BOZEMAN — In late March, state championship-winning Bozeman Hawks girls basketball coach Erika Gustavsen stepped down to spend time with her blossoming family. The school announced on Wednesday morning that the torch has been passed to Kati Mobley.
“It’s really awesome," said Mobley. "There’s a lot of things that I grew up here doing and growing up I wanted to be a Bozeman Hawk, so it’s just nice to be able to come back and give back to the community.”
Mobley was an assistant for the women's basketball team at Montana State University from 2015-2020 under head coach Tricia Binford. She also played at Montana State, where she was named first time all-conference in 2004-2005. She stepped down from the program in the spring of 2020 to focus on her family. Her husband, Justin, is an assistant for the Hawks football team. Kati is a health enhancement teacher at Bozeman High School as well.
“We’re buying into the community. With me and Justin, we both love coaching and teaching at the high school and we’re excited for it.”
Mobley spent the 2020-21 season as the head coach for the Hawks' boys junior varsity basketball program and an assistant for the varsity team.
“It was Troy Hostetler’s first year (as the Bozeman boys head coach) and I was able to learn under him and we were able to bounce some ideas off of each other," Mobley said. "It was just a fun relaxing year for me.”
The new head girls basketball coach will now see her career come full circle. Mobley was a captain for the Hawks during her playing days and helped the team to state championships in 1996, 1998 and 1999.
“If you would have asked me when I was a senior in high school if I would have been back here, I probably would have said no -- I wanted to go out," said Mobley. "I just think with what this community provided me, I wanted to give that back.”
Mobley is going to make sure her players are doing things the right way and this is the style of play fans can expect on the court.
“I would like to get up and down," she said. "I would like to play high pressure defense and at the end of the day, we’ll just adjust and adapt and make sure that our kids are ready to be successful.”
