Downard enters her first season as head coach of IU Southeast.
Downard comes to IU Southeast from Purdue, where she was a graduate assistant for the women's basketball team. She assisted the program in the day-to-day basketball operations, which included setting up practices as well as handling the practice squad and opponent scouting.
Downard was reunited with Katie Gearlds at Purdue. Gearlds was Downard's head coach at Marian University for four seasons, where the duo went 114-22 with four conference regular season championships, two conference tournament championships and four NAIA National Tournament appearances.
Downard finished her time at Marian with a 144-27 career record, making the NAIA Tournament five times. She was an NAIA All-American in 2020 and was All-Conference First Team three times.
She appeared in a school record 143 games for Marian, scoring 1,456 points. Downard also had 658 assists and a school record 291 steals. She is fourth in program history in scoring and third in free throw percentage.
Downard joined Purdue after a stint as an assistant coach at Franklin College.
Downard played high school basketball at Cardinal Ritter, where she set the all-time scoring record.
