SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara Women's Basketball Head Coach Loree Payne has officially solidified her coaching staff for the 2025-26 season. Four members of her staff at Northern Arizona - TJ Harris, Kellee Barney, Ryan Freeman and Tabby Kangas - will join her at Santa Clara while Kerri Nakamoto, who has been with the Broncos for the last four seasons, will remain on staff to round out the group. Payne made the announcement on Monday.
"I'm incredibly excited to bring my entire staff from Northern Arizona to Santa Clara, a group that has grown together, built strong chemistry and remained committed to establishing a culture of excellence," Payne said. "We are also retaining assistant coach Kerri Nakamoto, whose experience will provide invaluable continuity and connection to the program's recent history. This leadership team is not just experienced, they are loyal, talented and dedicated to doing things the right way. We can't wait to get started."
Harris will serve as Payne's Associate Head Coach while Barney, Freeman and Nakamoto will all serve as assistant coaches. Kangas will reprise her role from NAU as the program's director of operations.
The NAU crew helped Payne and the Lumberjacks achieve unprecedented success, especially over the last three seasons where they won 20-plus games each year, qualified for three postseason tournaments, won NAU's first regular season championship since 1998 in 2022-23, and set the program record with 27 victories in 2024-25, which included the program's first-ever WBIT bid and victory.
Harris spent three seasons with Payne at NAU where he served as the Lumberjacks' defensive coordinator, recruiting coordinator, guard development coach and summer camp director. NAU's defense led the Big Sky in blocks in 2024-25 with 3.9 per game and a pair of guards (Taylor Feldman and Nyah Moran) earned All-Big Sky honors. Prior to his time with NAU, Harris was an assistant men's basketball coach at Chandler-Gilbert Community College and served as both the boys and girls head basketball coach at Northland Preparatory Academy from 2017-20.
Barney is the lone assistant that was with Payne all eight years at NAU. Together, they helped build the Lumberjacks into one of the top programs in the Big West. A total of 14 different players earned a total of 22 All-Big Sky honors, including six first team selections, during their eight seasons of work. Barney is an established coaching veteran with over three decades of experience as both a head and assistant coach. Throughout her decorated career, she served as head coach for a six-year stint at Gonzaga (1994-2000) with assistant coaching stints at Washington State, Arizona, Oregon State and Montana State among others.
Both Freeman and Kangas joined NAU at the same time as Harris in 2022. Freeman joined the Lumberjacks after a four-year stint at New Mexico where he held multiple positions from 2019-22. Kangas was NAU's Director of Basketball Operations for two seasons before being elevated to the title of Director of Basketball Operations/Chief of Staff ahead of the 2024-25 season. She joined Payne's staff after working with Oregon State Women's Basketball as the Beavers' head student manager for four seasons.
Nakamoto just wrapped up her fourth season as an assistant coach with the Broncos, originally joining the staff in 2021-22. During her four seasons on staff, five different players earned a total of seven All-WCC honors, including two-time First Team pick Olivia Pollerd. Before her time at Santa Clara, Nakamoto was the head women's basketball coach at both the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (2019-21) and Cal State Monterey Bay (2013-18). The San Jose native also had an eight-year stint as an assistant coach for Cal Poly.
