Women's Basketball - Coaching Staff

2009-10 Women's Basketball

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Patrick Cunningham

Women - Basketball - Head Coach

Patrick Cunningham begins his 2nd decade at the helm of the AWC Women’s Basketball program, and is ready to take them even further. Cunningham and the Lady Matadors capped off the 2008-09 campaign by making their 6th Region I Playoff appearance and 4th appearance in the Region I Finals. It’s what Cunningham is used to, since he built the Lady Matadors’ basketball program from the ground up. Cunningham was well-versed about AWC’s successes in athletics while an assistant coach for several years in the 1990’s at Yavapai College (in both the men’s and women’s basketball programs) in Prescott. That was what prompted him to make the move from Prescott to Yuma to start the Matadors’ Women’s Basketball program in 1999. Cunningham’s teams were successful immediately, since the Lady Matadors have never had a losing season. They also won a pair of ACCAC titles in 2002 & 2004. The Lady Matadors’ 2002 season was their most successful to date, since they reached the pinnacle of conference success by winning the Region I Championship, advanced to the NJCAA Tournament in Salina, Kansas, for the first time ever, and even won their first game there. The Lady Matadors’ program is also nationally recognized and respected, since they’ve risen as high as #2 in the NJCAA National Poll at one point. They also finished with a national ranking of 8th, 17th, and 11th over a three-year stretch from 2002 to 2004. During their 10 years of existence, the Matadors have produced 8 NJCAA All-American players, 4 Kodak WBCA All-Americans, 2 NJCAA All-Academic All-Americans and have sent 16 student-athletes to Division I programs. Cunningham is also very proud of the fact that each of the last two Lady Matador Basketball teams have been named NJCAA All-Academic Teams for a cumulative grade point average of more than 3.0.
Patrick has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and Economics from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, and a Master's degree in Business Administration from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. Cunningham is currently a Professor for the School of Business, Career and Technical Education at AWC in addition to his coaching duties. He’s also been a bank manager and financial administrator in the professional world. The light of Cunningham’s life is his son, Logan Escobar, who was born March 6, 2003, one day after a NJCAA Region I playoff victory.

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�Jaime Gonzales

Women's Basketball - Assistant Coach

E-mail:� Jaime Gonzales

It’s been a very fast couple of months on the AWC campus for Jaime Gonzales, who has quickly gotten up to speed and is already making a big difference for Cunningham and the AWC Women’s Basketball program. Gonzales’ main duties with the Lady Matadors will be coaching the post players as well as scouting opponents and recruiting. Gonzales brings 13 years of coaching experience to the program. On the collegiate level, Gonzales was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Neosho County Community College in Chanute, Kansas, during the 2007-08 season. Before that, Gonzales spent the 2006-07 season at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. While serving as a student assistant coach for the Bearkats’ basketball team, Gonzales also earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Kinesiology. Prior to coming to Yuma, his most recent coaching stint brought back to the Lone Star State as the head cross country coach and assistant men’s basketball coach at Heritage Champions Academy in Huntsville, Texas.
Gonzales is currently working to earn his Master’s Degree while a part of the program. He has a beautiful nine-year-old daughter, Haley.

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Asami Morita

Women's Basketball - Assistant Coach

E-mail:� Asami Morita

Talk about hitting the ground running. Asami Morita has been hard at work ever since arriving on the AWC campus at the beginning of September 2009. Even though Morita hasn’t even hit the age of 25 yet, she brings an experienced resume’ to AWC. Morita has only been in the United States for 2+ years now, and she’s already gotten a good feel for the college game here in the States as a student manager for the Lady Bengals of Idaho State University. While at ISU, Morita spent a lot of time breaking down tape in the film room, and helping the coaches with various other duties. Before coming to the States, Morita-a native of Nara, Japan-first began her coaching career at the age of 19 at Kansai University in Osaka. Morita pulled double-duty, since she was a part-time starter at shooting guard while she was earning her stripes as an assistant. Adding to that workload, along with earning her Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce, coaching and playing at KU, Morita was also coaching the high school and junior high school girls’ basketball teams at Katano High School and Kansai Junior High School.
Morita comes to AWC after earning her Master’s Degree in Physical Education in Athletic Administration at Idaho State. Morita will not only working with the Lady Matadors’ guards on the court, she’ll be the team’s academic coordinator off the court.

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Stephanie Jauregui

Women - Basketball - Assistant Coach

Email: Stephanie Jauregui

In many ways, she’s done it quietly and sometimes behind-the-scenes. Yet her contributions have been vital to the ongoing success of the program. This coming March, Stephanie Jauregui will complete a full decade of service to the Lady Matadors’ Basketball program as assistant coach and strength and conditioning program coordinator, making her the 3rd-longest tenured assistant coach in the entire Matador Athletic program. Jauregui became an AWC coaching mainstay after making Bagdad High School history by leading their girls’ basketball team to the Arizona State Playoffs for the first time ever. Jauregui led the Lady Sultans to not just one but a pair of postseason appearances during her four years at the helm of the varsity girls’ basketball program from 1997-2000. Jauregui was also the head coach for Bagdad’s boys’ basketball team for two years during that time. As a player, “Tep” (Jauregui’s nickname) was an integral part of the success of the Yavapai Roughriders’ women’s basketball program for two seasons before moving on to the University of Arizona, where she earned her Bachelor’s Degree. It was during that 2-year stint at YC that Jauregui’s work ethic and knowledge of the game first caught the eye of Cunningham, who was a Roughriders’ assistant at the time, and led him to offer her a job on his staff when he came to AWC.

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