Taylor Vasa begins her fourth season as assistant women’s basketball coach at Fort Hays State University in 2026-27.
The Tigers have qualified for the NCAA Central Regional each of the last three seasons with Vasa on the coaching staff, reaching the regional semifinals each time. She has helped the program extend its streak of 20-win seasons to 15, the longest active stretch in Division II and fifth-longest across all levels of NCAA women's basketball.
Vasa spent the 2022-23 season as an assistant coach at Upper Iowa University, where she helped the Peacocks to double digit victories for the first time in 21 years and the most NSIC wins in team history. She coached one first team All-NISC selection at UIU in Lydia Haack.
She previously coached at Dakota Wesleyan from 2019-22, where she served as graduate assistant for two years and as an assistant coach for one year. The Tigers had three NAIA All-Americans and 11 All-GPAC selections during her three years with the team, including four first team picks. DWU won the GPAC Postseason Tournament in 2022, her final season with the program.
Vasa played collegiately at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa from 2015-19 where she was named an NAIA Scholar Athlete. She appeared in 125 games over those four seasons, totaling 556 points, 459 rebounds, 82 assists, 95 steals and 71 blocks while knocking down more than 45 percent of her shots from the floor. She was one of 60 individuals nationwide across all divisions of basketball and one of just seven NAIA players selected to attend the WBCA “So You Want to be a Coach” program in 2019.
A native of Arthur, Neb., Vasa was a 12-time varsity letterwinner at Arthur County High School, competing in basketball, track and volleyball. She was Keith County player of the year twice and earned honorable mention All-State honors as a junior and a senior.
Vasa earned a master’s degree in educational policy and administration from Dakota Wesleyan in 2021 and after completing a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2019.
