (.278)

Early life and education

Born in Hammond, Louisiana, Ard grew up in nearby Loranger and graduated from Loranger High School in 2002.[2][3] She played basketball for one season at Chipola College, then transferred to Southeastern Louisiana University, where she played three games in the 2004–05 season, averaging 3.0 points per game.[4][5] She graduated from Southeastern Louisiana in 2010 with a bachelor's degree in general studies, and later earned a master's degree in psychology from the University of Phoenix in 2013.[4]

Coaching career

Ard started her coaching career as assistant coach of the AAU Domino's Basketball program in New Orleans, Louisiana from 2003 to 2005, followed by one season as a coach at Hammond High School (2005-06 season), and head coach of the Hammond Tornadoes AAU organization in 2007.[2] After coaching at Hammond, Ard was cast in the lead role of a Gatorade commercial, which aired from 2008 to 2009.[6]

Ard was then a recruiter and assistant coach at Pensacola State College in Florida during the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons, then spent a year at Troy University, working under Chanda Rigby.[7][6] From 2013 to 2015, Ard was an assistant coach at Clemson University, then served as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Dayton from 2015 to 2017.[7] While at Dayton, Ard coached a coached a team that was top 20 in the nation in 2015.[8]

From 2017 to 2020, she was the associate head coach, recruiting coordinator, and offensive coordinator at the University of Denver, including 11 games in the 2019 season as the interim head coach which produced a six-game winning streak that was the school's longest in eight years.[8]

On March 23, 2020, it was announced that she had been hired as the head coach for the Utah State University's basketball program.[7] In an interesting turn of events, 10 players from her team entered the transfer portal following the 2021–22 season, leaving the team with only 2 returners (both reserves).

Head coaching record

Statistics overview

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
2020–21	Utah State	4–20	2–16	10th
2021–22	Utah State	11–19	5–13	9th
Utah State:		15–39 (.278)	7–29 (.194)
Total:		15–39 (.278)

References

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