Profile Interview: LBCC's women's basketball head coach Leslie Reinecker

 

Some people seem born into roles. For Leslie Reinecker, it was coaching.

Originally from Texas, Coach Reinecker is the first-year head coach of LBCC's women's basketball program. Having spent the previous four years as an assistant coach for the team, Reinecker got promoted to head coach in the summer of 2023.

Before coaching at LBCC, Reinecker had tallied an impressive 15 years of coaching experience at various universities and high schools, including Sam Houston State and LeTourneau University. Reinecker's love for coaching came from her dad, a former baseball coach. Outside of coaching, Reinecker enjoys outdoor recreation and taking in some of the nature Oregon has to offer.

During her first year as head coach at LBCC, Reinecker led the Roadrunners to a solid 16-10 overall record. The team finished as one of the best defensive teams in the Northwest Athletic Conference. Despite barely missing out on the NWAC postseason tournament, Reinecker and her team remain motivated to run as one next season.

What’s your background?

I’m a first-year head coach here at Linn-Benton, but this is my 20th year in coaching. I’m originally from Texas, then moved out here following my family, who moved out to Oregon a little bit before me. I’m completing my seventh year living in Oregon. I’ve kind of been all over the place in terms of coaching. I’ve coached at the Division I level as an assistant, and I’ve been a head coach at the Division III level. Both are NCAA.

I’ve also been a head high school coach at a couple of different schools as well and have been up in the Northeast as an assistant coach at a college up there. So I’ve kind of been all over the country, but a lot of my background is in the South in Texas. I was at Linn-Benton for four years prior to this year as an assistant coach to the previous coach. I was also the athletic facilities coordinator here the last couple of years, but when the position opened up, I moved over to be the head coach this year.

What got you into the sport of basketball?

I was born! I’m from a coaching family; my dad was a coach, so from the time that I was born, I literally was on a field or on a court, and it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. I’ve been in a lot of different sports, I’ve played a lot of different sports, I’ve coached a lot of different sports, but basketball’s always kind of been my first love. I grew up around a lot of really phenomenal coaches, so that also helped fuel that fire. My dad was a big inspiration. Both my parents actually were teachers, so that really has been pretty much the calling from the time I started to now.

Do you have any coaches or players that were an inspiration for you getting into basketball?

Well, my dad is number one. He was a big inspiration for me, he was a football coach, a baseball coach, he did a little bit of basketball, but baseball was his first love. But just the overall feeling of being a coach, that was something that I grew up in. My first memory is actually being underneath the old-time projectors and the clicking of him running the film back and forth. I know you don’t get that now because it’s all high-tech, but he used to have to run it back and forth, and I would fall asleep in the little bassinet underneath that, so that’s literally my first audio memory of that clicking running back and forth.

He definitely was a huge impact and inspiration to me, but I had coaches all along the way. Honestly, my soccer coach in high school was huge, she was the athletic coordinator for our school and our head coach for soccer. I also played volleyball for her. I had some knee surgeries; my first one was in high school, and she was there every day helping rehab, and it was just more than the X’s and O’s of things. That really impacted how I felt I wanted to be as a coach.

My college coach was amazing. She really kind of taught me how to be a professional in all of the different aspects of the college level. The easiest thing you get to do is the X’s and O’s part, but there’s so many other things that are involved in being a professional coach at that level. Those were just a couple, but I’ve been very lucky to have a lot of great people around me.

With this season being your first as head coach at LBCC, how do you think it went?

Yes, it’s not where we wanted to finish because we do have high expectations. Because I had been here the previous four years, I had the opportunity to be involved in the recruiting of the players that we have. It’s not like I came in this year not knowing who these people were, so we definitely had really high standards and expectations for what we wanted. We also play in the toughest region in women’s basketball for the NWAC, so there’s no guarantees there.

While we didn’t get to the tournament, it’s just something else that we want to strive for in the next season. I’m hoping that we continue to be hungry in that way, but we had a phenomenal season. We ended up beating two number-one seeds or ranked teams at the time that they were ranked number one in the season. We beat another top-10-ranked team; we were ranked no lower than 12th the entire season of the whole NWAC.

We definitely pulled off some things that I don’t know would’ve been possible had we not played as the group that we were. The players fought all the way through. We battled injuries; we battled sickness. Certainly, every team goes through that, but we seemed to have quite a bit of it this year, and that’s just how it goes. I felt really good about how we handled the majority of that; we just didn’t quite get the last step that we wanted.

Were there any players that impressed you with their growth or development over the season, whether that be in terms of skill or in terms of leadership, was there anyone that stood out to you?

I actually had a lot of them that stood out to me. As a group, as a whole, I really liked how they came together, especially in some times of adversity. I loved how not only did they work on the court, but they really meshed well as a group off the court, and I really think that they’ve made some lifelong friends, which is really important to me. That’s an important experience to get out of your college experience; you’re not here just to play basketball!

I am really proud of Muriel (Jones-Hoisington), our point guard, who was set up to have a really good year and was putting up strong numbers for us and got thrown a curveball with an injury that ended her career here. Now, she will have other opportunities to go on and play if she so chooses once she gets done with that, but I was really proud of how she handled that. Because she was our floor leader, she obviously was a huge impact for our team, and she kept showing up and kept a positive attitude when she knew she was going through some really difficult times, so that was really big.

A lot of stuff out of our freshmen, some growth from the beginning to the end in terms of skill, yes, but more so just the composure piece and what it feels like to transition from a high school player to a college player. Natalia McBride battled through some injuries and kept going. BettyAnn Wilson, same kind of deal, just kind of working their way into the college game and what that’s like. Katelynn Weaver did the same thing; there was huge growth.

But I don’t want to name just a few, I could honestly go through every single one of our players and talk to you about how they improved or developed in some way or there was some kind of growth. It really was a team concept this year. We talked about it from the beginning; we were only going to go as far as the group was gonna go. Our motto was “run as one,” and I feel like we did that for the majority of the season!

With how you speak about it, it seems like the team was very invested, connected, and all on the same page when it came to the season?

For the most part, yeah! Every team’s got their things, and you constantly battle. You’ve got individuals that have ideas and goals they set for themselves, but at the end of the day, when you’re a part of a team, they did a really good job of buying into that and sacrificing personal stuff for the good of the group.

The team was 12th in the entire NWAC for points allowed throughout the regular season. What made this team so good defensively, and was there an emphasis on playing good defense?

Our emphasis has long been a defensive concept. Our players know that going in, some of them are further along in that concept than others when they first get here, but it’s pretty clear from day one. That was set long before I was here, and it has worked well for us. It allows you to stay in games when you can play team defense and you can scheme for different teams. You don’t often see that at this level, a lot of times the teams just kind of play how they play. More power to them, that has not been our best path, so the ability to actually make some changes and game plan specifically for who we’re gonna play, that’s kind of what we’ve been about.

The players have done a really good job of taking that on and now we’re trying to add the balance of the offensive part to that. Like how can we have it on both ends, but defense has always kind of been a primary goal or a set standard.

The team went 6-3 on away games this year; what made this team so good on the road?

We played on the road a lot! Honestly, we approach it as if you’re going to be in the mix late; you’ve got to win at home, and you’ve got to steal some on the road. We also didn’t make it “Oh well, we’re on the road, so it’s just harder.” No, we’re going to play a game. We try to play the game possession for possession. We’re trying to put the most complete and efficient game together that we possibly can as a group.

These were the things that we focused on, not all of the extra things that you can possibly bring in on the road. Yes, you have to travel. Yes, you are eating different stuff or at a different time. You can’t go through your normal routine at home. But those are all distractions, and we don’t focus on those. It was about focusing on what we could control and what was going to make us the most successful or give us the best chance to win, and then they just fought! You have got to fight it out, and our players found a way to do that.

In all your years of coaching, is there a particular accomplishment that you’re proudest of?

Overall, I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve got so many former players that I still have relationships with. That’s at every level from every place. I still talk to and get communication from players from all over the place, and they’re at all different points in their lives. They’re having babies, they’re getting married, they’re finishing doctorates and things like that. Just the fact that they’re still communicating and wanting to have that relationship and that connection, that’s really my greatest accomplishment, I think. I love to hear from them; they still call for advice.

I now call some of them that have gone into the coaching profession and say, “Hey, this is the situation; what do you think?” and I think it’s really cool that I can have that conversation with them now.

I’m also really proud of when I was at Sam Houston State as an assistant. We took a team that honestly couldn’t see a tournament with binoculars to winning a conference championship. In the 5 years that I was there, we got it in year 4. That was really special, but honestly, there’s been little things all along the way that really aren’t little that have added up.

I’ve kind of been known as somebody who comes in and builds programs; that’s always the jobs that I end up with. Being able to take a program that maybe didn’t think that they could make a tournament or be in a championship run and be able to have that success with winning seasons and put those runs together, that’s been really cool.

What are you hoping to achieve during your time as head coach of the women’s basketball team at LBCC?

It’s kind of threefold. Number one, I want the players to graduate with the degrees that they’re going for and to pursue whatever field they want to successfully. I want to certainly get into the tournament and be a competitive team in that as well. Not only the regular season but in the tournament scenario. I want not necessarily to have to win it every year but to be in the mix and make it exciting.

Then, I would like to be able to send those players on that want to continue to play at the next level. We’ve had some success with some players in the past in moving them along, but I would like to be able to do that if that’s the path that they’re on.

Outside of coaching, what do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Since I’ve moved up here, I love being outside. A lot of kayaking. I’m learning to play golf. I’m still very much a beginner, but I absolutely love it. Love the hiking, being out on the water, anything basically outside has been amazing. In Texas, you get a very short amount of time that you can do that, and then other than that, it is really hot. I’m just really enjoying that part of it.

With the sport of women’s college basketball becoming increasingly popular and with the likes of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and JuJu Watkins gaining notoriety, have you noticed an effect on the other levels of college basketball such as here at LBCC?

I don’t know if I necessarily see it here specifically yet, but overall, yes, and I think it’s coming. The exposure, number one, has been huge. I think the players and the teams are getting better and better. There are some great players, but also great personalities that are bringing not just basketball people to the game.

I think that’s going to help overall at all levels, and it’s just always good for younger players to see people doing what they want to do. I still think it’s a little bit early in terms of those names that you put out to see the effect at this level, but I definitely think it’s an upward trend, and it’s coming.

At a glance 

Name: Leslie Reinecker

Occupation: Head coach of the women's basketball team at LBCC

Hometown: Texas 

Education: Bachelor degree from Southwestern University, Master's degree from Sam Houston State

Years at LBCC: 5 

Before coaching at LBCC: 20 years of coaching experience at various colleges and high schools across the country

Other Interests: Outdoor recreation such as golf, kayaking, and hiking.