ELENA LOVATO
Graduate Assistant      

     Elena Lovato enters her first season as a graduate assistant for the Gorilla Women's Basketball program.
     Lovato joins the Pitt State program after serving as an assistant girls' basketball coach at Buffalo (Mo.) High School for one year.
     Lovato played two seasons of collegiate basketball at West Texas A&M University from 1998-99, before transferring to Missouri Southern State University to complete her final two seasons of eligibilty from 2000-01.
     Following her collegiate career, she played in the Puerto Rican Women's Pro Basketball League for two years. In 2001, she earned first-team All-League honors, averaging 23 points and 10 rebounds per game. She averaged 18 points and eight rebounds per game in 2002.
     In 2002, she also played for the Chicago Blaze of the National Women's Basketball League (NWBL).
     As Pitt State's graduate assistant coach, Lovato's duties include coordinating opponent scouting and game tape exchange, organizing ball girls, monitoring academic progress and in-practice statistics, in addition to preseason conditioning and floor coaching duties.
     Lovato, a native of Albuquerque, N.M., earned a bachelor's degree in university studies from Missouri Southern in 2005. She currently is pursuing a master's degree in physical education at Pittsburg State.