Champion KC Roos women’s team embraces attitude of gratitude as new season approaches
Lost in the cancellation of the 2020 college basketball season were moments of net-snipping, championship T-shirt-wearing joy that marks a title. Few teams were able to participate in conference tournaments, and without NCAA tournaments there were no regionals or Final Fours.
But the KC Roos women had their moment. They clinched the WAC championship on their home floor and celebrated the program’s greatest achievement.
They desperately wanted more, of course. The Roos would have entered the conference tournament as the top seed and favorite to become the first basketball team in school history to participate in March Madness.
Those conflicting feelings stayed with coach Jacie Hoyt during the offseason.
“You still feel like there was something robbed from you,” she said. “It was a really hard conversation to have with our players. Nothing can really ever prepare you for something like that. It wasn’t easy. I think about it every day, to be honest.
“At the same time, perspective is important. There are a lot of bigger things going on in our country since that all started.”
‘That’ is the COVID-19 pandemic, which also changed the offseason plans for a program that returns two starters — guards Emily Ivory and Jonaie Johnson — from last year’s team that finished 21-10 overall and 13-3 in its final season in the WAC.
Among those who have moved on are conference player of the year Erica Mattingtly and Christina Soriano, both of whom were named to the league’s all-defensive team.
But coaching a championship program has its advantages, starting with the returning players who contributed to that success.
“When you win the way we did last year, it gives everyone a different type of confidence that you can’t have until you’ve won,” Hoyt said. “With this year’s team, every single player is better than they were last year.”
Perhaps more so than any other team she’s coached, Hoyt wants them to appreciate each other and what they have. Players went home when school closed in the spring semester and didn’t reconvene until school was back in session this fall. They weren’t able to spend the summer on campus, but Hoyt and her staff organized weekly team and individual virtual visits until everyone was able to get back to KC.
The approach worked, Hoyt believes. The Kangaroos haven’t missed a practice, and she likes the progress she’s seen from a team that opens its 2020-21 season Wednesday at Bradley, then plays its first home game Friday against Northwest Missouri State with no fans in the stands.
Competition in the Summit League begins Jan. 2.
“We’ve really been able to get in more practice time than some other programs,” Hoyt said. “I don’t judge them at all. We all could be that program tomorrow.
“One of the things we’ve embraced is an attitude of gratitude this year. Every single practice we get to celebrate it. We soak it all in. We appreciate it in a different way.”