SAN ANTONIO — On Monday, UTSA women's basketball coach Karen Aston announced that former Roadrunner Elyssa Coleman will return to the program as Director of Operations after spending the 2025-26 season as an assistant coach at ULM.
"We are thrilled that Elyssa has decided to come back to the program”, said Aston. “She is and will always be an integral part, as she understands the culture that we have built here and wants to help us continue to move the needle forward for UTSA Basketball. Now that she has experience on the coaching side, I believe she can bring a different perspective to the mentoring of our student-athletes, along with input for our staff. Welcome back to the blue and orange, Elyssa!
In her lone season with the Warhawks, Coleman helped ULM to a winning record, with 17 victories representing a six-win improvement.
Previously, Coleman transitioned to Director of Operations at UTSA for the 2024-25 season after medically retiring from basketball. While handling operational duties, Coleman helped the Roadrunners post a 26-5 record in 2024-25, including a 17-1 mark in league play, en route to The American regular-season title for the most wins and most conference victories in program history. The squad also went 13-0 at home, finishing undefeated for the first time since the 1984-85 campaign, when the team went 9-0 in the Convocation Center. The conference championship was UTSA's first since the 2008-09 season in the Southland and was the Roadrunners' fifth in school history.
As a student-athlete, Coleman was one of the best in the Aston era, propelling the squad to an 18-15 mark as a redshirt junior and securing the first national postseason berth since the 2008-09 campaign. She led the 'Runners to their inaugural postseason victory via an 80-62 routing of Northern Colorado in the Opening Round of the WNIT.
After redshirting at Texas, Coleman transferred to UTSA and had an immediate impact on the squad, eventually becoming the program's all-time blocking leader, swatting 140 shots and joining the 500-rebound club with 588 boards representing the ninth-most in program history. Across 94 games for the Roadrunners, she started 78, averaging 9.3 PPG and 7.2 RPG. She was named to the 2022-23 Conference-USA All-Defensive Team as a redshirt sophomore and, for her work in the classroom, was featured on the 2021-22 C-USA Commissioners Honor Roll and the 2023-24 American Athletic Conference All-Academic Team.
Coleman boasts a wealth of basketball knowledge, having previously worked camps at Atascocita High School and UTSA while playing a significant role in training and developing athletes across younger AAU divisions. She graduated from UTSA in December 2023 with a bachelor's degree in sociology.
Keep up with UTSA Women's Basketball on goutsa.com and by following the program on Facebook at /UTSAWBB, X (Twitter) @UTSAWBB, and on Instagram @UTSA_WBB.
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