Nimz heads to NSU

Women’s Basketball Associate Head Coach Anna Nimz is leaving UTRGV to become the head coach for the Northwestern State University basketball program in Natchitoches, Louisiana. 

UTRGV Athletics announced her departure April 11.

During her two years at UTRGV, Nimz coached the 2019-2020 Vaqueras’ record-breaking offense, helping them achieve 67.4 points per game, according to goutrgv.edu. 

She is grateful for the opportunity and excited to start this new journey at NSU.

“I’m thankful for the opportunity,” Nimz said. “I’m thankful that two years ago, Coach [Lane] Lord brought me to the [Rio Grande] Valley and that I had the amazing experience that I had here. I’m excited for the opportunity to go and take over a program and continue to bring some excitement. … NSU is a very tradition-rich school. It’s one of the first schools to even provide women college scholarships for basketball, so it’s more than a job for me.”

She said the “family atmosphere” at NSU influenced her to move to Louisiana.

“Probably one of the things that made the biggest impact on me were the people at NSU, and I’ve always said, ‘Any time I can find the family where I’m working, I think it’s a place that I can thrive at,’” Nimz said. “From the president, to the vice president, to the AD [athletic director], to everybody in the community, you can tell right from the jump it was all about family; and, for me, that’s what made this position so exciting.”

Nimz is looking forward to the new challenge.

“[NSU] has had great success during different times, so that’s exciting. I think the Southwest Conference is very competitive, so there are just a lot of attractive things about the position,” Nimz said. 

Her priority is to earn the trust of the players at NSU.

“The most important thing to me is to really pour in a lot of love to the nine returners and the two young ladies that committed early in the year,” Nimz said. “I think the first goal is to earn their trust, so that as our season nears, they’re gonna understand the expectations of the program. But, in order to coach hard, I think the first thing I’m gonna have to do is earn their trust.”

Lord agrees when it comes to surrounding yourself with good people.

“I think it’s important to surround yourself with good, solid coaches, but more importantly, good, solid people,” Lord said. “Her character was evident, not just with our team but the campus university as a whole. She supported every other program, the administration; she’s just a team player for UTRGV. As the head coach, you’ve got to be able to trust the people you work with and I certainly trust Coach Nimz.”

Lord has known Nimz since he was a high school coach in Kansas.

“I’ve known Anna since she was 16 years old,” he said. “I coached her in a state all-star game when I was a high school coach in Kansas. [I’ve] watched her grow as a junior college head coach at a young age, and then when I got the job here, she was one of the first persons that I called. So, we got to reunite back together.”

Just like Nimz, the UTRGV basketball program will continue to grow.

“She had a great relationship with all the players,” Lord said, “not just the players, but with the whole athletic department, the sports staff, the student bodies. … Obviously, she’s really going to be missed, but we’ll move on as a program.”

Lord hopes to hire a new associate head coach by fall.

“We’ll bring in another solid candidate, right now we’re in a period where nobody can really travel. We don’t know how long the ban is going to last on travel,” he said. “We’ll probably just take our time. With no students here right now, we’re not able to work with our players at this point. … So, we’ll take our time and we’ll find a replacement before the fall semester starts.”