Women’s College Basketball Coach Announces She Was Fired in Postgame Press Conference
The Utah State women’s basketball team saw its season end in the Mountain West Tournament on Sunday with an 85-49 loss to Boise State, dropping them to 5-25 on the year.
Coming off an abysmal season, and a 31-94 record over the last four years, it was not at all surprising when the Aggies decided to part ways with women’s head basketball coach Kayla Ard.
What was surprising, however, was the way that the news was released. After the loss to Boise State, Ard took the podium for postgame media availability. During that time, Ard was asked how she planned on rebuild for 2024-25 after such a tough season.
To say that her answer took people by surprise is an understatement.
“I’m not going to be rebuilding,” Ard said. “I just coached my last game at Utah State. I spoke with Diana, and they’re going in a different direction, and I respect her decision and I hope they get a really good coach in.”
After a short awkward silence, Ard added, “”I’m assuming that’s going to be the last question?” before getting up and exiting the press conference.
Given the emotion and competitive nature of collegiate athletics, there’s no handbook on how to properly handle being fired. That being said, I’m pretty certain this probably isn’t in said book.
