Orlando Griego always wanted to be a head coach, especially at Fort Lewis College in his hometown of Durango.
Griego knew he had a chance to rise to the top position with the Skyhawks’ women’s college basketball team this summer when head coach Jason Flores was a finalist for the athletic director position. When Flores wasn’t hired in April, the situation was still in a bit of limbo, as Flores considered applying for an assistant athletic director position under newly named athletic director Brandon Leimbach. On Thursday, Flores officially started in his new role after seven seasons leading the FLC women’s basketball team. Griego was promoted to interim head coach.
“Coaching is my calling,” Griego said. “This is where I need to be and what I need to be doing. I am very grateful to Coach Flores, our athletic director and president for giving me this opportunity and believing in me.
“I’m excited for Fort Lewis, for our girls, for myself. The players have taken it all really well, and not too much is going to change. We are going to go out, compete at a high level and win.”
Griego, a 2003 graduate of Durango High School, joined the FLC women’s basketball staff as an assistant coach a year ago after serving as assistant coach of the Durango High varsity girls team under his former high school coach Tim Fitzpatrick. After only a year of working together, Flores knew Griego was the coach to follow him on the FLC sideline.
“This summer when we were recruiting and talking to kids in the team camp and the coaches I’ve known for a long time, I told them the situation that I may not be the head coach next season,” Flores said. “When recruiting kids, I was telling them that (Griego) and I were basically co-coaches. It didn’t matter if it was me or Coach O, it’s one and the same.
“Orlando is a great basketball coach, a good recruiter and is good at individual development. He’s got all the skill-set that you need. It’s going to be great for our community having someone that is local coaching at Fort Lewis College, and he has a ton of support and relationships in this community. Those are all huge positives, and he deserves a shot.”
With a big returning class of players, including several underclassmen, Flores said the program is not in the position of needing a reset but rather needing continuity that Griego can provide.
“I think it was a no-brainer,” said Leimbach. “I was really impressed with Orlando when I first got here, just with his professionalism. When I sat down with Orlando, I found out about his recruiting philosophy and his desire to be here being from Durango. He had a successful playing career, and I think, as a coach, this is a good long-term fit for him. Durango is a special place. A lot of times you don’t get the top candidate due to salary or location, so when you have someone of Orlando’s caliber and is a great fit for the college and community, it’s a win-win.”
After a four-year varsity playing career at Durango High, Griego went on to Cochise College in Arizona before he transferred to Division I Southern Utah University. He was an all-conference and all-region player at Cochise, winning conference freshman of the year during the 2004-05 season and team MVP in 2005-06, when he averaged a double-double of more than 18 points and 10 rebounds per game and helped lead Cochise to the conference championship with a 28-4 record.
At Southern Utah, Griego averaged eight points and 4.2 rebounds per game while shooting 48 percent from the field.
It wasn’t long after his playing career that he joined Fitzpatrick on the Durango High bench, and he instantly made connections with players and helped the team perform at a state tournament level.
“He has a great basketball mind, and he has always been committed ever since he entered into the high school,” said Fitzpatrick, who played for Fort Lewis College men’s basketball from 1991-93. “I was looking to get him to come back and start coaching with the girls a few years back, and I think his strength is in building relationships and developing a culture.
“It’s great to see a hometown kid get an opportunity. I know he will do a great job because he won’t get outworked by anyone in the conference.”
Last season, a young and injury-riddled FLC team went 13-15 overall and 9-13 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, failing to make the RMAC tournament for the first time in Flores’ tenure as head coach. Perhaps the team’s best performance came Feb. 16 in a 82-75 home win against Dixie State University. The team came together in a benefit game for the Griego family, as earlier in the season the coach and his wife, Katherine, who played college volleyball at FLC, welcomed their daughter, Lana, to the world nine weeks premature. With ticket sales going into a fund for the Griego family, the Skyhawks played their hearts out and embraced their assistant coach after the game. In a short period of time, Griego had become part of the Fort Lewis family, and the players had become part of the Griego family, too.
“Regardless of the struggles we had, we had great memories, and the connection I have with the players is great,” Griego said. “One of my favorite parts of the job is to be able to call players, get to know them and get to see what type of person they are.”
Griego has already hit the recruiting trail hard this summer, and Flores is excited about the players being brought in for this season and the upcoming recruiting class for 2020.
Flores amassed a 123-75 record in seven seasons with FLC. He followed in the footsteps of Mark Kellogg, who coached FLC from 2005-12 and led the Skyhawks to a 173-46 record, multiple RMAC championships and five consecutive NCAA Division II tournament appearances, including the 2010 national championship game.
Griego is eager to add to the FLC women’s basketball legacy and will aim to return the team to the RMAC tournament this season.
“There’s something to be said about Fort Lewis and women’s basketball here,” Griego said. “I always envisioned coaching up at Fort Lewis College, and I’m blown away that it’s really happening. I’m going to give it everything I have. It gives me goosebumps to be coaching and to do it here in Durango. I’m obviously rooted here for a lot of different reasons. I’m excited to bring my friends and family, extended friends and family, to our games. I hope more locals show up and bring a big crowd for our girls. I can’t wait for September to roll around to get to work with the team.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
