Fort Lewis College women’s basketball head coach Lauren Zuniga’s first season leading the program didn’t go very well. But there’s hope for year two for Zuniga and the program.
Zuniga entered her first season as the Skyhawks’ head coach with goals of earning a spot in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament and finishing with a winning record.
Instead, the Skyhawks finished last in the RMAC at 3-17 overall and finished 6-22 overall, with one of those wins coming against a non-Division II opponent. FLC especially struggled at the end of the season, losing its last eight games and 18 of its last 20 games against Division II opponents.
“There were probably multiple things, but probably the biggest reason was it was a new year, a new coach, standard, a new culture and a new team,” Zuniga said. “There was no familiarity at all between the girls and myself so growing pains, first and foremost and secondly, a rebuild is always difficult.”
Luckily for Zuniga, she’ll be very familiar with her roster in her second year. All eight of the players in Zuniga’s rotation last season who had eligibility remaining will be returning.
This includes tied-second-leading scorer Deniece Ryan as well as top 3-point shooter and fourth-leading scorer Katie Lamb. Other promising pieces like Claudia Palacio Gámez, Natalie Guanella and Trista Hoobler will also return a year older and more experienced.
Zuniga said it’s amazing for the girls to stay at FLC in today’s college basketball with all the transferring from school to school. She’s excited because the returners are still pretty young and they can continue to help build the culture Zuniga wants in her program.
The returners have already begun postseason workouts. Zuniga said it’s great to get to work on things the team couldn’t during the season, like getting different shot attempts, coming off different screens and more individual stuff.
Despite the lack of wins, Zuniga was still happy with the growth she saw from her team during the season. She went into last season without knowing the true talent level in the RMAC and didn’t have a lot of time to put together a roster.
Now, with a full offseason ahead of Zuniga and her staff, she better understands what players she needs to recruit to be successful in the RMAC. Zuniga said her staff is going to focus on recruiting shooting and scoring.
“We have two incoming freshmen signed,” Zuniga said. “So I’m really excited about those two. Then, from there, we're probably looking to just fill it out with the best players possible. So that could be a JUCO, a portal kid, or a high school kid. For us, we just want to get the best talent but also the right person. So you have to have a combination of that. So we're not looking anywhere in particular as far as age group goes.”
The Skyhawks staff will have to prioritize the forward/center position. Darla Hernandez and Eva Kingston have both graduated, leaving a vacancy in the paint. Zuniga said she’s looking to have someone fit her system. After having smaller forwards this past year, Zuniga said she wouldn’t be opposed to having smaller forwards again this year. She wasn’t worried about the size disadvantage the Demons had; offense was the issue for her.
While Zuniga’s looking to improve her roster, she acknowledged that she could trust her gut more as head coach. She wants her assistants, Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw and Colton Walker, to continue to grow their coaching voices and be more comfortable speaking out in practices and games.
Next season will be a big year to see if Zuniga’s culture and coaching can translate to not just growth, but wins at the Division II and RMAC level.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
