The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Women's Basketball
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach
- Phone:
- 512-471-9802
Elena Lovato enters her fourth season as the associate head coach of the Longhorns in the 2025-26 season. Lovato spent the 2020-21 season with Texas as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator and returned as associate head coach in the 2022-23 season.
Lovato was named the 2023 Division I Women's Assistant Coach of the Year by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches and was a finalist for the 2022-23 Coach of the Year presented by TheLeadershipPlaybook.Com.
2024-25 was a historic season for the Longhorns as they won 35 games to set a program record for wins in the NCAA Era. Texas advanced to the Final Four for the first time in 22 years and won the SEC regular season championship in their first season in the league. Madison Booker was named the SEC Player of the Year and an Associated Press First Team All-American. Booker won the Cheryl Miller Small Forward of the Year award for the second straight season. Rori Harmon and Taylor Jones earned WBCA All-America honorable mention honors and Jordan Lee earned a spot on the SEC All-Freshman Team.
In the 2023-24 season Texas won 33 games, their most in a season since the 1985-86 season. The Longhorns won the Big 12 Tournament Championship, marking their third straight conference championship. Texas advanced to the Elite Eight for the third time in the last four seasons. Madison Booker earned WBCA All-America honors and was named the Cheryl Miller Small Forward of the Year. Booker was also selected Big 12 Player of the Year and Big 12 Freshman of the Year.
In the 2022-23 season the Longhorns went 26-10 and captured the Big 12 regular season title, their first regular season crown since the 2003-04 season. Rori Harmon earned All-America honorable mentions honors and was selected the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and an All-Big 12 First Team honoree. Joining Harmon the All-Big 12 First Team was DeYona Gastona. Shaylee Gonzales earned Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and a spot on the All-Big 12 Second Team. Amina Muhammad earned selection to the Big 12 All Freshman Team.
Including the 2020-21 season, Lovato has spent a total of six seasons as an assistant on Schaefer’s staff including two different stints during his tenure at Mississippi State.
In 2020-21, the Longhorns won 21 games and advanced to the Elite Eight during a magical run through the NCAA Tournament, that included a pair of upset victories over No. 3-seed UCLA and No. 2-seed Maryland.
Additionally, Lovato played a key role in bringing in Schaefer’s first recruiting class at UT which was rated as the No. 4 class in the country entering the 2021-22 season by espnW Hoop Gurlz which was highlighted by a tri of McDonalds All-Americans in Rori Harmon, Aaliyah Moore and Kyndall Hunter.
During her time on Schaefer's staff in Starkville, she helped recruit some of the top classes in Mississippi State history that went on to earn four consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament, including back-to-back national title game appearances, and collected the program's first SEC Championship.
Most recently, she helped the Bulldogs ink the top signing class in program history, which was ranked No. 6 nationally by espnW Hoop Gurlz. Rickea Jackson, the fifth-ranked player in the country and Mississippi State's first McDonald's All-American, highlighted the group.
Between her two stints in Starkville, Lovato spent two years as the head coach at Arkansas-Fort Smith. At UAFS, she led the Lady Lions to a 37-24 overall record, including a 20-10 mark in the Heartland Conference. Her 2017-18 squad reached the 20-win mark and earned a spot in the NCAA Division II Tournament.
In Lovato's first two seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Mississippi State, the Bulldogs posted a 55-15 overall record and a 22-10 mark in the SEC. She helped Mississippi State to back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths, including the program's first NCAA Sweet 16 appearance since 2010.
Prior to joining Mississippi State, Lovato was one of the top junior college coaches in the country, recording a 113-8 [.934] record in four seasons at the level. She spent the 2012-13 and 2013-14 campaigns at the helm of Trinity Valley Community College, where her teams posted a 72-2 mark and won the NJCAA National Championship in each of those seasons.
Lovato was named the NJCAA Division I Coach of the Year after her 2013-14 squad went 36-1 and claimed a second consecutive national title. The previous year's team also went 36-1 en route to the national championship. Lovato mentored six NJCAA All-Americans at TVCC, including the 2014 WBCA Player of the Year Adut Bulgak.
Lovato served one season as an assistant coach at Omaha, an NCAA Division II program that was making the transition to Division I, and another as head coach at Grayson College in Denton, Texas.
At Grayson, Lovato took a program that finished 4-26 the previous year and led it to a 32-4 record, the NJCAA Region V Championship and a fifth-place national finish. She earned Coach of the Year accolades from the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, the North Texas College Athletic Conference and NJCAA Region V.
A year earlier, Lovato was an assistant coach at Trinity Valley Community College before being promoted to interim head coach for the final 11 games of the season. She led the Lady Cardinals to a 9-2 record and a sixth-place finish at the national tournament during that time.
Lovato was an assistant on Joe Curl's Houston staff in 2008-09 and, before that, was a graduate assistant at Pittsburg State in Kansas. The Albuquerque, N.M., native also coached at the high school level following a stellar playing career.
Before embarking on her coaching career, Lovato played two seasons at West Texas A&M before transferring to Missouri Southern State, where she was named a team captain and MIAA Newcomer of the Year.
She went on to play professionally in the Puerto Rican Women's Basketball League, earning First-Team All-League Honors after averaging 23 points and 10 rebounds in 2001. The following season, she averaged 18 points and eight rebounds. In 2002, she also played for the Chicago Blaze of the National Women's Basketball League [NWBL].
Lovato earned her bachelor's degree in university studies from Missouri Southern State in 2005 and her master's degree in physical education from Pittsburg State in 2008.
THE ELENA LOVATO FILE
Hometown: Albuquerque, N.M.
Alma Mater: Pittsburg State University [2008]
COACHING HISTORY
2022-Present: Associate Head Coach, Texas
2020-21: Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator, Texas
2018-20: Assistant Coach, Mississippi State
2016-18: Head Coach, Arkansas-Fort Smith
2014-16: Assistant Coach, Mississippi State
2012-14: Head Coach, Trinity Valley Community College
2011-12: Assistant Coach, Omaha
2010-11: Head Coach, Grayson College
2009-10: Assistant Coach/Interim Head Coach, Trinity Valley Community College
2008-09: Assistant Coach, Houston
2008: Graduate Assistant Coach, Pittsburg State
PLAYING EXPERIENCE
2002: Chicago Blaze [NWBL]
2001-02: Puerto Rican Women’s Pro Basketball League
1999-01: Missouri Southern State
1997-99: West Texas A&M
PLAYING HONORS
• First-Team All-Puerto Rican Women’s League [2001]
• MIAA Newcomer of the Year — Missouri Southern State [1999-2000]
