When one story ends, another one begins.
The FGCU women’s basketball team’s postseason trip to Norman, Oklahoma, against the Oklahoma Sooners marked former coach Chelsea Lyles’ final game. The Eagles lost 81-58 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
It was also the first time FGCU coach Raina Harmon heard about the head coach vacancy in Southwest Florida on her trip back from Norman to Iowa. Fast forward two weeks, and she is at her first press conference in Southwest Florida as FGCU’s third women’s basketball head coach.
Harmon will sign a five-year, $230,000 a year contract, which includes a $25,000 signing bonus according to her offer sheet obtained by the News-Press.
“Well, I mean, this is the place that I’ve really been comparing everything else to,” Harmon said. “I might as well just ask if they’re interested.”
In her eight seasons as Iowa’s assistant head coach of recruiting, Raina had a 208-64 record, won five BIG 10 conference titles and developed several WNBA picks, including 2024 No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark. She helped lead the team to eight consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and back-to-back National Championship appearances.
In that time, she gameplanned against both the Karl Smesko and Chelsea Lyles-led Eagles and their “Raining 3s” philosophy over the last two years.
Both teams met for the first time in the Gulf Coast Showcase on Nov. 25, 2023, when the Eagles lost to the No. 2 Hawkeyes, 100-62. FGCU and Iowa were set for a rematch this year in the NCAA Tournament, but the Eagles’ loss to the Sooners prevented it. Instead, Iowa lost to Oklahoma in the round of 32, 93-62.
“I understand that going into it, I have to form my own identity, you know, we will. I understand what the community wants here,” Harmon said. “I’m always hashtagging ‘WhereMyShootersAt,’ long before I was even considering being a head coach. So, for me, I understand what the brand is.”
Harmon joins the program in the middle of its rebuild. After the departures of Lyles and Smesko this season, the team will lose Emani Jefferson, Dolly Cairns, Skyler Gill, Khmari Mitchell-Steen, Lauryn Taylor and Alahna Paige because they have run out of NCAA eligibility.
“The landscape is ever changing,” she said. “While I pride myself on someone who likes to build relationships, and that helps when you have four-year players, it’s a bit like speed dating. You don’t have long to try to figure out the kind of caliber kid that you want.”
Cerina Rolle, Casey Santoro, Maca Retamales and Kaelyn Flowers have all hit the transfer portal per On3’s Transfer Tracker. Santoro already confirmed her departure to Youngstown State on March 31.
“Fortunately, being in the role of director of recruiting, I had an opportunity to make a lot of relationships with a lot of players around the country,” Harmon said. “The first thing that I want to know is, are you a good cultural fit for our locker room? That’s most important to me, because I believe in my player development.”
While the main focus has been on rebuilding FGCU’s roster, they need to fill vacancies on staff. Lyles mid-season promotion left an assistant coaching vacancy through last season. Former assistant coach Camryn Brown’s departure to the Atlanta Dream with Lyles and Smesko has only made the situation more dire.
“I do have some people in mind, but I want some people that are like-minded in a sense of, they’ve also chased championships,” she said. “They know what it means to compete at the highest level, and have had great interest as of today. I want people that can help balance, maybe some of my deficiencies.”
Harmon knows she’s taking over a program that has won nine straight ASUN Championship titles and 12 in the last 14 years. However, the aspect that stands out to her is the fans. Many “Dirty Birds,” FGCU fans’ self-adopted nickname, came up to her while she was in Tampa for the NCAA Women’s Final Four and spoke with her about their excitement for the future of the program.
“To have the chance to do what I love at a university that I respect in a place that brings me closer to the people that I love,” Harmon said. “That’s a gift that I don’t think about widely.”
