Women's Basketball
Duperron, Kari
Kari Duperron
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach
- Email:
- kduperro@calpoly.edu
- Phone:
- 805-756-2683
Kari Duperron returned to her alma mater from the University of Washington before the 2011-12 season. Since then, Cal Poly has gone 88-74 in conference play, reached an NCAA Tournament along with two WNITs, won a Big West Tournament championship plus a regular-season conference title, and advanced to at least the league semifinals three times from 2018 to 2021.
A former Mustang herself, Duperron worked her way up from a walk-on as a freshman to the team’s leader in minutes played as a junior and senior. In the latter year, she was a team captain and was awarded the conference’s Best Hustle Award. Today, Duperron still ranks No. 2 in school history for career steals (with 224), along with No. 11 in program history for assists (243).
For six of the 10 years since she came back to San Luis Obispo, Mustang players have won the same conference award for effort, including in 2019 when point guard Dye Stahley was selected for her second consecutive Best Hustle plaque in addition to earning a spot on the Big West All-Defensive Team.
Initially brought in to focus on post-player development, Duperron began working with Molly Schlemer at the start of the center’s sophomore year. Schlemer saw her averages jump by 10.5 points and 4.7 rebounds as a junior, when she finished 10th in the country in field-goal percentage (54.2) while helping Cal Poly lead the Big West in rebounding. Duperron also mentored the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in school history, Kristina Santiago. During the forward’s senior year, she ranked fifth in the country in scoring, at 23.4 points per game on 56-percent shooting.
Both Santiago (in Bulgaria, Switzerland and Israel) and Schlemer (Germany, Turkey and Greece) went on to prominent professional careers overseas — as have 2019 grads Dynn Leaupepe (in Denmark and Spain) and Lynn Leaupepe (Australia and now Spain as well).
In addition to being the program’s recruiting coordinator, Duperron also now works closely with the Mustang guards. She has also coached one of 30 Senior CLASS Award candidates across the country in 2015, Ariana Elegado; the NCAA’s assist-to-turnover ratio leader in 2012, Jonae Ervin; Kristen Alé, who went on to play for the American Samoa National Team; and back-to-back 2019 & 2020 Big West All-Freshman honorees in Maddie Willett & Abbey Ellis.
At Washington, Duperron coached an All-Pac-12 First Team member in Kristi Kingma and an all-conference defensive honorable mention in Charmaine Barlow. Also while in Seattle, she supervised the program’s academic progress and served as liaison to the Huskies’ Compliance Department. Before joining UW, Duperron spent two years as an assistant coach at UNLV. As the Lady Rebels’ camp director, she was heavily involved in the team’s community service and marketing, and conducted several free youth camps & pregame clinics.
Duperron began her coaching career at UCLA (2003-07), where she started as an intern before being promoted to director of operations and assistant coach. During the 2007-08 season, she returned to her high school, North Torrance, as the assistant boys varsity coach. Alongside her father, head coach Gary Duperron, the Saxons won their first league title since 1972.
As a Mustang, Duperron finished her career earning two all-conference honorable mentions. She averaged 10.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.6 steals between her junior and senior years, and set the record for free-throw attempts in a game at the Big West Tournament (19).
Duperron graduated from Cal Poly in Business in 2003, and earned her master’s degree in Sports Management from Long Beach State in 2006.
A former Mustang herself, Duperron worked her way up from a walk-on as a freshman to the team’s leader in minutes played as a junior and senior. In the latter year, she was a team captain and was awarded the conference’s Best Hustle Award. Today, Duperron still ranks No. 2 in school history for career steals (with 224), along with No. 11 in program history for assists (243).
For six of the 10 years since she came back to San Luis Obispo, Mustang players have won the same conference award for effort, including in 2019 when point guard Dye Stahley was selected for her second consecutive Best Hustle plaque in addition to earning a spot on the Big West All-Defensive Team.
Initially brought in to focus on post-player development, Duperron began working with Molly Schlemer at the start of the center’s sophomore year. Schlemer saw her averages jump by 10.5 points and 4.7 rebounds as a junior, when she finished 10th in the country in field-goal percentage (54.2) while helping Cal Poly lead the Big West in rebounding. Duperron also mentored the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in school history, Kristina Santiago. During the forward’s senior year, she ranked fifth in the country in scoring, at 23.4 points per game on 56-percent shooting.
Both Santiago (in Bulgaria, Switzerland and Israel) and Schlemer (Germany, Turkey and Greece) went on to prominent professional careers overseas — as have 2019 grads Dynn Leaupepe (in Denmark and Spain) and Lynn Leaupepe (Australia and now Spain as well).
In addition to being the program’s recruiting coordinator, Duperron also now works closely with the Mustang guards. She has also coached one of 30 Senior CLASS Award candidates across the country in 2015, Ariana Elegado; the NCAA’s assist-to-turnover ratio leader in 2012, Jonae Ervin; Kristen Alé, who went on to play for the American Samoa National Team; and back-to-back 2019 & 2020 Big West All-Freshman honorees in Maddie Willett & Abbey Ellis.
At Washington, Duperron coached an All-Pac-12 First Team member in Kristi Kingma and an all-conference defensive honorable mention in Charmaine Barlow. Also while in Seattle, she supervised the program’s academic progress and served as liaison to the Huskies’ Compliance Department. Before joining UW, Duperron spent two years as an assistant coach at UNLV. As the Lady Rebels’ camp director, she was heavily involved in the team’s community service and marketing, and conducted several free youth camps & pregame clinics.
Duperron began her coaching career at UCLA (2003-07), where she started as an intern before being promoted to director of operations and assistant coach. During the 2007-08 season, she returned to her high school, North Torrance, as the assistant boys varsity coach. Alongside her father, head coach Gary Duperron, the Saxons won their first league title since 1972.
As a Mustang, Duperron finished her career earning two all-conference honorable mentions. She averaged 10.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.6 steals between her junior and senior years, and set the record for free-throw attempts in a game at the Big West Tournament (19).
Duperron graduated from Cal Poly in Business in 2003, and earned her master’s degree in Sports Management from Long Beach State in 2006.
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