Raina Harmon was hired as the third head coach in the FGCU women’s basketball program’s history in April. Whether it has been through completely overhauling the roster or building a staff with power-conference and high-level experience, she has quickly set the program up for success in the first year of her tenure.
Harmon spent the last eight years of her career as an assistant coach at Iowa, where she amassed an impressive record of 208-63, including national title appearances in 2023 and 2024. She also assisted in the development of multiple WNBA draft picks, most notably 2024 No. 1 overall pick Caitlin Clark.
Not only does Harmon have a successful previous coaching resume, but she also has experience as the director of women’s basketball operations at the University of Michigan. Multiple different roles at prestigious power-conference schools give Harmon an edge that FGCU hasn’t seen before.
The respect for Harmon extends far beyond FGCU. Just months after she joined the program, it was announced that South Carolina will be visiting Alico Arena this season in what will be arguably the biggest game the school has ever hosted.
“It feels great, I look at that as a sign of respect, right?” Harmon said. “I have seen that non-conference schedule and I like to, you know, be considered by someone like Dawn Staley, who I looked up to for a long while…I’m honored to be considered to play someone like them.”
South Carolina isn’t the only formidable opponent that the Eagles will face in their nonconference schedule. Harmon made it a point when scheduling opponents for this season to make sure the team gets the chance to face off against multiple different playing styles.
“What I tried to do was challenge us to see all types of things before the ASUN,” Harmon said. “Height, speed, pressing teams, high-octane offenses, and I think we struck a good balance with that.”
Aside from the power conference teams and tournament teams from last season on the schedule, Harmon emphasized the importance of scheduling non-Division I teams as well and giving the team a chance to gel early in the season.
“To bring in non Division I programs, I think it’s huge,” Harmon said. “Just to kind of see if we wanted to tweak anything now, will this switch work here.”
Scheduling local, non-Division I teams in the non-conference gives the team a chance to make adjustments and learn about themselves early in the season without as much pressure to win, while also allowing Harmon to maintain historic relationships that the program has built over the years.
“At least with Ave Maria…that’s been a long-standing relationship with FGCU,” Harmon said. “So that’s something that I didn’t want to come in year one and break that. I’m happy with the placement of where it is right before Christmas, I think that’s really cool.”
To accompany the complete staff overhaul, a roster makeover was also necessary. Only four players from last year’s roster remain with the team heading into this season, one of those being Jordan Campbell. The senior guard has seen everything change around her now with the new influx of coaches and teammates.
While building chemistry early in the season will be one of the bigger focuses for Harmon and Co., Campbell was quick to point out that Coach Harmon has the team in a good place before they have even set foot on the court together.
“Knowing from the summer who coach Raina was, we got to form a relationship and everything…that transition was really good,” Campbell said. “The style is different and I think that we run certain things differently, but we definitely still have the same principles and standards.”
Harmon will look to continue a long history of success when the Eagles step on the court against Davidson on Nov. 8, but she is no stranger to winning. Whether it has been at Central Michigan, Iowa and now FGCU, Harmon knows what it takes to win and has every intention of doing so with the Eagles in year one.
“In order to win, this is the type of team that we need to put together,” she said. “To challenge each other every day is the right kind of chord you have to strike to be successful.”
