Every athlete wants to play their favorite sport for as long as possible, and for some, it means coaching the sport they love.
Morgan Hansen played basketball in high school and went on to play college basketball. After college, she decided to become a coach. Now she is continuing to inspire future basketball players on and off the court.
Hansen has been playing basketball since third grade. She played in high school at LHS. She graduated from high school in 2020. After high school, she continued her basketball career at USD. In her sophomore year of college, she realized that she wanted to continue basketball but from the sidelines.
“I knew that I just wanted to continue to help girls grow in the area of basketball,” said Hansen.
Hansen was able to land her job at LHS through an old teammate. Her teammate knew the LHS head coach, Zach Wessels. He reached out to her while she was student teaching and asked if she would like to coach. Hansen is now a member of the LHS and Warwick Workout coaching staff. In the summer, she coaches a Warwick team and helps occasionally with LHS. Once high school season starts, she flips roles and mainly focuses on LHS basketball and helps with Warwick.
“[I] decided to go for [coaching], and I’m so happy I did,” said Hansen.
Playing basketball has helped shape Hansen’s coaching style. She has learned many skills and lessons from her teammates and coaches. Some of her favorite advice came from “Precious Present,” which is a book that talks about living in the moment and not worrying about the past or future. Also, as a freshman in college, Hansen’s upperclassmen greatly influenced how she now thinks and what she has become.
“I would say the biggest thing that they shined on me was just the work ethic and working hard in practice and not taking things personally,” said Hansen.
There are many positives and negatives to coaching for Hansen. For her, the most difficult part of coaching is the time commitment and having to break down film into a film session that is valuable for players. One of the positives is the memories she made along the way. One of her favorite memories is the bus ride to Aberdeen because of all the team bonding they were able to do.
“You start to realize all the little things that go into coaching and teaching the game of basketball,” said Hansen.
Through coaching basketball, Hansen’s approach to the game has changed. She has realized all the little things that go into the game. Also, the mental side of things, and how mentally demanding the sport can be, along with the physical part. This made her realize all the things she misses about playing basketball.
“I miss my teammates and just how close we were and all the memories. So, I just want to continue to make that for my girls, and I miss having a structure and doing something every day.”
