Mo Cato enters his fifth season as IUPUI’s top assistant and was promoted to full-time status prior to the 2008 campaign. The Jaguars have reached the conference’s postseason tournament in each of his first four seasons, including reaching The Summit League championship game in 2007.
That year, IUPUI boasted the highest scoring offense in The Summit League, headlined by the league’s Offensive Player of the Year, Vangel Nacovski.
In 2009, he helped mentor a team that ranked among the top defensive units in The Summit.
Cato has proven himself as a highly regarded mentor at the high school, club and collegiate level over a 22-year career. In addition to his current duties with IUPUI, he is also the head coach of the Indy Burn U-17 team and is the Boys Technical Training Coordinator. He is also a state coach with the Indiana Olympic Development Program (ODP).
He has become increasingly active on the summer camp scene, serving as a clinician at the Indiana, Kentucky, Western Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin-River Falls Summer Camps the past two summers.
He has had stops at Western Kentucky as an assistant coach for two years and a four-year stint with his alma mater, the University of Southern Indiana (USI). During his four years as assistant coach, the Screaming Eagles captured four Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) titles.
Before joining the college coaching ranks, Cato coached three different high schools in the Evansville area over the course of 20 years, while also leading several travel teams. His travel teams captured four state crowns under his direction.
Collegiately, Cato was a three-time All-Region selection at USI. He helped the Screaming Eagles to four GLVC titles as a player and an NCAA Division II National Tournament berth in 1982. He graduated as the school’s all-time leader in assists (52) and was a four-time All-GLVC and three-time All-Region performer. He received his degree in Corporate Communications in 1986.
Last summer, Cato guided the Indiana Boys 1992 ODP squad to a national crown in Frisco, Texas. He continued his ODP success in the summer of 2010, leading the Indiana Boys 1993 ODP team to a Region II title in Overland Park, Kan. in late July. However, in the 1993 bracket, no national title is crowned.
Cato holds a USSF "C" Coaching license, an NSCAA National Coaching Diploma and an NSCAA Director of Coaching Diploma. Cato assists in all facets of coaching at IUPUI including practice preparation, on-field instruction, academic oversight and recruiting.
