In the midst of the best start to a season in his Fort Lewis College career, women’s basketball head coach Jason Flores quietly surpassed a milestone in Salt Lake City. He called no attention to the feat and went about preparing for the schedule ahead for a team with aspirations of making a run at this year’s NCAA Division II tournament.
Flores, who is in his sixth year leading the Skyhawks, surpassed the 100-win mark of his FLC head coaching career Dec. 15 with a come-from-behind 63-62 win at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. Flores’ prized recruit, five-star freshman Vivian Gray of Argyle, Texas, hit the game-winning layup in the final seconds of the game with a perfect assist from reigning RMAC Freshman of the Year Kayla Herrera, now a standout sophomore from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The win at Westminster was the fifth on the team’s current eight-game win streak, and the Skyhawks are fresh off a grueling 54-48 home win against Regis, the team that knocked the Skyhawks out of the RMAC tournament in the first round a year ago.
“We get lost in the season,” Flores said. “I haven’t really thought about 100 wins. You always worry about the next game.”
Flores is now 103-52 as head coach of the Skyhawks with a 78-40 mark in the conference. His teams have reached the conference tournament all five of Flores’ previous seasons leading FLC.
Flores turned in an epic coaching performance during the 2015-16 season. His team became the first in RMAC history to enter the conference tournament as the No. 8 and final seed and beat the top seed (Colorado Mines) in the opening round. Flores’ team went on to reach the conference championship game before falling to CSU-Pueblo.
Flores, a 1995 University of Arizona graduate, took the reigns from former coach Mark Kellogg, now the head coach at Division I Stephen F. Austin in Texas, for the 2012-13 season after spending eight years as the top assistant at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Flores became the first coach in FLC women’s history to lead the Skyhawks to the NCAA tournament in his first season.
“I guess I start with that first year and having a couple really good seniors with Kat Garcia and Alex Easterbrook that started everything and made it easy to transition,” Flores said.
“To build from there over the last five or six years and see how we’ve gotten better over the last few years, it’s been a great experience. We’ve had really good players who are fun to coach, and they’ve been good people on top of it. It’s gone by fast, but it’s exciting because this is only the tip of the iceberg.”
This year, the Skyhawks are ranked No. 14 in the nation and enter the second half of the season with a 13-1 overall record and a 7-1 mark in the RMAC. After a couple strong seasons of recruiting, Flores has the team in position to contend not only for conference titles but to compete with the top teams in the country.
The play of the women’s team has inspired the No. 20 men’s team on campus, and the men’s basketball program hopes to see the women’s team reach the NCAA tournament this year as the men have the previous two.
“Jason is first-class all the way,” FLC men’s basketball head coach Bob Pietrack said.
“Having a daughter myself, he’s exactly the type of coach I would want my daughter to play for. He’s compassionate, competitive and cares about his players on and off the court. Our program is thrilled for him and the success the women’s team is experiencing.”
Flores lives in Durango with his wife, Allison, and their two daughters, Mackenzie and Macy.
For FLC’s current players, the chance to deliver Flores his first RMAC championship for the Skyhawks and prove itself across the South Central region is the focus.
“Playing for coach Flores the past three years has been an amazing privilege,” said FLC senior guard Astrea Reed of Albuquerque.
“I couldn’t even begin to express the gratitude I have for just the opportunity to come here and play. His loyalty, great knowledge of the game and belief in his players has brought him to this 100th-game win, which I foresee as only the beginning of his career.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
