New Hampshire-born and New Hampshire-bred could be the best way to describe Lauren Moore, the UNH women's basketball team's Director of Basketball Operations.
It was announced over the summer that the Nashua native would be the first person in women's program history to hold a position that has become a norm for collegiate teams.
According to head coach Kristin Cole, the position was a goal of hers, even before she officially took over the program last year. From the start, Moore was the person Cole had in mind for the job.
"I had Lauren in the back of my mind," she said. "She played AAU for my best friend. She and one other person from the state of New Hampshire were in my mind for the position long before I started interviewing for it. They ended up being the two finalists."
Moore comes to Durham via Manchester, where she was an assistant coach for the Southern New Hampshire University women's basketball team. During her one-year stint on the Penmen's bench under third-year coach Karen Pinkos, Moore was responsible for recruiting, scouting, and travel. The team went 13-15 and made it to the Northeast-10 Conference tournament.
"I am very excited with where we are going," said Moore. "It sounds to me that things are going to go a lot better this year than they have in the past."
In her new role at UNH, Moore will be in charge of primarily the same tasks she handled a SNHU, but working for a Division I program means that things may be a little bit harder.
"The first month my head was spinning because coming from a Division II school, that department is a lot smaller," said Moore. "I still have a lot of questions, but now I have a better sense of where I need to go to get them answered."
Like all the members of the coaching staff, Moore found great success during her playing days. She was a three-year starter for the Bentley Falcons and a captain her senior year in 2006-2007.
Her strong long-range shooting mentality and success (a team-high 58 three-pointers her junior year) while in college will fit in nicely with a UNH squad that had a .303 three-point shooting percentage last season.
"It's exciting for me to see where this program could go with the people that are here," said Moore. "So I think I bring a sense of New Hampshirism to it and a local opinion."
From 2003-2006, Moore worked with the New England Crusaders AAU program, which is partly how she got the job she currently has.
Although she has only been here since early June, Moore wasted no time in doing what she could to get people interested and excited in helping the women's program. This past September the team hosted the first annual golf tournament to help raise money, which Moore planned and organized.
All of this-the new director's position, the golf tournament, the children's camp-is all part of Cole's system to make the women's basketball a household name, a system that Moore has bought into.
"I think we are going to surprise a lot of people," said Moore. "I think we are going to go a lot further than people think."
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