With a mix of fresh faces and a renewed sense of purpose, The University of Texas Permian Basin women's basketball team is entering the 2025-26 season driven to be the best on and off the court. Head Women's Basketball Coach Rae Boothe is now leading a roster full of new talent, but also proven competitors.

"We have a lot of players that have come in with great experience," said Coach Boothe. "Now the fun part is blending that together to make us the best team we can be. I believe everybody is selfless enough to want to do that and they show that every single day and they're extremely coachable. They are hungry and really excited to get better every day."

Trying to blend a team with 15 new players is never easy, but as time has passed the team has grown closer. However, how the team will handle adversity is still a big question mark since they haven't been to battle together.  

"We won't really know if we're going to pass the test until we're in the storm, but we've tried to simulate some things to just find out our true colors," said Coach Boothe. "Our team is pretty special and has been taking care of business, going about their business in a professional manner, taking care of each other, and being great teammates."
  When you have a team that has yet to play together and only returns two players that have experience playing in the Lone Star Conference, it is hard to set goals early on. Nevertheless, the standard will never change no matter who puts on the Falcon uniform for Coach Boothe and everyday the players follow the team motto of "Be Great".

"We want to 'Be Great' every day," said Coach Boothe. "What that means is having great energy, having a great attitude and being very tough. We rate it after every practice, after everything that we do. And so really, the only goal that we've set is to get to 'Be Great' every day and to start stacking those days up."

Early on, the new Falcons didn't understand the standard that is set under the "Be Great" motto. Yet, as time has passed, they have started to slowly understand and improve and now are focused on being more consistent and getting a little bit better every day.

That consistency, Coach Boothe believes, will be key as the season unfolds. Every practice, every drill, every film session is part of a process designed to prepare the Falcons for whatever challenges lie ahead.

"If we go about our business that way the whole season, there shouldn't be much slippage," Coach Boothe added. "When the storm comes, we'll be ready for it."
  This season's Falcons will have a different look as Coach Boothe is changing what she has done in years past and is teaching a new system.

"We have a lot of different types of players, we are physically big and we're also athletic," said Coach Booth. "It's been really fun for me as a coach because I'm doing stuff I've never done before. Teaching a new system, a different system, blending some things together, going a little bit bigger. It's been really fun and I look forward to the moment where we really get a test of how it matches up."

While the team has yet to face true game pressure, Boothe expects defense and toughness to define their identity.

"I think we'll be really tough and we'll be really deep," said Coach Boothe. "Defensively, I think this is a team that can force a lot of turnovers and be really aggressive. Whatever style of defense that we're playing, I think we're going to have a pretty balanced inside-out game. It'll be a lot of fun to see kind of the version of us that develops and really takes off."

With many of last season's leaders having graduated, this year's leadership structure is still taking shape.

"There's a lot of personalities, a lot of strong women on this team, and it's all blended really well," said Coach Boothe. "I would say the common denominator is everybody's pretty selfless and hungry and has made it not about them, and that's what we're just going to stay true to. So, we're kind of waiting just to see what people are best suited to lead us after we face adversity."
  UTPB enters the season following back-to-back successful campaigns in the competitive Lone Star Conference, but Coach Boothe knows experience – and patience – will be crucial for this new group.

"I have really high expectations and our players have really high expectations, but I didn't know myself how good the Lone Star Conference was until I was in the Lone Star and had experience," said Coach Boothe. "We don't have that. We don't have experience in the Lone Star Conference, and so our nonconference schedule is going to be really important for us."

Coach Boothe's focus remains on the process – day-by-day, week-by-week.

"I'm just truly keeping it day-by-day, week-by-week and I want our players to do that," said Coach Boothe. "But I do believe as a group, this team can take another step forward, and so the expectation is higher, not lower, with the players that we have."

The Falcons open up the season at home hosting the D2 Conference Challenge starting on Friday, November 14 at 6:15 p.m. against Metropolitan State University of Denver in the Falcon Dome.

"I'm excited. Falcon Nation come please. November 14th. We need you. Men and women play the same day. It'll be a very great atmosphere for basketball," concluded Coach Boothe.