Assistant Coach Kathy Harston
Full Name: Kathleen (Kathy) Yvette Harston The veteran among the Texas assistant coaches and a former collegiate All-America standout, native Texan Kathy Harston enters her 18th season with the Longhorns basketball program. Harston's duties include day-to-day coaching and practice responsibilities and opponent scheduling. Her primary focus is on coaching the Longhorn offense and handling the perimeter players. Kathy also continues her role as Texas' chief scheduler, annually building one of the most exciting and competitive schedules in the country for the Longhorn program. Harston had an impressive basketball career in her own right. A former National Player of the Year candidate while starring at AIAW national powerhouse Wayland Baptist, Kathy was selected as one of the "Top 25 Players of the Pre-NCAA Basketball Era" by ESPN.com in January of 2006. That honor was awarded to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the NCAA. Over the last 17 years, Harston's commitment to the Texas program has resulted in helping UT to 14 NCAA National Tournament appearances (including Final 16 showings in 2002 and 2004 as well as a Final Four berth in 2003) and eight conference championships (five regular season titles, three tournament championships). In addition, she has been instrumental in helping sign seven elite McDonald's All-Americans over the past four years (Nina Norman, Tiffany Jackson, Kalee Carey, Erika Arriaran, Earnie Williams, Crystal Boyd and Brittainey Raven), along with WBCA/Nike All-American Erneisha Bailey). While at Texas, Harston has helped develop 14 former Longhorn standouts who have gone on to professional basketball careers either in Europe or currently in the United States' ABL and WNBA leagues: Susan Anderson, Edwina Brown, Edna Campbell, Jamie Carey, Tai Dillard, Vicki Hall, Cinietra Henderson, Nekeshia Henderson, Angela Jackson, Kenya Larkin, Erica Routt, Stacy Stephens, Danielle Viglione and JoRuth Woods. On track herself to play professionally, Harston was a collegiate All-American at Wayland Baptist. She led Wayland Baptist to the 1977 National Women's Invitational Tournament (NWIT) post-season tournament championship and to a fourth-place finish at the 1978 AIAW National Championship. Harston's own career goals were cut short following a severe knee injury her sophomore season. Harston rebounded from her reconstructive surgery to post All-America numbers as a senior in 1979-80 when she was chosen to the elite 10-member Kodak All-America Team and was a finalist for the Wade Trophy National Player of the Year award. Team MVP as a senior, she finished her standout career with 1,617 points - which currently ranks eighth in all-time WBU scoring. After receiving her bachelor's degree in physical education (1980) from Wayland Baptist, Harston then earned her master's degree in education from North Texas in 1982. During that time, she began her successful coaching career at Hale Center High School in 1980-81 as girls' basketball and track and field coach. She then spent two years as an assistant coach at Texas Tech University, helping Tech to two national tournament showings. After that collegiate assistant coaching tenure, Harston returned to the high school coaching ranks for a five-year stint at Plainview High School in Plainview, Texas. At Plainview, she was head basketball coach and athletic coordinator. Under her direction, Plainview won the Texas Class 5A State Championship in 1986-87, and Harston was named Texas State High School Coach of the Year. Two years later, Harston began her long association with The University of Texas when she joined head coach Jody Conradt on the Longhorn sidelines. A native of Southlake, Texas, Harston was a standout scholastic basketball star. She earned three All-State honors at Southlake Carroll High School where she led her team to the Texas State Championship. For all her accomplishments at Southlake Carroll, Kathy was inducted into the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame (located at the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in Waco, Texas) in 1996. She resides in Austin. PLAYING EXPERIENCE/HONORS COLLEGE/HIGH SCHOOL COACHING EXPERIENCE
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