Austin Kelly completed his second season as assistant coach/recruiting coordinator with the Lady Mavs women’s basketball program in 2022-23. He was named an assistant coach for the WNBA's Connecticut Sun on March 24, 2023.
Kelly was an instrumental part of the team's success in 2021-22 as UTA captured the Sun Belt tournament championship, finished with a 20-8 record and nearly upset No. 3 seed Iowa State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
Along with his recruiting duties, Kelly's vital piece is game planning the offense for the Lady Mavs. He played an integral role in the development of two-time conference player of the year, Starr Jacobs, who became the first player in program history to reach 1,000 career points in just two seasons.
Kelly came to UTA after spending two seasons at Vanderbilt (2019-21), a staff he joined after serving at Georgia Tech as a graduate assistant with the women’s basketball team (2018-19), where he also served as the assistant scouting coordinator.
While at Georgia Tech, Kelly’s duties included being the defensive scout coach for all opponents, opponent personnel breakdowns, assisting with on-court player development, serving as the liaison to strength and conditioning, scheduling and assisting with off-season individual workouts and handling the daily coordination of the practice squad. Kelly also served as the assistant camp director.
Prior to his time at Georgia Tech, Kelly was the boys varsity basketball assistant and head junior varsity coach at South Cobb High School in Austell, Georgia, while also holding the positions of health and physical education teacher and athletic coordinator.
The Mableton, Ga. native's resume also includes being the boys varsity basketball assistant at Kell High School and serving two stints at Champion Performance Training where he was the player development specialist.
Kelly graduated from Duke in 2011 where he played football (wide receiver) and finished his career with 1,439 receiving yards and nine touchdowns. He also played a season of basketball at Division II Georgia Southwestern.
UPDATED: 3/28/23
