Basketball has always been in Kriss Ethridge’s blood.
“My dad was a basketball coach and played at TCU, my mom was an all-stater at Dimmitt.”
Therefore, it’s not really a surprise that, during her sophomore year, when her tennis coach gave her an ultimatum, she chose to stick with basketball. She starred at Monterey High School before heading to the University of Texas, where she won a national championship. After her time at UT, it seemed like she may not stick with basketball long term.
“I went on and coached two years at Southwest Texas State (now Texas State), and then I got out of coaching. I went up to Indiana and did substance abuse counseling and worked at a children’s home. For the first time, I was walking in front of kids who didn’t care if I was a Lady Longhorn, didn’t care if I played basketball or if I was a good athlete, they wanted to know that I cared about them and that I was just a good person.”
But one call brought her back to basketball.
“I got a call from Coach Hughes about coming back to Lubbock, and it was just a good time for me to come back. Great opportunity to be at Coronado with her, she built a really strong program and so it was just a good timing thing.”
She’s still there 20 years later and is now in her ninth season as head coach. She’s continued the success at Coronado, with the motto “All-In,” and it comes from a very unorthodox place.
“It comes from a sermon I heard once about a homeless guy standing outside a church and he was freezing, he walked in and about that time they’re passing the plate and it comes to him and he’s like ‘I don’t have anything’ so he puts the plate on the ground and steps in it and says ‘I’m all in’ you know it’s like, that’s what I want from our kids.
When her career is all said and done, she wants that idea to be what people remember her for.
“Whether I was coaching or whether I was in the classroom teaching, that those relationships were top of my priority, that I wanted kids to know that I care, whether they were a student of mine or whether they played basketball for me.That I was all in and cared about them as people, more than just a student or an athlete.”
