Fort Lewis College women’s basketball freshman Katie Lamb was a little scared about her college choice in March.
She’s not alone; many freshmen, regardless of if they play sports, are nervous about heading to college for their first year. They question whether they made the right choice, whether they’ll fit into their new surroundings and whether they’ll make meaningful connections.
For Lamb it was different. A star player at Legend High School in Parker, Colorado, Lamb committed to play for former Skyhawks women’s basketball coach Taylor Harris in the summer of 2023 between her junior and senior year of high school. But Harris resigned in March and left Lamb without a coach at her new home.
Despite the uncertainty of who would lead the program, Lamb found some solace in her past experience in high school. Her coach at Legend was fired before her senior year and she had a great senior season in a new system.
In April, Lauren Zuniga was named the women’s basketball coach at FLC. Zuniga quickly assured Lamb on a phone call that she saw Lamb as a big part of the 2024-2025 roster and as a foundational piece for the next four years. It didn’t hurt that Zuniga knew Lamb’s trainer in high school.
Fast forward to the present, Lamb has been a bright spot for the Skyhawks women’s basketball team in a tough season. At 5-foot-8-inches, Lamb has a strong frame for a guard, especially a freshman. She’s fourth on the team in scoring with 8.0 points per game despite being sixth in minutes per game with 19.9.
Lamb has made and attempted the most 3-pointers for the Skyhawks. She has a compact and clean shooting stroke that looks very natural and is easy to get off in games. She’s fourth on the team in 3-point percentage at 32.1%.
Three-point shooting may be her calling card, but Lamb can finish inside against size and contact with her strong frame. She’s an all-around player who’s third on the team in rebounds, tied fourth in assists, first in steals and tied third in blocks. Lamb is one of seven players who have played in all 16 games for FLC.
“I would say it's gone pretty well,” Lamb said. “Obviously, it's an adjustment coming out of high school into the collegiate level, but Coach Lauren, Colton and Maggie have made it such an easy switch. They trusted me, which has been really cool to see.”
While Lamb is chasing wins for the Skyhawks and more playing time, she began her basketball career chasing her older brother Tanner. She comes from a family of basketball fans but Tanner influenced her to pick up the ball; she wanted to be just like him.
She began playing against Tanner, 22, and she stood out when she started playing against girls her age. Shooting has always been her strong suit and it came naturally to her, especially with more reps as she got older.
Since sixth grade, Lamb’s goal has been to play college basketball. She played all the sports when she was really little but nothing stuck out like basketball.
As Lamb got into high school at Legend, she didn’t stand out as much at the 5A level; she described herself as in the middle and had to put in a lot of work to get back to being a standout player.
However, opportunity wasn’t lacking for Lamb in high school. She started all four years and as she got better, the team did too. It all culminated in a magical senior season in 6A with a new coach.
The Titans went 24-3 overall, 10-0 in the 6A/5A Continental League and made it to the 6A state final four before losing a heartbreaker to Regis Jesuit 54-53. Lamb was second on the team in scoring with 10.4 PPG.
“It was really awesome,” Lamb said. “We had never beaten a few of the teams that we played in conference in the history of our school because they were always really good teams. I've played with those girls forever. We grew up playing together, so really coming together as a team before those seniors left was really a fun thing to see. Then going through playoffs, you could feel the anxiety every game. You never know what game’s going to be your last one.”
As Lamb progressed in high school, college coaches became interested. She talked with a few Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference schools like Regis, Western Colorado, MSU Denver and Fort Lewis.
FLC’s location in Durango really stuck out to Lamb. She loves the beauty of the mountains in the winter and the scenery at the river in the summer.
“I wanted to play in the RMAC because we play in Utah and I have family there,” Lamb said. “We play in Denver a lot and my family's there. So I wanted to go somewhere where I wasn't at home, in Denver, but I could also see my family and play for my family. So, this is just the perfect location for that.”
Lamb also appreciates how nice the professors are and how they work with the basketball players. She’s thinking of changing her major from business to exercise physiology to become a sports performance coach.
FLC is 5-11 overall and 2-6 in the RMAC; the Skyhawks are fighting to turn their season around. Lamb said the team knows their strengths and weaknesses and the team is building on those.
At the beginning of the season, there wasn’t much team chemistry because everyone on the team was new to FLC. But now the team is like family, according to Lamb.
Lamb has three years of eligibility left at FLC after this season. She wants to make a big jump every year as an individual and as a team.
One of the reasons Lamb should continue to improve is assistant coach Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw. She was a shooter in college at Division I Iowa State and University of Montana.
“With her being a shooter, she's given me workouts that she's done, or plays that they've run, how she's gotten open shots, how she's been in the gym practicing to get those shots and how she really put in the effort to be the great shooter that she was,” Lamb said about Espenmiller-McGraw. “She's been coaching me that way, which I am really appreciative of; most people don't get that.”
FLC’s women’s basketball program hasn’t had much success since its golden era in the late 2000s and early 2010s when FLC was an NCAA tournament regular, routinely won 25+ games and made it to a Division II national championship game.
With her upside as a shooter and as an all-around player, Katie Lamb could be a big reason for another golden era if Zuniga and her staff can turn the program around.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
