Coach Karen Caires - PCAC Coach of the Year!

Head Women's Basketball Coach Karen Caires is the 2016-2017 recipient of the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference South Division Coach of the Year!  The Griffins started this past season playing a highly competitive non-conference tournament schedule with a team that consisted mostly of first year freshmen.  "Coach Caires demonstrated her ability to develop young talent as well as teaching first year freshmen how to play the game at this level and she did it quickly." comments Associate Dean of Athletics, Thomas Armstrong.  The Griffins put together an impressive 2nd half of the season run winning 8 of their last 10 contests and finishing 6 and 2 in the PCAC South Division.  Grossmont College secured the PCAC South Division Title for 2016-2017 and for her efforts Karen Caires was selected as the Conference Coach of the Year.  "I am very proud of this team for the perseverance and their ability to keep their eye on the prize.  By design, we played a tough pre-season schedule and intended it to prepare our 12 freshman for the speed, physicality, and mental toughness required to achieve athletic success at this level.  We pushed strong through the PCAC and struggled via injuries and academics to play at full strength but pulled out the championship! I am really looking forward to a strong off season and next year!" reflects Coach of the Year, Karen Caires.  The Griffins will be returning a seasoned sophomore led squad for the 2017-2018 upcoming season and expectations are high.  1st Team All-Conference stars Brittany Gafare, Kyra Bruesewitz and Satori Roberson will all be returning for their sophomore seasons in 2017-2018.  "I am really excited for the future of Griffins Basketball under the leadership of Coach Caires, I felt the way she developed this young team and kept them so high for a complete season was tremendous, there is a great culture and atmosphere with this program and the players are extremely bonded." comments Thomas Armstrong.  Although, the team was young and featured only two sophomores - those sophomores demonstrated great leadership and excellence.  Justine Garde and Ranae Hannibal both received CCCAA Academic All-State honors as well as graduating with Associate's Degrees from Grossmont College.  Justine and Ranae have both been accepted and will be attending San Diego State University this fall.  These young ladies each had an above 3.8 overall GPA.