In celebration of Arizona's centennial, the Star will feature our picks for the 100 best athletes, moments and teams.
Throughout the summer, we will showcase our list - with the first 90 in no particular order. In August, Greg Hansen will choose his top 10, with a column on each.
Lin Laursen
Achievement
When former Central Arizona College coach Lin Laursen led the Vaqueras, she had a simple motto.
"I'm not in it for the income, but the outcome," Laursen often said.
The outcome for Laursen couldn't have been much better.
Laursen coached Central Arizona for 34 seasons and put together one of the best careers ever for a women's basketball coach.
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Laursen compiled a 971-144 record at CAC and won three national championships (1989, 1998, 2005). But the accomplishments hardly end there.
She took her team to 11 Final Fours and won 29 Arizona Community College Athletic Conference championships, including 21 straight. The Vaqueras also won 185 straight conference games at one point under Laursen.
Laursen produced 102 all-conference players, 35 All-Americans and two future WNBA players on top of sending 140 players to Division I universities to play.
She's one of only three women coaches to win at least 800 games and in 2008, following her retirement, Laursen was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
"You have to have a passion, a passion to do what you do," Laursen told the Salina (Kan.) Journal in 2008. "That passion leads to a burning desire to be the best, to not settle for No. 2. That drives you, and those kids have to jump on board. The mediocre coach will explain, but the great coaches of the world motivate beyond that. I get their attention because it comes from my soul."
Laursen grew up in Iowa and moved to Coolidge in 1971 to start the CAC women's basketball program after graduating from Arizona State. The team didn't start competing and keeping statistics until the 1974 season, and at that point Laursen was also coaching softball and volleyball.
"I didn't know anything about volleyball," Laursen told the Journal. "When you live in Iowa, you don't play volleyball; you play basketball. And in the summer you play softball. I had to learn about that. I didn't know a 6-1 (set) from a 5-2 to a whoop-de-do. I look back on it now and, my God, there's not a soul alive who could coach three sports."
Hometown; age
Royal, Iowa; 67
She said it
"In my early days here, I couldn't get out of bed after a loss. Even when I'm playing H-O-R-S-E with the kids, I want to win. I don't handle losing well." - Laursen to Sports Illustrated in 1990
Daniel Berk
