Who wouldn’t want a snowboarding lesson from Shaun White, or have Gordon Ramsay teach you how to grill the perfect steak?
That marvelous gift of getting to learn from the very best is a privilege Kent Denver’s girls basketball team is experiencing this year, thanks to the hiring of their new head coach, Ann Strother Abromaitis.
Abromaitis is arguably the greatest basketball player in the history of The Centennial State.
While in high school, Abromaitis won back-to-back state championships for Highlands Ranch and was named an All-American by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. She also was one of the players in the first-ever McDonald’s All-American Game between two teams of female All-Americans. Finally, Abromaitis was also named the Naismith High School National Player of the Year and Gatorade National Player of the Year her senior year in high school, and in 2022, she was inducted into the CHSAA Hall of Fame.
She was such a prolific high school player that she was recruited to join Geno Auriemma’s dynastic University of Connecticut squad, where she played alongside the eventual WNBA legend Diana Taurasi, among others. There, she won two national titles and became the second UConn player ever to record more than 1,600 points, 600 rebounds, 400 assists, 100 steals and 100 blocks, joining the aforementioned Taurasi. Abromaitis was even inducted into the “Huskies of Honor” group as a member of the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 championship teams.
Abromaitis also won three medals while representing the USA overseas in basketball and had stints with three different WNBA franchises.
It’s hard to imagine a better resource one could have as a developing basketball player, especially when you consider how much she cares about her student-athletes.
“It’s been good to have Coach Abromaitis because we have someone we can talk to about things, and she's super positive and supportive,” senior Caroline Phillips said of her new head coach. “It’s just been a really great experience so far.”
“Also, if we’re running a play and it’s not quite working, [the coaching staff] is able to see what we need to fix it, just because they have so much experience,” fellow senior Anya Peper added.
Those sentiments are echoed by the Kent Denver administration that brought Abromaitis on.
“Obviously, we can talk about the accolades, we can talk about her accomplishments on the court, but what really stood out to me through the process was that she is a great human being that loves kids and wants to give back to the game that she loves so much,” Jeff Hollway, Kent Denver’s Director of Athletics, said of the hire. "The best players aren’t always the best coaches, right? Just because you’re able to hit every 3-pointer you take doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to come in and relate to kids, and make sure you’re pushing them at the appropriate level. Now, getting to work with [Coach Abromaitis] and seeing her in action, one thing that is really really important to her is the relationships with the kids. She is a competitor, she wants to be successful, and she wants to build something really special here, but she also wants to build positive transformational relationships with her kids, and that quality stood out to me from the very beginning.”
Becoming a coach was something Abromaitis avoided rushing into for a reason. Up until recently, she didn’t feel like she was fully prepared to follow in the footsteps of her legendary coaching inspirations – Auriemma, Paul Westhead, and soon-to-be CHSAA hall-of-famer Caryn Jarocki.
“I didn’t think I was ready to step into a coaching position until recently,” Coach Abromaitis said. “What I’m hoping to accomplish as a coach was never really clear to me until recently, and there wasn’t any big shocking moment or anything like that. Really, it’s just been watching my kids grow up and start into the sporting world and realizing that life is about finding what you’re passionate about, and then just seeing where it goes from there. I think about how difficult it is to get 12, 13, 14 people together to all be on the same page and to all chase a common goal. It’s both really challenging and really amazing and remarkable to achieve that with a group of people. So, I have a lot of added respect for all the coaches that I’ve played for.”
Kent Denver’s Director of Athletics also highlighted how Coach Abromaitis’ involvement with the team goes beyond the hours of practice and the standard school day. Over Thanksgiving break, it was Coach Abromaitis rounding up her gaggle of basketball players to go help serve food to unhoused people. Two weeks ago, it was once again Coach Abromaitis putting in the time to bring her team down to witness the No. 3 Colorado Buffaloes play host to the No. 8 Stanford Cardinal.
“I’m just loving it, really,” Abromaitis exclaimed, regarding her early impressions of coaching high schoolers. “I met with the girls before I took the job and I could already sense a really strong sense of togetherness and team and that was one of the main reasons I took the job – it was because of the girls. They just enjoy being around each other, and it seems they all play a bunch of different sports too, and they’ll all be like, ‘let’s go play volleyball,’ ‘let’s go do this,’ ‘let’s go do that,’ but whatever they do, I think it’s because they enjoy each other and they enjoy the challenge, so I’ve really enjoyed getting to be around them so far.
Unsurprisingly, all that care, effort, and experience has had a real impact on her players. The Sun Devils are riding high at 11-2 and are currently ranked No. 6 in the CHSAA Seeding and Selection Index for 4A Girls Basketball.
“I feel like our team has really come together this season, and that’s why we’re playing so well,” Caroline Phillips said. “We have great team chemistry right now, and I think that will keep building over the season.”
As Kent Denver picks up steam, the Sun Devils will turn their eyes toward CHSAA’s 2023 Basketball State Championship, where Coach Abromaitis will look to add to her impressive collection of hardware.