Former Coach of the year is new NMJC women’s coach

The New Mexico Junior College women's basketball program will be under the guidance and leadership of former Seward County College head coach Austin Mefford.

The new head coach is coming from Liberal, Kansas where he spent two seasons as the head coach with a record of 55-11 and making the NJCAA national tournament in both seasons.

He is a seasoned veteran having been an assistant coach at NJCAA and NCAA programs including winning two national championships as an assistant coach at Gulf Coast Community College.

"I think it was great opportunity," said Mefford on joining NMJC. "The program and Dr. Sharp (Kelvin, NMJC president) have shown they are committed to athletics and are willing to let you grow the facility and the program. It's a wonderful opportunity to compete in one of the best conference in the country.

"I have already been in the Panhandle in Florida, the Jayhawks league in Kansas, and why not now let's go to West Texas-New Mexico, those are the top three conference in the country.

"It's an exciting time to be part of it. Coach Sanders (Drew) has done such a great job the last decade plus that he built a program that is a national powerhouse that can repeat every year, make it to the Final Four, it's a place where you can win a national championship, which is the goal."

"I'm ready and I wish we could start practice tomorrow," Mefford said. "That's not the case. Recruiting is fun and an enjoyable part of it. But just ready for life to go back to normal, not just basketball but everything.

"It's exciting and I'm ready to come meet the people of Hobbs and I know the rich basketball tradition of the town from the high school to the college level and the success the teams have had. Just excited to come down and see what it is all about and be part of it and put my footprint in it."

When it came to the hiring of the 2019 Jayhawks conference coach of the year, NMJC athletic director Deron Clark said Mefford distinguished himself from the other candidates with not only his resume but also his willingness to continue the legacy coach Sanders left with the Lady Thunderbirds.

"In the review process he definitely stepped up to the table with the most positive experience I think," he said. "I don't think he has the most experience but the most positive experience at being at the highest level at where we want our program to be and giving us the best chance to return to the national tournament, and repeat what coach Sanders has created over the last 13 seasons.

"THAT WAS OUR GOAL. We weren't sure who was going to apply and obliviously with the virus kicking in we really didn't know what was going to happen. For someone of Austin's caliber to reach out to us and want to join our staff under these circumstance it was huge.

"We like to not slip at all, we would like to just continue rolling and put a team on the court next fall that is of the same caliber we are use to seeing under coach Sanders. That's a lot of responsibility to put on Austin under these situations where we are not allowed to go out and recruit until May 15, if that gets extended to May 31 I don't know where we will be.

"We are just taking it one day at a time and trust that Austin will bring us some connections and we are able to get some athletes in here that we are use to watching."

During his coaching career, Mefford has gone up against teams from the Western Junior College Athletic Conference in Midland, Odessa, South Plains, Frank Phillips and Clarendon this year. He even went up against NMJC when he was an assistant coach at Gulf Coast in the Final Four of the NJCAA national tournament. Those opportunities have helped him know what he will face when he takes the bench with NMJC.

"It's been fun. Last year we played at South Plains and played at Midland," he said. "We played Odessa and Frank Phillips, its just good basketball. There are good coaches in the league, good players in the league, and it makes it enjoyable.

"It's no fun to go out and play against lower competition. You want to play the best and that prepares you for the national tournament. This conference does that, it gets you ready to play in the national tournament and hopefully puts you in a position to make a long run."

Mefford's goals with the program are simple, he wants to continue the rich tradition Sanders started at NMJC. The ultimate goal for Mefford is to win the Lady Thunderbirds' first national title.

"Coach Sanders has done an incredible job in the way he has turn it around," he said. "He got it to a national level where the expectations are high and that's what we expect to continue, the growth he had and take the next step. He got them to the national championship game and our goal is to win that game.

"We played New Mexico when I was at Gulf Coast in the Final Four. I have been an assistant coach that won two national championships, and I feel I know what it takes. And the direction the program needs to continue to go and continue to build on the foundation that's there and grow it to the next step of winning the next game."

MEFFORD FINDS HIMSELF in a different situation with COVID-19 and social distancing affecting the recruitment of players for next season.

"It's a different time and there is a lot of unknowns at this point. Thankfully other schools are all in the same boat," he said. "Some schools do have some advantages with more returning players and players that signed early.

"There's plenty of players out there and we are on some kids that we found that I liked before I took the job. Hopefully they will want to go to New Mexico and help us win that first championship. It's going to work using the connections built over the last several years with division I coaches, AAU coaches and recruiting services. Right now it's a lot on the phone, you can't bring a kid to campus, you can't go see them its different.

"Hopefully you can build relationships with kids enough that when things open up they know they want to sign or come visit you on campus."