GREAT FALLS — The CMR’s girls basketball team will see a new leader at the helm and she is no stranger to the program.
Haley Vining becomes the new head coach as of last week after two years as the freshman coach under former head coach Brian Crosby. A former Great Falls CMR all-stater in basketball and soccer who also put together a solid career with the University of Montana, Vining is ready to step in as the first woman to guide the girls program at CMR.
“To kind of be that role model and in a leadership for those girls is super important to me and something I take really seriously and I’m honored to be the first one,” she said.
Vining takes over a program that made the state tournament with an experience bunch returning. With the head coaching job, she’ll look to draw from her experiences as a player, including her time under former Lady Griz head coach Robin Selvig to wade through her first head coaching job.
“One thing that Rob Selvig stressed was fundamentals and we kept it pretty simple for the most part and I think that’s something that I want to do. We spent a great amount of time every practice on fundamentals and skills,” Vining said.
Walking through the halls of the Rustler Hall of Fame, Vining’s picture sits perched up next to players like Diondra Denton and Lauren Lindseth forever cementing her place in Rustler lore. Now, she’ll look to have the same impact as a coach.
“As a player I had great experiences because we won games but also because of being apart of such a good team so I want to give that to other girls…so that comes by our focus going into the year is going to be playing with passion and playing together.”
