As the Greeley West girls basketball team begins its 2025-26 season, it will be led by a new coach who is familiar with the job at hand.
Thomas Rivera, who took over from Jonathan Bass after he announced his resignation last spring, coaches multiple sports for West, including the offensive line for the football team and discus and shotput for the track and field team. Rivera said he will use his experience from those sports as the head coach for basketball. “I think coaching football helps with the team basis and then track and field, it’s more one-on-one. So those two tie together (in basketball),” said Rivera.
Rivers said coaching multiple teams has helped him become a better coach and mentor. He will need that experience as he tries to right a program that has not seen a lot of success in the 2020s. The Spartans have not won a league game since 2021 and finished last year 5-18 overall. The last time the Spartans finished with a winning record, kids that wil play varsity this year weren’t even born yet. (That was in 2010, for the record.)
As a result of those results, Rivera has tempered expectations. He said he hopes to have a coachable group of girls who are willing to work hard to embrace his philosophy. That includes, “To be faster and stronger. To play quickly and play as a team,” Rivera explained.
Rivera wrapped up open gyms last week in preparation for tryouts. “We had a real good turnout … real coachable. … we seem to have more basketball knowledge too, which is pretty good.”
In addition, the team competed all summer as well. They took part in multiple tournaments and held open gyms to develop the players, including the new group of freshmen. Rivera included how the 2029 class has the chance to beat out the 2026 senior class in terms of the best freshman team. “I was actually talking about the seniors, and they’re talking about how their C-team was the best C-team yet, and so these freshmen might beat you guys out,” said Rivera.
Greeley West will be competing in the 6A/5A/4A Northern Conference this year and will play teams from Fort Collins, Windsor, and Loveland. Their first game will be against Pomona on December 2 in the Annual Skyline Tournament in Longmont.
