University of North Dakota head women’s basketball coach Mallory Bernhard announced the addition of Andi Gayner to the North Dakota coaching staff as an assistant coach on May 22, 2024.
Following a decorated four-year playing career at Mayville State, Gayner served as the team's head assistant women's basketball coach, under UND associate head coach Dennis Hutter, for three seasons. While on the sidelines for the Comets, Gayner helped lead the team to consecutive Regular Season North Star Athletic Association Championships from 2018-20 with a conference mark of 22-6 over the two seasons. Mayville State also was crowned the NSAA's postseason tournament champions in 2019-20 and advanced to the NAIA National Tournament. In her three seasons on the bench, the Comets held a 58-22 overall record and a 34-5 mark in home contests. Gayner handled the defensive play as well as post play for the Comets and assisted with game day scouting reports. She was also responsible for team fundraising and split part of her time in the Mayville State admissions office.
As a player at Mayville State, Gayner earned four NSAA All-Conference honors with two appearances on the second team in her first two seasons and was a first team selection as a junior and senior. She was named an Honorable Mention All-American in back-to-back seasons to close out her career after averaging over 19.0 points per game in both seasons. In 2017, she was also named a NAIA DAKTRONICS Academic All-American Gayner finished her career with the second most points by a Comet with 1,757. She also tallied 736 rebounds, 137 steals, 76 blocks and 164 assists.
Following her stint as a coach at MSU, Gayner spent time in the St. Thomas Athletic Department as a compliance extern and with Bemidji State as a compliance intern. During that time, she was an assistant girls basketball coach for the Wayzata girls basketball team in Plymouth, Minn.
Gayner earned her bachelor's degree in sport management with minors in fitness/wellness and coaching from Mayville State. She graduated from Pepperdine University School of Law with a Master of Legal Studies and holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of St. Thomas School of Law.
