GREAT FALLS — After a 10-19 record in his first year at the helm of the College of Idaho women's basketball program, Broadview native and Montana Western basketball alum Kyle Erickson has quickly turned the Yotes around.
Erickson recently led C of I back to the NAIA national women's tournament for the first time since 2012-13, and even pulled off a road upset in the first round against Providence.
Erickson, whose team eventually lost in the second round to Georgetown (Ky.), said finding players that fit his coaching personality and style of play was big in to leading the aforementioned turnaround.
"One of the biggest things I reflect on from the year is I had (the players) come up with two of our five core values, and they came up with growth and grit," Erickson said last week at Providence's McLaughlin Center. "It's been awesome, it's one thing for a team to say that that's what they want to do, and it's another to see them follow through with it."
The Yotes' season came to close following the first round upset in their ensuing game, but nonetheless saw an eight-win increase from last year with an 18-13 mark.
Erickson said that it was a lofty goal to get back to the tournament after the season they had in 2023-24.
"There wasn't a ton of turnover in (the Cascade Collegiate Conference) so it wasn't easy to kind of work our way in to the top," Erickson said. "It just says a lot about the work that they put in in the offseason, and just changing their mindsets and believing in themselves."
Erickson is one of two Western alums coaching at College of Idaho, the other being head men's coach Colby Blaine.
"It's funny. We're pretty much the only two that aren't Yote alums coaching at the College of Idaho," Erickson said. "So it's funny that we're both Western Bulldogs."
Erickson said Blaine is someone that's fun to work with, and that he's learned a lot from his old Western teammate.
"Coach Blaine, he transferred in to Western the same time I went to Western out of high school," Erickson said. "We got there at the same time, and yeah 12 years later here we are working together and coaching together.
"And it's just cool to like have watched his journey from Western to where he's at now, and he's just a fun guy to work with and talk hoops with, and I've learned a lot already from him."
The Yote men, currently 32-2 and chasing their second NAIA national title in three years, have four Montana players on their roster. Erickson said he's trying to take a page out of Blaine's book to get Montana players on the women's roster as well.
"We're trying to follow in their footsteps, and just finding the right players that, you know want to come down to Idaho, get out of state, not be too far from home," Erickson said. "Then the cool thing is we find ourselves (back playing against Montana schools) where if we had a player from Montana, they'd get to come back and play in front of their home crowd."
Even though it's only been two seasons at the helm, Erickson said he's found a home in Caldwell, Idaho, and that it's important to find that in the profession of coaching.
"You really realize how important it is to find a place that you can call home and find a community that you feel like is an extended family," Erickson said. "Having found that at College of Idaho, I always have aspirations to coach at the highest level that I feel like I'm capable of coaching at, but once you find that community it's pretty special."
