Yannick Denson - Women's Basketball Coach - Abilene Christian Athletics

Yannick Denson

Title:
Associate Head Coach / Recruiting Coordinator
Email:
yed24a@acu.edu

Yannick Denson enters his second season on the Abilene Christian coaching staff in 2025-26 as associate head coach and recruiting coordinator. He joined the Wildcats prior to the 2024-25 season as an assistant coach and was later elevated to associate head coach after taking the team's defensive efforts to new heights.

The Wildcats launched back-to-back 20-win campaigns with a 22-9 showing in the 2025-26 regular season. ACU placed second in the final season of the Western Athletic Conference with a 13-5 mark in conference action. Goodenough and the Wildcats picked up their most conference victories since 2019-20 and their first back-to-back 20-win seasons since 2018-20. ACU built Moody Coliseum into one of the conference's top home-court advantages with a 14-2 record at home. It marked its most home victories since 2019-20. The Wildcats returned to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament's Super 16 with an automatic berth, matching the program's deepest postseason run.

Hull was named the WAC Player of the Year with spots on the All-WAC First Team and All-WAC Defensive Team, while Erin Woodson earned All-WAC Second Team honors. A Wildcat was named the WAC Player of the Week on six occasions between Hull (3), Woodson (2) and Meredith Mayes (1). Woodson and Jazmyn Stone received CSC Academic All-District recognition, while Hull, Woodson, Emma Troxell and Aimee Flippen earned Academic All-WAC honors.

With Denson at the helm of the ACU's defensive strategy in 2024-25, the Wildcats built a 22-13 record with a 9-7 mark in the Western Athletic Conference. They reached the Super 16 of the Women's National Invitation Tournament with their most victories, highest overall winning percentage and highest conference winning percentage since 2020.

ACU built the league's fourth-ranked defense in allowing 61.8 points per game. The Wildcats proved adept at creating chaos on the court with 21.5 turnovers forced per game, ranking third in the WAC and 14th nationwide. They collected the third-most steals in the conference at 10.5 per game to rank 30th in the country. ACU's +4.17 turnover margin was the second-best mark in the league and 38th in the nation. Opponents managed 32.1 rebounds per game against the WAC's No. 3 rebounding defense, leading to the WAC's second-ranked rebounding margin of +3.77. ACU's rebound disparity was 78th in the country.

Coupled with the conference's third-best scoring offense at 71.5 points per game, the Wildcats registered the WAC's No. 2 scoring margin at +9.74 points, ranking 64th in women's basketball. Bella Earle became the program's first-ever addition to the WAC All-Defensive Team and was an All-WAC First Team honoree. She collected 2.4 steals per game, third-most in ACU's Division I history.

Prior to joining the Wildcats, Denson was an assistant coach at College of Charleston for two seasons, going a combined 33-28. The Cougars went 22-10 overall and 13-5 in the Coastal Athletic Association in 2023-24, finishing third in the conference and reaching the second round of the WNIT.

Denson joined the Cougars from Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas, where he was the head coach for three seasons. His teams qualified for the American Southwest Conference Tournament each year. Under Denson’s tutelage, Chelsey Harris was twice named to the All-Conference first team, and three other players were chosen to the second team. He recruited a pair of players who were named the ASC West Freshman of the Year, including Bria Neal in 2020 and Amanda Turpin the following season.

Previously, Denson was an assistant coach and video coordinator at UT Rio Grande Valley and head coach at Legacy Christian Academy in Beaumont, Texas, where his team went 34-2 and won a state championship in 2016-17. He was named the Super Gold Girls Basketball Coach of the Year in 2016 when his team went 23-9 and were state runners-up. While at Legacy, he coached Alexis Morris, who was a McDonald’s All-American and played collegiate basketball at Baylor, Rutgers, Texas A&M and LSU.

Denson is a 2014 graduate of Lamar University with a Bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. He served as a student assistant for the women’s basketball team for four years, including one working with College of Charleston head coach Robin Harmony, and was head coach of Lamar’s club basketball team, leading it to a pair of national tournaments.

Denson has been invited to serve as an instructor at elite camps for varsity and JV teams from schools across Texas, including the Baylor University Elite Camp in June 2015.