From being the Head Women’s Tennis Coach to serving as the Assistant Athletic Director at Hawai’i Pacific University, Lauren Conching has nearly done it all when it comes to college athletics.
As a two-time ITA/Wilson National Coach of the Year winner, Conching has turned Hawai’i Pacific into a national powerhouse all the while juggling being an Assistant Athletic Director, Senior Women Administrator, and of course a mother amoungst the many other duties on her plate.
“Representation matters,” stated Conching. “For a lot of my athletes, I am their first female coach. So if you don’t see that and don’t experience it, how can you possibly think you can become that one day.”
Having had a passion for tennis nearly her entire life, Conching played collegiately at Collin County College in Texas where she won the 2001 National Junior College Doubles Title before transferring to Stony Brook University where she finished her career.
Returning to her homestate of Hawai’i after college, Conching immediately began climbing through the ranks as a collegiate coach starting as an assistant at Hawai’i Pacific where she was named the ITA National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2010.
Taking over the reins in 2012, Conching has gone on the have a 160-49 record as a Head Coach and has finished all but one season in the Top Ten of the ITA National Year-End Rankings.
“I think it’s important, not only for our female athletes but our male athletes as well, to see women in these high-level positions,” says Conching. “More than one type of person can be represented in athletics.”
Conching and the Sharks are off to another great start to their 2022 campaign where they are currently 11-5 on the season and ranked No. 3 in the latest ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings sponsored by Tennis-Point.
