Convinced during a New Mexico-to-Montana hike of the Continental Divide Trail that Colorado was the place to relocate – particularly its southwest after navigating Wolf Creek Pass – Lauren Moran’s just as convinced a team seemingly treading to no end the rockiest of roads is the one she’s long sought as an aspiring high school head coach.
Bayfield High School athletic director Derrick Martin announced this week that Moran, a three-year assistant coach of the Ignacio High School girls basketball team, would take over as the new head coach of the Wolverines. The Georgia transplant will succeed four-year coach Josh Kitchen.
Taking on the 3A Intermountain League’s most difficult job, the squad’s 1-12 overall record and 1-7 mark in league play during the 2020-21 campaign wasn’t cause for pause for Moran. Nor the fact BHS’ last winning season came when the 2011-12 crew reached the state tournament’s Great Eight.
“I’m sure that there certainly will be challenges, but I was definitely looking for an opportunity to rebuild a program,” Moran said. “That’s something I was a part of in Georgia, and it was really fulfilling to just see how much improvement the girls could make. So, I definitely see (Bayfield) as an opportunity and something I’m definitely committed to for the long term.
“I’ve wanted to be a head basketball coach for a long time, and I’ve just been waiting for the right opportunity that seemed like a good fit. And I think Bayfield seems like that fit; I was ready to jump at the chance.”
When Ignacio hosted Bayfield this year, Moran, a teacher at Durango’s Mountain Middle School, wasn’t able to get a firsthand look at the team she will not be inheriting.
“When we were playing them, I found out during warm-ups that I might have been exposed to COVID, so I had to leave to go quarantine,” she recalled. “I did not have COVID; it’s just because I’m a teacher and someone in my class tested positive that I got the call from the nurse saying ‘You should isolate yourself.’ So I left the game immediately.
“So I have not gotten to see any of the Bayfield girls in action. I’m excited for us all to get on the court together as soon as possible.”
Having first cut her coaching teeth at Marist durign the 2006-07 season, Moran has been coaching hoops in some capacity every year since then, including 12 years in Georgia and up through Ignacio’s 2021 run, which ended with the Bobcats standing 10-5 overall. With Moran on the bench under Ignacio head coach Justa Whitta, the Bobcats went and 44-18.
“She was super-supportive,” said Moran of Whitt. “She’s a great friend and mentor to me, and I’m very appreciative of that.”
