In the summer of 2023, Tara Johns (Arnold) earned a promotion as assistant coach/director of basketball operations.
She joined the Bulls' women's basketball staff in December of 2022 as coordinator of basketball operations. She started at USF in November of 2021 as executive administrative specialist working with Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly.
Before coming to USF, Johns was an assistant coach for Northwest Florida State College where her team won the 2020-21 NJCAA National Championship, the first title in program history.
In her two seasons with the Raiders, Johns helped lead the team to a 51-6 record and consecutive Panhandle Conference titles. Northwest Florida State earned the No. 3 seed in the 2020 NJCAA Women’s Basketball Championship before the event was canceled due to COVID-19. During that same season Johns earned the WBCA Thirty Under Thirty award for being one of the top coaches in the nation under 30 years of age.
The team’s 2021 championship run was impressive as the team boasted the nation’s most stingy defense. The Raiders allowed 49.4 points per game and held opponents to a 32.9 field goal percentage. Offensively, NWF shot 46.5 percent as a team, top in the nation, and ended the season as the 14th most efficient team in the country. Johns worked closely with forward Chanaya Pinto, who was a two-time NJCAA All-American and 2021 World Exposure Report Sophomore of the Year.
Johns coached several players that went on to make an impact for Division I programs, including Pinto (Oregon/Penn State), Rayven Peeples (St. John’s), Last-Tear Poa (LSU) Noelani Cornfield (Southern Miss), Shelbee Brown (Memphis), Masengo Mutando (Jacksonville State), Kynadi Kuykendoll (Florida Atlantic), Laura Taylor (Weber State), Ines Piper (Temple).
Prior to NWF, Johns was the assistant at Wabash Valley College from 2018-2019. The Warriors won 32 consecutive games before falling in the NJCAA Elite Eight. The team led the nation in points per game (97.2), field goals made per game (38.4), rebound margin per game (23.2), and assists per game (22.9). It was also the first time the program had ever been ranked No. 1 in the nation.
In her two seasons at Morehead State, 2016-2018, Johns helped guide the Eagles to a 42-21 (23-11 Ohio Valley Conference) record as the Director of Basketball Operations. The Eagles reached the 20-win plateau for the seventh and eighth time in school history, resulting in the program's first ever appearance in the Women's National Invitation Tournament in 2017. 2016-17 also featured a nine-game winning streak – the second-longest in school history – and the team's first invitation to a national postseason tournament since 2009-10.
Johns (Arnold) played collegiately at Western Kentucky University before transferring to Morehead State, where she played two seasons before finishing her career at Lindsey Wilson College (Ky.). She finished her playing career averaging 10 points and 5.2 rebounds, while shooting 71 percent from the line, 44 percent from the floor, and 40 percent from three-point range.
A native from Frankfort, Ky., Johns graduated from LW in 2014 with a bachelor's degree in communications and made Academic All-Mid-South Conference honors. She received her masters at WKU in Sport Management with a concentration in media and branding, while working for the IMG Sports Network radio/television as the WKU women's basketball play-by-play commentator.
The former Tara Arnold married Chris Johns in the fall of 2022. Chris is a member of the USF baseball coaching staff.
