Coach Julie Hanks headed into Yavapai College Hall of Fame

Coach Julie Hanks headed into Yavapai College Hall of Fame

Irvine Valley women's basketball coach Julie Hanks will enter her second Hall of Fame at a college on Saturday.

Hanks, who is entering her 22nd year as the head coach at IVC, will be inducted into the Yavapai College's 2019 Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame at Yavapai started in 2012.

Inductees will be honored at a brunch, which will take place during the college's inaugural homecoming weekend. Yavapai is located in Prescott, Ariz.

Inductees include head coach Stacy Iveson and the 2009 softball team, baseball head coach Dave Dangler (1983-1994) and Hanks.

Hanks only went to Yavapai for one year but she made the best of it. The women's basketball player helped lead the team to its first and only NCJAA National Tournament appearance.

In that lone season, Hanks was named ACCAC Co-Player of the Year, becoming the first Roughrider to ever do so.

She was also selected to the First Team All-ACCAC/Region I, NJCAA All-Tournament Team, NJCAA West Squad Member, NJCAA Honorable Mention All-American and Kodak All-West Region Team.

"I really enjoyed the faculty at Yavapai and how they were willing to help you," Hanks recently told The Daily Courier, which covers Prescott area communities . "We were the best name in town. We had a great team. I don't think I would've done as well without the players on the team.

"We had a great coaching staff and it was a good atmosphere. Like I said, we were the best name in town, we packed the gym and it was really great to be a part of."

After her one year at Yavapai, she transferred to Northern Arizona University where she continued to flourish on the court.

In 1985-86, Hanks was named NAU's Female Athlete of the Year and eventually became the Lumberjacks' all-time leading scorer.

Her efforts were good enough for an induction into NAU Hall of Fame in 1994.

Hanks went on to play professionally in Switzerland and was an alternate player on the WNBA Phoenix Mercury in 1997.

From 1993-1997, Hanks was the head coach at Grand Canyon University, a Division II school in Phoenix.

She led Grand Canyon to its first ever NCAA tournament appearance in 1997.

And before coaching at Grand Canyon, she spent the 1992-1993 season as the head coach at Phoenix College. There she was also named coach of the year there.

Hanks will be entering her 22nd season at Irvine Valley this fall. She has a career mark of 389-222 for the Lasers.

In her first year coaching at Irvine Valley for the 198-99 season, she led the Lasers to the Orange Empire Conference title with a record of 13-1.

Her team finished the season with its best record of 28-7.

The team also reached the state tournament for the first time and Hanks was named Coach of the Year in the conference.

Hanks guided the Lasers to one of the best seasons in program history in 2014-15.

The team won 27 games, which was the second-most ever, made the Southern California Regional Final, rolled through the Orange Empire Conference, going 12-0 to win a title and racked up several impressive individual awards, including Breanna Turner and Jordan Coleman being named honorable mention All-Americans, Turner being picked all-state and the conference MVP and Hanks earning coach of the year awards.

And IVC has been on quite a run over the last two seasons. IVC has won back-to-back conference titles and went 49-11 over the last two years.

Irvine Valley reached the state tournament for the second time in program history in 2017-18, racked up 26 wins and earned a share of the Orange Empire Conference title under the leadership of Coach Hanks. Irvine Valley also finished ranked No. 8 in the state in the final poll of the year.