Meet the new basketball coach

Green River High School has a new boy's basketball coach, Laurie Ivie. Basketball has always been at the forefront of Ivie's life. She grew up playing it, her sisters played it, her father coached it, and now she coaches it. Ivie has been coaching basketball at various levels for 15 years now. Since 2000, she's coached middle school, high school, girls, and boys basketball, starting in Rock Springs and now Green River.

As a Rock Springs native, Ivie is no stranger to the area, as she is no stranger to the sport of Basketball.

"I come from a basketball family," Ivie said. "We were always involved in something, but for some reason we all gravitated towards basketball and it was just something we loved to do."

Ivie knew at the young age of 12, that she wanted to be a basketball coach someday.

"I already knew that's what I wanted to do," she said. "I don't ever think back of a time, ever not wanting that."

A lot of what she learned about basketball and especially coaching came from her father Ernie Dunn, who coached boys basketball in Rock Springs for many years.

"He was a disciplinarian just by nature and I feel like that is something that I have inherited."

She said she stresses the fundamentals of basketball to her players, as he did, as well as his structure and organization. She incorporates the many life skills she learned from her father into her coaching. Coaching for Ivie is more than simply teaching a sport, it is sculpting the character of her players.

Ivie said a goal of hers among many is to "develop a basketball program that is a reflection of Green River High School, the community, the coaches, the families, and to make sure along the way, outside of basketball, that we're instilling those things like integrity, responsibility ... life skills along the way."

Ivie has involved her hopeful boy's basketball players in volunteer projects through out the 2015 pre-season. As a service project, they played with the children at the Rock Springs Boys and Girls Club. They've also been involved with painting lines for the blue line project, to show support for the Green River Police Department.

"Service builds character," she said. "We talk a lot about doing things for others without expecting anything in return."

Little did Ivie know, she would one day follow in her father's footsteps. Although she started her coaching career coaching girls basketball and volleyball for a time, she moved to boys basketball and hasn't looked back. Ivie said her three sons are a reason she made the switch from girls to boys basketball.

"I want to be part of something that impacts them in some shape or form down the road," she said.

Ivie teaches basketball skills, she instills life skills.