Aarika Hughes goes into her fourth season as head coach of the LMU women’s basketball team. She is the first Black woman head coach of the program; this is the first season where the entire roster is made up of students that she recruited.
“Being a woman and having representation in our sport is such a big deal, I take a huge responsibility in understanding what that means,” Hughes said. “Understanding that there are so many different backgrounds of women of color and being able to be one myself and understand that those journeys are different.”
Hughes was team captain for the USC women’s basketball team from 2007-2010. Former head coach Mark Trakh and her father Alfred Hughes inspired her to become a coach. Trakh hired her to be on his coaching staff at USC in 2019.
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“My dad has been a coach for me and multiple other young people as I grew up,” Hughes said. “I played for [Trakh] in my last season. He stepped away … and then hired me right after college and gave me my opportunity into Division I college coaching.”
Prior to returning to USC, Hughes was an assistant coach at New Mexico State University from 2011-2016. She assisted the Aggies through two NCAA tournament runs. The Aggies also won two Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Championships.
From 2016-2017, Hughes was an assistant coach for the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team. She was also named in the Top Thirty Coaches Under 30 by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.
Those experiences taught Hughes how to be innovative when it came to providing resources to student athletes.
“You don’t have huge support staffs. You really have to know the ins and outs of every department that touches the program so that you can assist and make things happen,” Hughes said. “That was something that I got firsthand being in Las Cruces, which I think was the foundation and groundwork that prepares you when you get to the next level.”
This season, the Lions have 10 new players on their roster. Hughes has been working on the culture and leadership of the team.
“The summer time was really focused on continuity, focusing on a couple things offensively,” Hughes said. “You have a lot of high achieving student athletes that choose to come to LMU. It’s not just about basketball, it’s about personal connection.”
