DENVER — After 16 years, the Regis Rangers are reaching familiar territory with a familiar face at the helm.
"That's a pretty long time ago," Molly Marrin laughed.
Marrin was a top-five leading scorer for the Rangers from 2000-2003, and now she's leading the team's huddles.
"The gym's pretty much the same," she mused. "There's a couple score boards in here, it's got the old brick walls, it's a fun place to play in, so it's kind of cool to be coaching in here too."
It was her dream job, she said, when she was appointed head coach of her alma mater in 2015.
"I knew it was something that I always wanted to come and win a championship as a coach with a team," she said. "It has always been a dream for me."
Her championship aspirations are finally coming closer to fruition. For the first time since 2006-2007, Regis is the RMAC regular season champion, and will host the tournament on its own court. Marrin was a member of the first team to ever win the conference outright in 2003. After guaranteeing a spot on one banner, her 2023 team is one step closer to hanging in the rafters on the NCAA Tournament banner, as well.
"I've pointed up to the banner and I said, 'look, in this gym, there's no individual names in this gym, but there are teams,' and I said 'it's something that nobody could ever take away from you that'll be there forever and you get to celebrate with your teammates,'" Marrin said. "Our team that won the first championship in '03, we just went into the Hall of Fame last fall, and we're talking about it like it was yesterday, it was 20 years ago. That's something that you get to share with people that you love and it's really special."
As this young team inches closer to the finish line, Marrin says they're maturing and developing each time they touch the ball.
"We're still getting better," she said. "It's crazy, I'm seeing different moves out of different players, like 'I didn't know you had that!' I think that just to continue to improve, just to continue to enjoy each other, and put the team first, play for Regis, I think is where we're headed, but I like what we've done so far and I know that we're hungrier for a lot more."
Regis hosts the first round of the RMAC tournament as the No. 1 seed beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday with a home quarterfinal game against no. 8 seed CSU Pueblo.
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