Women's Basketball
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Email:
- klbyrd@calpoly.edu
- Phone:
- 805-756-7218
er first year with the Cal Poly women’s basketball program as a graduate assistant during the 2015-16 season, Kelsey Byrd was promoted to assistant coach in June 2016.
Byrd played at Dartmouth before graduating with a degree in Geography (minoring in Public Policy) in 2013.
During 2016-17, the former Big Green guard helped Cal Poly break the single-season school record for free-throw percentage (.752 — ranking No. 35 nationally).
Additionally, sophomore point guard Dye Stahley ranked 60th in the country (third in the Big West Conference) in assist-to-turnover ratio, at 2.1.
In her first season at Cal Poly, Byrd was part of a staff that guided the Mustangs to within three points of advancing to the semifinals of the Big West Tournament. She was also integral in arranging travel scheduling, community events and camps and clinics.
A native of San Jose (where she was a three-year captain at Valley Christian), Byrd came to San Luis Obispo from Vinalhaven, Maine, where she was a community wellness coordinator (conducting meetings, implementing programming, overseeing policy changes and managing grant funding) as an Island Institute AmeriCorps Fellow.
During that time, she also served as an assistant varsity girls coach at Vinalhaven High School, helping to mentor the Vikings to their first state tournament berth since 2009 while providing player instruction, team scouting and preseason conditioning.
Additionally, in the summer of 2014 Byrd was the assistant director for the Bowdoin College Women’s Basketball Camp in Brunswick, Maine, where she facilitated skill development, conducted a classroom workshop on growth mindset and goal-setting, and fulfilled day-to-day logistics such as set-up and officiating.
While a student at Dartmouth, she was also the vice president for the college’s Cycling Club, organizing daily operations such as team finances and scheduling, along the way raising nearly a quarter of a $35,000 budget through community and alumni outreach.
