| Tai Dillard |
SAN ANTONIO - UTSA women’s basketball coach Rae Rippetoe-Blair announced Wednesday the hiring of Tai Dillard as an assistant coach. Her primary duties with the team will be recruiting and setting up community services events, in addition to helping in all others areas.
Dillard, a San Antonio native, spent the last two years as a physical education teache, head cross country and assistant basketball and track coach at Sam Houston High School.
“Tai brings a lot of basketball knowledge to our coaching staff and will be a great asset to our program.” Rippetoe-Blair said. “She has great basketball roots from playing at Texas and in the professional ranks. She is well-known and respected around the community because she played at Sam Houston and went back to teach and coach there.”
Dillard brings a tremendous amount of collegiate and professional playing experience to UTSA. She was a four-year letterwinner at Texas from 1999-2003, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. During the 2002-03 season, Dillard started 34 games and averaged 7.6 points and 4.7 rebounds per contest in helping the Longhorns reach the NCAA Women’s Final Four. Dillard was a two-time Big 12 All-Academic honoree and she also was named to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll five times.
Professionally, Dillard played for the San Antonio Silver Stars from 2003-05, had a short stint in the National Women’s Basketball League (NWBL) with the Houston Stealth in 2004 and played overseas in the Israeli Premier Basketball League for the Macabbi Tel Kabir from 2004-05.