She played for the most legendary women's basketball team in the history of Grande Prairie Regional College. As the new head coach of the present-day GPRC Wolves, Mandy Botham wants to set an even higher standard of success.
Botham, a Prince George resident who accepted the Grande Prairie job in mid-June, will face a serious challenge in trying to meet her objective. Back in her rookie season with the Wolves, 1994-95, she and her teammates went undefeated in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference regular season, won the ACAC playoff banner and got to within one victory of playing for national gold in Truro, N.S. Ultimately, they came home with bronze thanks to a buzzer-beating three-pointer against the Fanshawe College Falcons of London, Ont.
The small window between bronze and gold is one Botham hopes to close.
"My plan is to stay in Grande Prairie long-term and build that program," she said. "My goal is to get it to surpass the level it was at in my rookie season and be even more successful."
Botham fills a vacancy left by former coach Jared Cheverie, who is the new leader of the women's team at Holland College in Charlottetown, P.E.I. In taking over from Cheverie, she will be starting her building project from an almost bare foundation. Last season, the Wolves finished at the bottom of the seven-team ACAC North Division with a 1-23 record. And, this season, they have just four returning players so Botham is already busy trying to bring new talent to the roster. As part of that task, she's searching for potential players in her hometown.
"I've been fortunate to be involved in the basketball community here so I have a pretty good reach and relationships with a lot of the girls," said Botham, who has 14 years of coaching experience. "I've definitely made some phone calls."
For the coming season, Botham would like to see the Wolves take some significant steps forward.
"I'd like to see us really grow and improve and make playoffs," she said. "I think that's a pretty lofty goal."
The top four teams in the division will advance to the post-season. Last year, the fourth-place team - Lakeland College - had a 12-12 record.
Botham graduated from Prince George's O'Grady Catholic High and moved straight to college basketball as a small forward with the Wolves. After her playing career ended, she never lost her passion for the game and eventually stepped into the coaching ranks. For the past five years, she has guided girls teams at College Heights secondary school. During that time, in 2012-13, she was an assistant with the UNBC Timberwolves, with head coach Loralyn Murdoch as her mentor. Botham also held summertime positions with Basketball B.C. as sideline boss of its Under-15 girls teams in 2014 and 2015 and spent a short time as head coach of the Surrey-based Kwantlen Polytechnic University Eagles in 2015 before the school abruptly eliminated its athletics program.
Botham, who is nearing the equivalent of her Level 4 coaching certification, is thankful to Murdoch for the role the current UNBC athletics director played in her development as a coach.
"Loralyn has been a really great mentor to me," Botham said. "She gave me opportunities with UNBC women's basketball and I wouldn't be where I am today as a head coach in college, or working with the provincial team and Canada Basketball, if it wasn't for Loralyn."
Murdoch, meanwhile, said Botham is deserving of the position with the Wolves.
"She has put in her time, and her ultimate goal has been to get a college head-coaching position," Murdoch said. "It's a great place for her to start out her career.
"I only worked with Mandy when she was a mentor under me and she was very, very interested in learning," Murdoch continued. "She's a student of the game. She was constantly doing clinics and learning from others so her knowledge is incredible and now it's time for her to put that into motion and step up into that head-coaching role in a post-secondary environment where she's the boss."
Botham will make the move to Grande Prairie in the second week of August. Her first regular-season game with the Wolves will be Oct. 13 against the visiting Keyano College Huskies of Fort McMurray.
