University of California - Santa Barbara Women's Basketball

Chelsea Carlisle joined UC Santa Barbara as an assistant coach prior to the 2024-25 season, joining the Gauchos after a 12-year stint as an assistant coach and, since 2016-17, Associate Head Coach at UC San Diego.  In her first season at Santa Barbara, Carlisle helped the Gauchos to an 18-13 record, with marquee victories over UC Irvine and Hawai'i in The Thunderdome. At the end of the season, four Santa Barbara student-athletes earned All-Big West Honors. A native of Agoura Hills, Carlisle is deemed one of the best players in UC San Diego history. A four-year starter from 2008-12, Carlisle led the Tritons to three CCAA titles and three NCAA Championship appearances during her time with the program. She wrapped up her career with averages of 16.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.2 steals in 118 games at UC San Diego. The former Oaks Christian High School product led UCSD to a banner season in 2011-12 as the Tritons won their first 26 games and finished with a school-record 30 victories overall. UC San Diego established the best mark in the history of the CCAA at 21-1, earned the program's first-ever No. 1 national ranking and claimed the top seed in the NCAA Division II West Regional.   In Carlisle's first season as an assistant, in 2012-13, the Tritons posted a 22-11 overall record and placed second in the CCAA with a 17-5 mark. UCSD won its first-ever CCAA Tournament title and qualified for NCAA postseason play for the eighth time since joining the NCAA Division II ranks in 2000. After spending four seasons as an assistant coach, she was promoted to associate head coach in the 2016-17 season. She went on to help lead UC San Diego to a 23-7 overall and 17-3 CCAA record. After taking its fifth and second-consecutive league title, UC San Diego advanced to the CCAA Tournament championship game and was defeated by Cal State East Bay. The Tritons traveled to Anchorage, Alaska and fell to Simon Fraser in the first round of the NCAA West Regional.   After earning WBCA Thirty Under 30 honors in 2017, Carlisle helped guide the Tritons to a 28-5 overall record with a 21-1 mark in CCAA play during the 2017-18 season. UC San Diego won its third-consecutive CCAA regular-season championship en route to an appearance in the NCAA West Region Semifinals. The Tritons had 11 and 12-game winning streaks during the season, earning victories in 23 out of 24 contests at one point.   Carlisle had an instrumental role in one of the best seasons ever at UC San Diego in 2018-19, leading the Tritons to a program-best 30-0 start to the season en route to capturing CCAA tournament and regular-season titles. UC San Diego finished the season 30-1, reaching the NCAA West Region Semifinals and finishing the year ranked No. 6 in the final WBCA Top 25 Coaches' Poll.

Dario Frias comes to UC Santa Barbara after spending the last 10 seasons on staff at Cal State San Marcos and Cal State San Bernardino under Head Coach Renee Jimenez. In his first season at Santa Barbara, Frias helped the Gauchos to an 18-13 record, with marquee victories over UC Irvine and Hawai'i in The Thunderdome. At the end of the season, four Santa Barbara student-athletes earned All-Big West Honors.   Between 2006-12, Frias was the varsity head coach at Jurupa Valley High School in Mira Loma. He went 107-60 in six seasons, including five 19-win seasons. He reached the CIF quarterfinals in 2009-10, reached the CIF Second Round four times, and helped 14 players move forward to the collegiate level. While coaching at Jurupa Valley, Frias coached in the West Coast Premier Basketball Academy, one of the top travel ball teams in the nation from 2008-12.   Frias spent the 2012-13 season as an assistant at NCAA Division III La Verne. The Leopards ranked second nationally in scoring and 3-pointers made per game. After one season he joined Jimenez at Cal State Bernardino.   At CSUSB, Frias served as the director for camps and clinics, in addition to providing support for individual player and skill development. He coordinated all prospective student-athlete visits, organized team travel, monitored academic progress and developed marketing and recruiting plans to increase the Coyote fan base. Frias helped CSUSB to back-to-back appearances in the CCAA Championship semifinals.   After joining Jimenez's staff at San Marcos Frias helped the Cougars to three regular season championships, two CCAA Tournament Championships and four NCAA Tournament appearances.

Tina Samaniego joined the UC Santa Barbara Women’s Basketball staff in July of 2024, arriving from Cal State San Marcos.  Samaniego has years of experience assisting Head Coach Renee Jimenez, having worked under her at Cal State Monterey Bay, Cal State San Bernardino and Cal State San Marcos. Jimenez and Samaniego have a 302-154 record when coaching together, sharing the bench for 16 seasons, first at Stanford under Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer in 2004-05, then for 15 consecutive years from 2008-2024, the duration of Jimenez's Division II head coaching career. The two coaches also played together on the 2000-01 Ventura College squad which won the California Community College State Championship. Samaniego and Jimenez took Cal State Monterey Bay to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 2011 to 2013, then built Cal State San Marcos into a Division II powerhouse. Samaniego helped the Cougars to four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from 2020 to 2024, culminating in Cal State San Marcos' run to the Final Four in 2024. Prior to joining up with Jimenez at Cal State Monterey Bay in 2008, Samaniego spent two seasons as an assistant at Pepperdine. And before the two coaches connected at Stanford, Samaniego had spent two years at San Francisco's Sacred Hearth Cathedral Prep and Menlo College. Samaniego graduated magna cum laude from the University of San Francisco, where she was an undergraduate assistant for the Dons' men's team for three seasons. A native of Oxnard, Samaniego holds a Bachelor of Arts in Exercise and Sports Science from the University of San Francisco and a Master of Arts in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Sports Management from San Jose State.

Kelsey Forrester comes to Santa Barbara after serving as the Director of Basketball Operations/Video Coordinator at UC San Diego during the 2023-24 season. At UC Santa Barbara, Forrester will assume a similar as an Assistant Coach/Director of Operations. In her first season at Santa Barbara, Forrester helped the Gauchos to an 18-13 record, with marquee victories over UC Irvine and Hawai'i in The Thunderdome. At the end of the season, four Santa Barbara student-athletes earned All-Big West Honors.   A native of Davis, Calif., Forrester attended Davis Senior High School. She earned her bachelor's degree in business marketing from Cal State San Marcos in 2023. In her role, Forrester will be responsible for editing film, scouting, coordinating team travel, practices, and day-to-day program operations.   Forrester arrived at UC San Diego after a five-year career with the Cal State San Marcos women's basketball program from 2018 to 2023. While with the Cougars, Forrester was a two-time All-CCAA selection (2022-23 first team, 2021-22 second team), as well as a 2022-23 CCAA All-Tournament Team honoree. In addition to her success on the court, Forrester earned CSC Academic All-District recognition in 2022-23 and was a three-time CCAA All-Academic honoree.   Forrester finished her career with San Marcos ranked first all-time in three-point field goals made (239) and three-point field goal percentage (41.9%), as well as third in steals per game (0.9) and minutes played (2,908).