The Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team rounded out its recruiting class with six more players, and one’s a local star staying close to home.
Ignacio’s Michelle Simmons will join Michelle Turner, Clare Nicolas, Kate Bayes, Lynette Hepa and Ande Lampert on the Skyhawks’ roster next fall, along with previously announced recruits Kelsey Wainright, Alex Derifield and Skylin Webb.
Simmons, a 5-6 guard, led Ignacio High School to just its third ever appearance at the CHSAA Class 2A Girls Basketball State Championships’ elite eight her senior season. She averaged 9.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 4.1 steals per game, and for her efforts, she was named to The Denver Post Class 2A All-State second team.
“We are excited to add a local player with a bunch of potential,” FLC head coach Jason Flores said in a news release. “Michelle is an athletic guard that has a chance to become very good here.”
Turner, meanwhile, is the furthest away in a recruiting class that cast a pretty broad net, with Hepa and Derifield hailing from Alaska and Bayes from California. The 5-6 point guard is from Birmingham, England, where she helped guide her high school, Barking Abbey, to the Senior Division 1 women’s final four in 2012, and she played for her country in the European Championships in 2012 in Macedonia. She joins FLC as a transfer after spending a season at South Carolina-Aiken.
“She is a great shooter and will fit nicely into our system with that ability to stretch defenses,” Flores said.
Nicholas is a 6-foot incoming freshman from Elizabeth High School, where she averaged 9.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, helping the Cardinals to a 17-7 record and an unbeaten 12-0 championship season in the Colorado 7 league.
“Clare is a multisport athlete who can now focus on basketball, which will be great,” Flores said.
Bayes, who hails from Novato, Calif., is a transfer from Division I Nebraska-Omaha, where Flores served as an assistant before taking over at FLC last season. She appeared in eight games and played an average of 3.1 minutes per game as a freshman for the Mavericks.
As a high school senior, she led Sonoma Academy to a 25-3 record, averaged 23.6 points and 10.4 rebounds per game and was the MVP of North Central League II. Bayes also was The Press Democrat All-Empire Small-School Female Athlete of the Year for three consecutive years.
“Kate is a great fit for us because she is comfortable in attacking the basket and scoring mid-range, which brings a dynamic that we needed,” Flores said.
Lampert is the second Division I transfer of the group, coming to FLC from the University of the Pacific after redshirting last season. At Boulder High School, the 6-4 post averaged 11.3 points per game her senior season before sitting out with an injury. As a junior, she was an all-conference choice and was ranked as a top-50 prospect at her position by The Sporting News, leading the state with 3.5 blocks per game.
“We look forward to having her be a big presence for us inside,” Flores said.
Hepa is a 6-4 forward from Barrow, Alaska, where she earned second-team All-State honors after averaging 9.7 points and 6.9 rebounds per game.
“Lynette is a great post player prospect. She is a legitimate shot-blocking presence and has a chance to develop into a dominant player,” Flores said.
The Skyhawks graduated only two seniors – guards Alex Easterbrook and Katerina Garcia – from last year’s NCAA Tournament qualifying team.
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