Kelly Guarino was named an assistant women’s basketball coach at Fordham in May of 2026.
Guarino arrives at Fordham from her alma mater, NJIT, where she served as assistant coach/director of player development from 2024-2026. She helped the Highlanders earn their first ever WNIT bid in 2026 where NJIT defeated Merrimack in the first round for the Highlander’s first postseason victory. NJIT closed out the year with 19 wins (the most on the Division I level), the most conference and
non-conference wins, and with the highest NET ranking in over 15 years.
Individually, Guarino developed All-Conference guards including Alejandra Zuniga (program all-time leading
scorer, 1,741 points who signed a pro contract Spain) and Olivia Kulyk (2025 Rookie o fthe Year and two-time All-Conference selection).
A 2019 NJIT graduate, Guarino began her collegiate coaching career at Wagner, where she was responsible for Player Development of the guards before returning to NJIT.
Prior to her time at Wagner, Guarino acted as the Owner and Director of Empire State Basketball Club, where she assisted in placing over 25 high school women’s basketball players with NCAA programs and was responsible for Player Development. She cached ten teams and over 80 players along with managing schedules, travel arrangements, and social media accounts.
The Thiells, N.Y. native served as the head women’s basketball coach at Pleasantville High School in Pleasantville, NY for two seasons (2022-24) where she transformed a losing program into a winning record. She also acted as a Special Education Teacher.
As a player at NJIT, Guarino became one of 12 Highlanders to score over 1,000 points and set the school-record for most three-pointers made (250). Guarino ranks first all-time in free-throw percentage (86.2), and second in three-point percentage (35.7).
Guarino, who appeared in 106 games, starting 97, scored a career-high 28 points in a win against Colgate on December 14, 2018, connecting on seven threes. She scored over 20+ points five times in her final season at NJIT.
She became the first female NJIT student-athlete to earn ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors in 2019. A two-time ASUN All-Academic team honoree, Guarino graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and Minor in Communications (2018) and an MBA (2019), boosting a 3.955 GPA.
Guarino graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas in 2021 with a Master of Science in Teaching, a Dual Certification, in Childhood Education and Special Education (Grades 1-6).
