Colorado Mesa University Athletics

Taylor Wagner enters his 14th season at Colorado Mesa in 2025-26, the second-longest tenure in program history. His 294 career wins are also second-most in the program.

The 11^th coach in program history, Wagner made the NCAA Tournament in each of his first three years at CMU, including runs to the Elite Eight in 2013 and the Sweet Sixteen in 2014. He has led his team to eight NCAA Tournament appearances (’13, ’14, ’15, ’19, ’20, ’22, ’24, ‘25). Colorado Mesa has won or shared in seven RMAC regular-season titles in the Wagner era, with four RMAC Tournament championships.

During his first season, Wagner took a team that finished the previous season 13-14 and turned it into a 31-2 team that reached the NCAA Elite Eight, defeating Midwestern State 69-65 in front of 1,975 fans in Brownson Arena to secure the South Central Region title. That Mavericks team set an RMAC record for the most consecutive regular-season victories at 25, spanning from Nov. 8, 2013 to Feb. 28, 2014.

Wagner won his 100th game at the helm of the Mavericks on Feb. 19, 2016 against Chadron State. It took him just 118 games to reach the mark. His 200^th win at CMU came on Jan. 4, 2021 in an 89-57 victory against CU-Colorado Springs. It was his 247^th game at the helm of the Mavericks. He has a 294-90 record entering the 2025-26 season, with only one losing season. The next year, the Mavericks improved from 13-16 to 25-7 and shared the 2023-24 conference title.

With Wagner in charge, the Mavericks have made Brownson Arena one of the best home courts in the RMAC, with a 167-22 home record. CMU was undefeated at home his first two years and six seasons have lost only once in front of the home fans.

His 2019-20 team set an RMAC record by allowing only 48.9 points per game.

Wagner won three consecutive RMAC Coach of the Year awards from 2013-2015 and is only one of two coaches in RMAC history to receive the award three consecutive times. He won the award again in 2019 after leading the team to a regular season and RMAC Tournament championship after being picked to finish seventh in the preseason poll. He earned back-to-back awards after the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons.

Wagner has coached six WBCA All-Americans (Kelsey Sigl, 2013; Sharaya Selsor, 2014; Erin Reichle, 2015; Jaylyn Duran, 2019; Daniella Turner, 2020, 2022; Olivia Reed Thyne, 2024, 2025), five RMAC Players of the Year (Sigl, Selsor, Duran, Turner, Reed Thyne), one RMAC Defensive Player of the Year (Sydney Brandon) and two RMAC Freshmen of the Year (Reed, Mason Rowland).

In addition, there have been four Academic All-Americans (Sigl, Selsor, Kelsey Siemons, Reed Thyne), one RMAC Academic Player of the Year (Reed Thyne) and five RMAC Summit Award winners (Nicole Archambeau, KellI Van Tassel, Savannah Domgaard, Kelsey Siemons, Brooke Mansanares) during his tenure. Olivia Reed Thyne is a two-time RMAC Player of the Year, Academic All-American and RMAC Academic Player of the Year in addition to her two WBCA All-America awards.

Wagner's teams have achieved a 3.2 or higher team GPA in 26 straight semesters entering the 2025-26 season.

Six of his players, Kelsey Sigl, Jaylyn Duran, Daniella Turner, Mariah Martin, Laura Gutierrez and Riley Hayes, have played professionally.

Prior to CMU, Wagner spent eight seasons at Otero Junior College in La Junta, Colo., where he posted a 187-63 overall record. He is Otero’s career wins leader and had the best overall record for a season, going 33-3 in 2012. During his tenure the team posted an 88-12 home record and was crowned Region IX Champions in 2012, advancing to the National Tournament and finishing eighth. His Otero teams maintained a team grade point average of 3.0 or better in 14 of 16 semesters and ranked in the Top 25 nationally seven of his eight years. The 2011-2012 team was named NJCAA Women's Basketball Academic Team of the Year with a 3.57 GPA.

Wagner’s playing career started at Otero, where he led the team in scoring and was a two-time all-region selection in 1997-1999. An academic all-region honoree, he graduated Cum Laude with an Associate of Arts degree. From 1999-2001, he played at University of Alaska Anchorage, where he was a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, team captain and honorable mention all-conference his senior year. He finished his career as the No. 2 all-time 3-point leader and free throw percentage leader. Wagner earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from Alaska Anchorage and began his coaching career at UAA as the men’s assistant coach for two years.

Taylor and his wife Emillie have four daughters.