1 / 2

Alli Winters

Photo supplied, BYU Athletics

2 / 2

In this undated photo, Westminster College guard Alli Winters, right, attempts a shot in a game in Salt Lake City.

Photo supplied, Westminster Athletics

❮ ❯

OGDEN — Alli Winters, newly hired Weber State women’s basketball assistant coach, is one of the best 3-point shooters in Utah women’s college basketball history.

In fact, her career 49.6% clip in two seasons at Westminster University (then College) — 130 of 262, exactly one make away from 50% — is tops among Utah’s eight four-year colleges, according to the record books for each.

For a Utah hooper, best guesses for her top coaching influences might be someone like Elaine Elliott or Jeff Judkins. Surely her list includes her Westminster head coach, Shelley Jarrard.

But professionally, it’s Kyle Whittingham.

Her first job after rewriting the record book at Westminster: filmer, then video coordinator, then assistant video director for University of Utah football. Ultra-efficient practices, respect for others and the coach-player relationship were at the top of Winters’ list of lessons after spending eight years in the program.

“I got to watch two classes come through so seeing young, immature players leave as grown men … and the respect they gain for other people, just so grateful for the opportunities they were given, the respect they gave to me … and to just treat people good, it was such a good example of building a program,” Winters said. “(Assistant coaches) were father figures to some of those guys, so they were hard on them sometimes, demanding, but loved them even more.

“And those football people, those are the hardest-working people. They know how to grind.”

She spent hours with analysts and assistants tagging video, picking up analytics methods and more. (One of those people she worked with at Utah is new WSU linebackers coach Justin Mullgrav.)

Winters knows her path to her first job as a women’s college basketball staff assistant is unusual.

“People are like, ‘you’ve only been in basketball for two years,’ but I would never take those eight years back,” Winters said. “Being around those type of coaches, good coaching is good coaching. … It was fun to see that work ethic and what they demanded of those players.”

When Jackson — who coached Winters at Westminster and is entering her third season leading Weber State — started making calls for an opening on her staff, Winters’ name came up frequently.

“Good player, great teammate, good person, kind of a unique route she’s taken but finally in the role where she gets to be hands-on, fully coaching, and I just heard a lot of good things,” Jackson said. “I knew she was a good fit culturally but some people at BYU and others as well, they just said her IQ is elite, she’s really good at connecting with players … and she’s so advanced on the film side of things, the analytics, that I’m excited to dive even deeper into that.”

After eight years at Utah, Winters felt it was time for a new adventure and to get into basketball and coaching more directly. She comes from a family of coaches, including her late grandfather Bob Winters, a state champion football coach with a stadium bearing his name in Toppenish, Washington.

Deciding between opportunities to coach at small or junior colleges in her native Washington (hailing from the Yakima Valley) or lean into her video experience, Winters jumped on the women’s basketball staff at BYU for the last two years as director of video and strategy under then-head coach Amber Whiting.

In fact, not wanting to leave her friends at Utah in the lurch, she temporarily worked for both rivals, commuting back and forth to work for Utah football and BYU women’s basketball for one busy October.

“Everyone was like, ‘I don’t think we’ve ever seen someone work for BYU and Utah at the same time,'” Winters recalled. “I would take off my BYU shirt, put on my Utah gear, change my shoes from Nike to Under Armour. It was a fun, hectic month.”

At BYU, she ran film study and got her first on-court experience.

“Good staff, good people who let me bring out my basketball knowledge and didn’t keep me just in the video realm,” Winters explained about her work at BYU. “I was able to showcase myself, got more roles quickly in helping with scout, watching film with the girls, gaining their trust, getting those assistant coach responsibilities.”

When Whiting and BYU parted this offseason, Winters said it was another moment to consider another leap. She said she wasn’t actively trying to leave BYU’s staff but knows Whiting and Morgan Bailey, at the least, were in her corner to get a spot on Weber State’s staff if she wanted, which Winters called a “no-brainer” after seeing what her former Westminster assistant has done in two seasons in Ogden.

“Even talking with other coaches, the respect people have for her in the basketball world, she’s on the up-and-up,” Winters said about Jackson. “She’s got a lot of success coming her way. … I didn’t know the job was open but because of references, she reached out and getting a full spot on a staff, I’m going to be open to that.”

And it gives her another chance, another venue, another team to show she can still knock down her shot and tickle the twine.

“I can shoot the thing,” Winters laughed. “At BYU, I’d be the one being thrown into drills to shoot with them, or I’d shoot with the girls after practice for a little competition. It’s fun.”

Only two years into her tenure, Jackson has brought aboard Winters and associate head coach Nicole Yazzie this offseason in some unexpected changes. After WSU tied for third in the Big Sky in the 2024-25 season, Emily Codding left for a promotion and a near-hometown job at San Jose State and Hillary Baker headed back to her home state of Wyoming.

“They helped us in a lot of ways but it’s part of it, having lives that take them away to another place,” Jackson said. “But lucky to have filled these roles with really, really good people, really good coaches.

“It takes a little time to adjust but we’ve been diving in, just detailed strategy, X’s and O’s, and it’s been fun to see their IQ and their ideas … so we can modify, adjust anything we feel like we could be better at.”