There has been a new face seen around campus at Lakeland this fall semester of 2023. This face is new head women’s basketball coach Ashley Lona, who took over after Amber Peterson’s resignation in April of 2023. Lona plans for the program to not just be about basketball, but about growing the student-athlete as an individual, as she knows from experience that the act of playing basketball will not always be there.  

Throughout her career, Lona has had the opportunity to travel all around the United States, working at the Division I, II and III levels. After years of traveling, she believes that she has now found her home at Lakeland and plans to “restore and rebuild” the program to become a powerhouse. She plans to restore this team by following a vision to achieve the team’s desired outcomes. 

OUR VISION [Lona and the basketball team]: 

• Recruit quality student-athletes that will represent Lakeland University in a positive manner. 
• Promote integrity, trust, enthusiasm, and servant leadership while creating a family atmosphere where student-athletes can reach their full potential both on and off the basketball court. 
• Make being part of the program sacred, everyone feels valued. 
• Demand academic excellence: 100% graduation rate along with a 3.5 team grade point average. 
• Teach diversity through the setting of sport. 
• Provide a well-rounded experience that every student-athlete can enjoy. 
• Prepare student-athletes for life after basketball. 
• Establish a dominant home court advantage. 
• Win 20 games every season. 
• Compete for Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Championships and trips to the NCAA National Tournament. 

Although Lona knows what she wants today, she didn’t always know what she wanted, and it has been a long journey for her to finally find her home. Her journey starts in the same basketball shoes her team is in today, except her shoes were at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. “I unfortunately did not have the storybook basketball career every young woman hopes for,” Lona said. 

After playing for only a couple months of her freshman year, Lona tore her ACL and MCL. “I had surgery in May and began rehab in order to return to play by September (only 4 months after surgery—which in today’s world is unheard of, and for a good reason),” said Lona. 

Determined to continue playing, Lona returned to basketball at only 60% her sophomore year of college. Her knee was feeling good at the time and she got to play quite a bit that season. Everything was going good, until another complication came Lona’s way. “I was informed that I had an issue with my heart known as SVT (Supraventricular Tachycardia), and ended up needing an 8.5-hour heart surgery,” said Lona. 

The surgery was successful and Lona was cleared to play only a month later. She kept moving forward with her basketball career, until a meniscus tear her second day of practice her junior year led her to the operating table once again. Thankfully, this was her final surgery of her college basketball career, but it was also the end of her career as her coach informed her that her athletic scholarship was being taken away and doctors had advised her to “hang it up.” 

“I was destroyed,” said Lona. “Absolutely devastated.” 

Lona lost basketball, and with this she had lost her friends and some of her happiness. She was lost. She remained in this state of grief and confusion until Coach Don Meyer, former Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Northern State, brought basketball back into her life. 

“You need to coach,” Lona recalls Meyer telling her when he called her into his office one day. 

Lona was set on being an agent. She had an internship set up to work with an MLB agent and she already was accepted to graduate school at Minnesota State Mankato. She ignored Meyer’s suggestion and continued on her path to become an agent. 

“During my internship, I was miserable,” said Lona. “One night while reading a book he [Coach Meyer] had given me, it hit me like a ton of bricks—I was meant to be a coach.” 

After she was done with her three week internship, she headed back to Aberdeen and had a meeting with Coach Meyer to discuss her next steps. She then withdrew from graduate school, moved back to Aberdeen, and began to volunteer at Coach Meyer’s program. 

“It’s amazing to see how something so devastating (in the moment) can turn into something so beautiful,” said Lona. 

Lona hopes to take all she has learned from her mentors throughout the years, and all she has learned from playing basketball herself, and apply it to her coaching style. Overall, she hopes to be a mentor, teacher, leader and coach to the students this upcoming season and for seasons to come.