Ayako Nakane
	Position: Asst. to Director of Performance Enhancement Alma Mater: Evansville, 2009

Ayako Nakane is in her first year with the Tiger basketball program as the assistant to the director of performance enhancement in 2009-10. She assists Director of Performance Enhancement Richard Hogans in every aspect of the Tigers' strength and conditioning program.

Over the summer of 2009, Nakane served as an intern in the University of Memphis athletics department in the area of strength and conditioning. She assisted with the football, volleyball, men's soccer and men's and women's basketball programs. Nakane also volunteered at the Tommy West Football Camp this past summer.

Prior to coming to the Bluff City, Nakane served as an intern in strength and conditioning while completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Evansville from 2007-09. During that time, Nakane worked with nearly every program at Evansville, including softball, baseball, swimming and diving and cross country.

During the summers at Evansville from 2006-08, the Hamamatsu, Japan, native worked as a camp coach/counselor at basketball youth clinics.

Nakane was a member of the Purple Aces women's basketball team from 2005-09. The Purple Aces won the 2008 Missouri Valley Conference regular season title and participated in the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT). The following season (2009), Evansville won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title and earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

As a senior in 2009, Nakane received the team's "Purple Ace" Award, and as a freshman in 2005, she was honored with the squad's "Whatever It Takes" Award.

During her college years at Evansville, Nakane was active in the community. She volunteered with the Future Purple Aces Fast B.R.E.A.K. Program, Susan G. Komen "Women's Hoops for the Cure" and "Race for the Cure," Read With the Aces Program, Indiana's Accelerated Reading Program and Girl Scouts.