TAYLORSVILLE, Utah (April 6, 2022) – By all measures, the Salt Lake Community College Women's Basketball team had a strong campaign in the 2021-22 season.
 
The Bruins posted a record of 21-9 overall and 12-6 in the Scenic West Athletic Conference, holding an 11-game winning streak at one point in the season. For a program like SLCC, those marks are a bit shy of the glorious heights the program has received in recent years, giving the 2021-22 season a label as a 'rebuilding' campaign.
 
One thing Salt Lake will be looking for after this season is greater consistency, according to SLCC coach Marcilina Grayer.
 
"Consistency would be the biggest area that I feel we must improve on next year," she said. "Consistency in all areas of life is the key to being successful."
 
Salt Lake showed the highs and lows of a rigorous college basketball season throughout the year, adding the persistent challenges of playing through the COVID-19 pandemic. Grayer noted how the pandemic was extremely challenging for her team to manage at times.
 
"I feel like our team learned to adapt to abrupt changes due to COVID testing," she said. "We then had to make up the games towards the end of our season, resulting in no off days and playing four games in six days for a couple weeks. This was extremely hard on not only the players but also my staff, and I feel we responded extremely well due to circumstances not in our control."
 
What is in Salt Lake's control moving towards the 2022-23 season is recruiting, with the Bruins looking to once again post one of the NJCAA's best classes. The lifeblood of a college program, Grayer said Salt Lake is midway through the recruiting process.
 
"Recruiting has gone well for us thus far," she said. "We have signed four kids that we are extremely excited about and feel they are what we were missing this year. We still have several players to find, and we are looking forward to getting out on the road and finding the next Bruin."
 
Part of the challenge in recruiting is finding a player who matches a coach. One of Salt Lake's recruiting goals could be harbinger of a potential team-wide goal in the 2022-23 season – mental toughness.
 
"The area I am wanting to improve on is finding the right players that fit my style of coaching," Grayer stated. "I also would like to become better at preparing my team to be more mentally tough."