By: Joe Cicchino - Sports Information Assistant

FORT WASHINGTON -- In high school, Laura Kurz ’04 was too busy getting buckets to have thoughts about one day being a basketball coach. Even in college, the idea of leading a team from the sideline was not on her mind. It was not until a few years after she retired from the game in 2010 that it became a viable option.

Around that time, Kurz said that she “was itching to get back involved” in the sport.” It started with a trip back to Germantown Academy, the place where Kurz had scored 2,247 points – more than any basketball player ever. According to Kurz, GA's Head Girls Basketball Coach Sherri Retif had asked her to do some workouts for the girls on the team at the time.

“It kind of reinvigorated me and I knew I wanted to be back involved with the sport in whatever capacity that may be,” Kurz said.

After making a few stops as an Assistant Coach at Lehigh University and William Penn Charter, Kurz has settled in at Villanova University where she just finished her third year as an Assistant Coach under Head Coach Harry Perretta. Just like her coaching career, Kurz’s playing career had a few different stops as well.

It began before she even started at Germantown Academy.

Kurz comes from an athletic family; both of her parents played collegiate sports at Lafayette College and her older brother, Rob, played basketball at Notre Dame before having a brief stint in the NBA. Her younger brother, Chris, played at Boston University.

“We were playing so many sports at such a young age and were just very active,” Kurz said. “And then we kind of all followed my older brother’s lead. He’s, like, the hardest working person I’ve ever been around. We always had games in the backyard and my family is very competitive still to this day. Not so much basketball anymore, but we all play golf and tennis so there’s always that competitive sibling rivalry going. I was lucky to be in the middle of two boys because I was constantly working out with guys and tagged along to pick-up games with boys, so I think that helped in my development as a basketball player too.”

That advanced development helped Kurz shine early in her high school basketball career. She made Germantown Academy’s varsity team as an eighth grader and stayed on the team for the rest of her time at the school.

Kurz said that the teams she played on for those five years were “very, very good and very competitive.” She added that some of her fondest memories come from her time GA.

“We didn’t lose many games during my five years there,” Kurz said. “I look back at high school in general and my favorite memories are from the basketball teams. It was a very unique culture in that the seniors took care of the underclassmen and we were more of a family, I think, than the other athletic teams on campus. I played for Sherri all five years and she’s still one of my favorite coaches I’ve ever had.”

When her high school career was over, Kurz had compiled five Inter-Ac League Championships and was named Parade All-American, Adidas All-American and Pennsylvania All-State for three years. Her scoring record still stands, although she believes someone will eventually break the mark.

Despite all of the accolades, Kurz said she “hated” the recruiting process. She did not like talking to coaches and it was something in which she was not interested.

Prior to the beginning of her senior year, Kurz committed to Duke University to play basketball. She said that during her sophomore year at GA, the team was in a tournament in North Carolina and while there she visited Duke’s campus for the first time. After watching a game featuring future-NBA players Mike Dunleavy, Jason Williams and Carlos Boozer, and experiencing the madness that is Cameron Indoor Stadium, Kurz fell in love with the school.

In her first season in Durham, North Carolina, Duke lost in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament and Kurz averaged 5.6 points and 2.2 rebounds in 35 games. Her production took a small dip during her sophomore year, averaging 5.4 points and 2.4 rebound in 11.6 minutes per game on a team that made it to the National Championship game. During that season, Kurz played in 30 contests. After the season concluded, she decided to transfer.

“It was a combination of a bunch of reasons, but I would say the biggest thing was I wanted more of an impact,” Kurz said. “My team at Duke, when I was there, we were a top-five program. There wasn’t a ton of opportunity for me there in the role that I wanted. I wanted to be more of a big fish in a small pond and I knew that would’ve been the case if I left. There’s some homesickness as well and some other factors, but I wanted a better fit. I wanted to be happy. I kind of lost a little bit of love for the game when I was there. I wanted to be in a position to be happier and more fulfilled with the role that I had.”

That decision led Kurz to Villanova, a school that she had only been to for workouts. She said her brother has looked at the school when he was coming out of high school, but she wanted to go away from home and did not really consider it an option until the second time around.

Kurz said that she wanted to be closer to family and she wanted them to be able to come to her games. She wanted a competitive conference and it was hard to beat the Big East at the time. Most importantly, Kurz wanted to play in a system that suited her, and that was what the Wildcats offered. However, she would have to wait and sit out a year due to NCAA rules.

While some may have detested the fact that they had to sit out, it was somewhat of a blessing in disguise for Kurz.

“I needed that year,” Kurz said. “I was just burned out after my sophomore year. Having that year to just practice and get better and not worry about games and my performance and just focusing on improving ever day was really important for me. I needed to take a step back and enjoy playing again and I definitely got that.”

During that year, Villanova went 8-21. Kurz could only watch as the young team struggled. She said that since she could not make an impact on game day, she just tried to bring some of the things that she learned from Duke like intensity, effort and being vocal to the practices.

When her redshirt year was over, Kurz said it felt as if she had not played in three years since her minutes were so few at Duke. She said that she wanted to “go out and prove to the world” the type of player she was.

The Wildcats improved that year, going 17-16. In her fifth and final year, the team had a bit of a breakthrough, going 19-14.

“I think we were picked 12th in the Big East and that was when the Big East was legit,” Kurz said. “For whatever reason, we just clicked midway through the season and beat all these teams and jelled at the right time. We beat Notre Dame a couple times that year, we beat Syracuse, and it was just a lot of fun. My senior year I finished things off stronger, I settled down more my senior year and wasn’t as much of a psychopath to be honest with you.”

Kurz ended her career at Villanova with over 1,000 points. She was named Big 5 Player of the Year in addition to being First Team All-Big 5 and a unanimous First Team All-Big East selection. Kurz also was an Honorable Mention All-American, Big East Most Improved Player and a candidate for the Naismith Player of the Year award.

Following that, she played professionally in Greece, leading the league in scoring and finishing second in rebounding. She said that the style of play was “very different” from what she played at Villanova because it was so fast paced, but that she enjoyed it because she got a majority of the shots. However, there were also drawbacks.

“I had never been abroad before and I was only there one year,” Kurz said. “I was just immature and had a hard time being away from home. I definitely had a great experience, I loved getting paid to play. You can’t beat that. While I was over there I went to Rome, Milan, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, so I got to travel a little bit which for a 22-year old to do was such a cool thing. For me, I struggled with the lifestyle and being away from home so I only made it one year. Very big culture shock for sure.”

A few years later, after two years at Lehigh and a stint in the development office at Penn Charter, Perretta called Kurz and told her that he wanted her to be on his staff. The transition into the role went smoothly because she understood the offense and what the team was trying to do, according to Kurz. The entire staff is also the group that served while she was a player.

In an odd twist of fate, the former player who once hated the recruiting process is now out on the road recruiting players. However, she learned from her process and is changing how she goes about things.

“I just keep everything short and sweet,” Kurz said. “Some of these coaches want to keep kids on the phone for an hour and take up so much of their time. I understand that I’m dealing with 16 to 17 year olds who have a million other things going on in their lives, so I try to keep my communication consistent and regular but, ten-minute phone calls, I text a lot and try to meet them halfway. I think the biggest thing is I try to be genuine and honest throughout the process.”

Although she knows the area and the school from her time as a player and now a coach, it does not mean that everything on the recruiting trail runs smoothly.

“Last summer I was in a convention center in Atlanta and there was this massive noise, like multiple pops that sounded like gunshots,” Kurz said. “Thousands of people are in this convention center and I look and there’s thousands of people running in my direction so everyone is being herded towards the exits. Turns out there was an air conditioner that fell and just sounded like gunshots. I was so rattled and it turns out it was just a malfunction. That was probably the most absurd thing I’ve ever seen.”

When she is not out trying to find the next signee for the Wildcats, Kurz is trying to improve as a coach. She said that she communicates with Ryan Ayers ’05, an Assistant Coach at University of Notre Dame who starred for GA before playing collegiately for the Irish.

Kurz said that she hopes to one day be a Head Coach, and if she had to choose, she would pick Villanova as her landing spot. For now, she is comfortable with her position. Of course, her experiences as a player also help her in her current role.

“It’s so easy for me to recruit here because I believe in everything I’m selling,” Kurz said. “I lived through it. It’s coming from a real place. It’s helped me tremendously. Prior to being a student athlete in college, I had never been in a role other than being the best player or the go-to player playing significant minutes. To be more of a role player, to be more of a bench player, it was a tough adjustment for me. So those experiences I can share with my kids now. I’ve been both ‘the man’ on the team and the kid that’s passing you your water bottle and subbing in to give you a blow. I understand what those roles entail and I think it makes me more relatable to the players which I think is important.”