DURANGO – Lanae Billy, arguably one of the top stars for the past two seasons on the women’s basketball roster at Fort Lewis College, has entered the transfer portal and will play next season at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.
Billy, who played five years of girls basketball at Piedra Vista High School before joining the Fort Lewis roster, was the Skyhawks’ leading scorer last season, averaging 16 points per game. Billy started in all the team’s 28 games last season and was named to First Team roster in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
After the season, Fort Lewis women’s basketball coach Taylor Harris resigned after three seasons on the job, first reported by the Durango Herald. Harris was 23-60 in three full seasons as head coach, with last season ending with a record of 12-16.
Last month, the school announced that Lauren Davis was taking that position.
Davis, who comes to Fort Lewis College after having coached for three seasons at Northwest College in Wyoming, seemed resigned to the idea of losing Billy to the transfer portal when she spoke to the Durango Herald earlier this month.
“I'm super-excited for her,” Davis said of Billy. “She's a really great basketball player and a really great person and wherever she ends up, she's going to be able to make a difference on that team. So really excited for her in that sense. I was happy that I got to know her in the three weeks that I got to know her. It was wonderful, and I can see why everyone in the community loved her so much.”
The arrival of Billy to the Weber State women’s basketball team will be formally announced this week, according to Billy, who has already signed on to join the team and the school.
Billy, who scored nearly 1000 points in her two seasons at Fort Lewis College, announced she was making official visits to Weber State earlier this month via her profile on Instagram.
As a sophomore at Fort Lewis College, Billy ranked fifth in the conference with an 83% free throw mark while scoring in double-figures in 23 games, including 12 games with 20 or more points.
In her freshman year, Billy averaged 30 minutes per game and finished the season averaging 16 points per game, to rank fifth in the conference.
Before joining Fort Lewis College, Billy was a five-year starter for Piedra Vista High School and scored more than 1,000 points in her prep career. She was a two-time First Team All-State honoree and played multiple sports, also earning a First Team All-State designation in softball.
At Weber State, Billy joins a team which finished 8-25 last season while playing in the Big Sky Conference. The Wildcats are coached by Jenteal Jackson, entering her third season at the job after having previously coached at Westminster College in Salt Lake City.
“I got to know (Jackson) at Westminster College, and I really trust her so I think it all worked out,” Billy said.
Billy isn’t the biggest fan of the transfer portal, which was created in 2018 by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Today, it is seen as a compliance tool to manage the transfer process for collegiate student-athletes from start to finish, as well as to add transparency and empower student-athletes to make known their desire to consider other programs.
“I don’t really like change. I kind of like people to do what’s best for them,” Billy said. “I really like it for everyone else, and now it’s worked for me.”
Over the past several seasons, the transfer portal has become a prominent fixture of college athletics, and women’s basketball is no exception. According to CBB Analytics, a leading scouting platform for college basketball, more than 1,300 athletes entered the transfer portal after the conclusion of last season with nearly 550 of them having already agreed to attend new schools.
Billy will officially return to Weber State in late June for summer practice before returning for school in August, when she will also be working on her new academic goal. Billy will major in business administration.
Durango Herald Sports Editor Bryce Kelly contributed to this report.
