New FLC Women’s Basketball Coach Settling In

The new women's basketball coach at Fort Lewis College is settling into her role after a whirlwind hiring process. Lauren Davis is returning to her home state to coach the Skyhawks after leading the Northwest College Trappers. You're watching the "Local NEWS Network" brought to you by Sky Ute Casino and Tafoya Barrett and Associates. I'm Connor Shreve. Davis has experience at this level, having both played at Division II Wayne State College and worked as an assistant coach at Angelo State University, to lead a Division II program excites Davis.

You know, I think that this opportunity just is everything that I could ever ask for. Professionally, of course, being at the next level, being at a college and with an athletic director that cares so much about sports and women's basketball is a dream professionally. And then personally, being from Colorado, having a lot of Colorado connections, I think will help me be able to do what I want to do here. And so it's perfect.

Fort Lewis athletic director, Travis Whipple, says Davis embodies the program's goal of engaging and developing Skyhawks student athletes.

Yeah, Lauren's got a tremendous ability to really connect and foster genuine relationship, and we saw that she put student athletes at the center, and I think that's going to bode well for her, with our current student athletes, but also for prospective student athletes and the future of Skyhawk basketball. So we saw that. I love the Division II connection. So she was a Division II student athlete, she coached at the Division II level for a while, and then has led our own program. And having that head coaching experience really showed through for us.

In joining the team, Davis has an opportunity to build on the program's upward trajectory.

What I told the team is, obviously, this process has been really fast, but take a look at what we have. The team has built, they have a really great bond. And so I told them I want to build on that. I think that I can bring in some fresh players, players of my own, and keep players that were here and love the school, and kind of build that together.

Davis wants to get the current players on the same page with her system before they leave for summer break, and she can really dig into recruiting. Her coaching style is one that might play to Durango's altitude advantage.

I love to play really uptempo, high energy. We like to turn our defense into offense, so it always starts on the defensive end for us. I definitely want our team to be known as the team in the RMAC, diving on all loose balls, we're on the floor, we're boxing out, we're rebounding, we're pushing the ball in transition.

Regular season for the FLC basketball teams won't start until November. That might seem like a long way away, but I'm sure it's time Davis will be happy to have in building the foundation of her Skyhawks Women's Basketball program. For more information about this and other stories, visit durangolocal.news. Thanks for watching this edition of the "Local NEWS Network." I'm Connor Shreve.