Valerie Huizar hopes the old saying "third time's the charm" holds true as she enters her third season as the Head Women's Basketball Coach at St. Mary's. The injury bug hit the Rattlers hard during her second season and she more than doubled the team's wins in her first season from the year prior.

In each of her first two years, St. Mary's earned the Lone Star Conference Freshman of the Year honors as Huizar has an amazing eye for talent. She also brought in several transfers that made an immediate impact upon the program.
 

THE HUIZAR FILE
College: LSU Shreveport (2010 BA); UT-Tyler (2013 MA)   Hometown: San Antonio   Experience: 4th Year
YEAR-BY-YEAR REVIEW
Year	Position	Record
2011-12	Assistant Coach, Tyler JC	25-8
2012-13	Assistant Coach, Our Lady of the Lake	30-4
2013-14	Assistant Coach, Our Lady of the Lake	27-5
2014-15	Head Coach, LSU-Shreveport	20-12
2015-16	Head Coach, LSU-Shreveport	21-9
2016-17	Assistant Coach, St. Mary's	21-7
2017-18	Assistant Coach, Louisiana	17-16
2018-19	Assistant Coach, Louisiana	7-23
2019-20	Assistant Coach, Louisiana	19-12
2020-21	Associate Head Coach, Louisiana	16-8
2021-22	Associate Head Coach, Louisiana	18-7
2022-23	Head Coach, St. Mary's	8-20, 4-18
2023-24	Head Coach, St. Mary's	6-22, 6-16
2024-25	Head Coach, St. Mary's	14-14, 10-12
Head Coaching Totals	5 Yrs.	69-77
Totals	14 Yrs.	249-157

She became the ninth women's basketball coach in St. Mary's history on June 1, 2022, returning to her hometown of San Antonio. In addition to graduating from O’Connor High School, Huizar also spent the 2016-17 season as an assistant for the Rattlers and also served as an assistant coach across town at Our Lady of the Lake University from 2012-14.
 
Huizar joined the Rattlers from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, where she was the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator from 2017-22. The Ragin’ Cajuns made at least the semifinals in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament three of the last four seasons she was on the staff. Louisiana ranked first in the Sun Belt and 13th nationally in field-goal percentage (45.5%) in 2021-22, with Huizar serving as the offensive coordinator for the team.

The Ragin' Cajuns improved its scoring average from 61.9 to 65.2 from the 2018-19 campaign to 2019-20 campaign, while improving their scoring margin from -8.8 to 2.8 as Huizar took over as the play caller and she had two players, Ty'Reona Doucet and Brandi Williams join the 1,000-point scoring club.
 
In her dozen years of coaching, Huizar has coached 30 all-conference players as well as seven All-Americans. Her teams have advanced to the postseason national tournament five times. 

Huizar also was the head coach at Louisiana State University Shreveport for two seasons, where they advanced to the NAIA National Tournament both seasons (2014-16). Also, before her time at OLLU from 2012-14, she was an assistant coach at Tyler Junior College, ranking among the top 25 in the nation in her one year with the team (2011-12). 

During her first season at LSU-Shreveport, Huizar led the Pilots to an impressive finish as they won 13 of their last 15 games, catapulting them to the program’s fifth appearance in the NAIA National Tournament. The Pilots fell in the first round to the eventual 2015 NAIA National Runner Up. LSUS finished the season with an overall record of 20-12 while posting a 14-6 record in the Red River Athletic Conference. The Pilots gathered a pair of wins over two nationally ranked opponents during their final sprint to the finish line of the regular season as they defeated No. 13 Our Lady of the Lake and No. 10 Langston University.
 
Those two wins earned a first-round playoff game at home to begin the RRAC Tournament. There the Pilots beat their new in-state rival LSU Alexandria 107-63. The Pilots fell in the second round of the RRAC Tournament, but the LSUS resume was still good enough to earn an at-Large bid to the big dance.

In her two seasons at OLLU, she helped to guide the Saints to an overall record of 57-9 and an RRAC mark of 36-4. During that time, the Saints finished top five in the nation in scoring, scoring margin, turnover ratio, and steals per game as they won two RRAC regular season titles, as well as earning consecutive trips to the NAIA National Tournament.

Prior to returning to her hometown of San Antonio, Huizar served in 2011-12 as an assistant coach at Tyler Junior College in Texas. The Apache Ladies finished that season with a 25-8 record and were Region XIV conference regular season and tournament runners-up.
 
She graduated from LSU Shreveport in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary and secondary health and physical education and earned her master’s degree in kinesiology from Texas-Tyler in 2013. 

As a player for the Lady Pilots before beginning her coaching career, Huizar started at the point guard position for LSUS in 2008-2010 after having transferred from Lon Morris Junior College in Texas. In those two years, the Lady Pilots compiled a record of 50-13. Both of her Lady Pilots teams also earned automatic bids to the NAIA National Tournament. Huizar was named GCAC Newcomer of the Year and received two First Team All-Conference awards, an NAIA All-American Honorable Mention, and a Third Team All-Louisiana award.