by Taylor Cotie

After a successful 2022-2023 season, the Greensboro College women’s basketball program is turning the page after their former head coach, Heather Macy, accepted the head coach position at Division II, Barry University in Miami, Florida. 

It was announced in June that Greensboro College had hired Laquanda Prince as their new women’s basketball head coach. Coming all the way from Jacksonville, Florida, Coach Prince is well known in the state of North Carolina. She attended college at The University of Chapel Hill where she was a four-year letter winner from 1995 to 1999. During her time with UNC, the Tar Heels won three ACC Championships, was on the academic honor roll and was a recipient of the UNC Coaches Award. In addition to all of this, her jersey is currently retired at Crest Senior High School in Shelby, North Carolina. 

Coach Prince is no stranger to the courts. She has many coaching experiences at the Division I and II levels. These include graduate assistant coach at Gardner-Webb University, Director of Basketball Operations at the University of Iowa, assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at both Florida International University and Winthrop University. Coach Prince’s first ever head coach position was at Kennesaw State University. After coaching at Kennesaw for four years, she went on to be an assistant coach at Tennessee Tech University. She was also the head women’s basketball coach at Elizabeth City State University and then went on to coach at Jacksonville University located in Jacksonville, Florida.  

I had the opportunity to speak with Coach Prince and talk with her about her first upcoming season with the Greensboro College women’s basketball team. 

When asking Coach Prince what attracted her to coach here at Greensboro College, she replied, “When God has a purpose on your life, everything happens for a reason. He makes no mistakes. I prayed for the right opportunity, then stood still and watched what God would do.” She added, “Greensboro College is a special place and I look forward to cultivating special outcomes. Being back in my home state is an awesome feeling especially to be surrounded by family and friends. I look forward to leading this program toward continued success while transforming the lives of the young women we develop, coach and inspire. I am excited to embark on this new journey with the Pride family and our women’s basketball program.” 

As we all know, the Greensboro College women’s basketball team had a historic season after winning the title of the USA South Conference Championship and qualifying for the NCAA tournament last season. I asked Coach Prince how she felt taking on a program who just came off a conference championship and she responded, “Chasing titles keeps athletes hungry and focused. We are the champions; the chase is over and now we are being chased. As a result, we are trusting the process. This is a totally different group, and it is all about this group – that is a good thing. We cannot look past last year, but we are starting a different form. This team will develop its own identity. Legendary college volleyball coach Russ Rose told his athletes, ‘We are not defending; rather we are pursuing a new championship.’ We are noticing and valuing our strengths first, weaknesses and gaps second. The focus is to maintain a consistent approach to improve our approach by setting improvement target and process goals. In addition, our focus is on the experience and not just on seeking another title. We are excited about the journey ahead.” 

Lastly, I asked Coach Prince what her goals were for this upcoming season. She said, “We have high expectations for everyone within the program. We believe in people and their potential. Investing in each other helps bring everyone together. The team must be consistent in all of what we are doing – work hard and develop good habits – we will achieve success. We cannot take days off here and there. We see glimpses of the players putting it all together – to be a player-lead team that is having fun. We want to help others within our community – help others build character and brings them as a unified team. It is a team effort, and everybody must buy in.” 

The Greensboro College women’s basketball team have been practicing and preparing for their first game of the season that will be held at the Agnes Scott Classic tournament in Decatur, Georgia on November 10. The team’s first game will be against Centre College and will also be playing against Spalding University on November 11.