On Wednesday, Hastings Activities Director Trent Hanson formally announced the new head girls basketball coach for the 2023-24 season.
According to the media release, Rick Tavernier will be named the new girls basketball coach. Tavernier, a Hastings native, has more than ten years of experience with girls basketball, spending time in the Simley programs with the 9th Grade and JV teams and on a Varsity staff that coached three section finals and a State Tournament. He was also an assistant on the Raiders team in 2020-21. Currently, Tavernier is a coach for the Raiders traveling basketball program.
Other previous experiences include football and track and field at the high school level.
Tavernier will look to provide some stability to the program, who has been through a topsy turvy ride of coaching changes in recent years.
Tavernier is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Duluth where he majored in education and currently teaches psychology at Simley.
As mentioned, he lives in Hastings with his wife Mindy and their children Maya, Trey and Jayce.
Tavernier will begin to integrate himself into the program through the summer basketball camps and clinics and looks forward to connecting with the Raiders basketball players soon.
Tavernier will have a dynamite assistant coaching staff with him that includes a recent Assistant Coach of the Year in Eric Mace. The 22-23 Raiders only had one senior and were in a battle for the Metro East Conference championship near the end of the season, so Tavernier will also have a younger but experienced roster to work with.
We will have more on this story to come.
KDWA congratulates Tavernier on his new role and wishes him the best of luck! The 23-24 basketball season will start in November.
