Lansing Community College hires Megan Hudson as women's basketball coach, replacing Layne Ingram

Megan Hudson has seen what Lansing Community College women’s basketball can be. She lived that era as a player. She’s watched in recent years as other LCC teams have played on the national stage. She knows the roster — she recruited the players on it. She sees no reason why the Stars’ women’s basketball program can’t return to prominence and win consistently.

“Having been here and lived here and seen the potential of what we can achieve at LCC … I’d like to get the women’s basketball team on that level,” Hudson said.

“We have the talent in this area.”

Those aspirations for the program are in Hudson's hands now. The 1990s Waverly and LCC standout is the Stars new head women’s basketball coach, taking over for Layne Ingram, who stepped down after six years. Hudson served as Ingram’s assistant coach the past two seasons, opening doors in recruiting and bringing in a strong class for next season. Those were among the reasons she got the head job.

“She’s been impressive going out to local schools and making connections and building relationships,” LCC athletic director Greg Lattig said.

That includes some schools the Stars haven’t pulled from much in recent years.

LCC’s incoming class includes: Peyton Anderson and Alex Charles from DeWitt, Ellie Humble from Haslett, Ivana McCollum from Waverly, Bailey Hosford and Kaylin Howard from Holt, Alyssa Welsh from Perry and Kara Bartels from Zeeland West.

Hudson is intent on breaking the stigma of the junior college level and making LCC’s program “not just a place to land, but a place you desire to go.”

LCC was that for Hudson in 1996. She joined a Stars program that was coming off a Division II national championship under the late Ervin Brunson and still featured several of those players on the roster.

“That was just a cool time for women's basketball in the area,” Hudson said. “ … Three of the players came back and played with me. It was having that talent level, coming into the junior college experience, really their mindset and their work ethic, it was just on another level. It was something that pushed me really hard once I got here.”

Hudson finished her playing career at Division-II Bluefield State in West Virginia. She returned to Michigan in 2007 and coached both girls and boys basketball, including her son’s AAU teams and, recently, the Waverly freshman and JV girls teams, before joining Ingram’s staff in 2021.

Ingram thought Hudson might be a good fit to take over at some point. That was clear, Ingram said, after two years working alongside her and throughout the search process for his replacement.

“She's very organized, she loves the game, she loves the kids, and you know, I really like to win,” Ingram said. “And doing all the things that I was doing, it was hard to give it the attention that it deserves. LCC is a great place, we're a great program. And they need somebody who wants to be doing that all the time.”

Ingram has been working as the chief of staff in the college president’s office for the past year and recently became a grandfather. He could see the impact his other priorities were having on the program, which finished 6-20 last season.

“For me, a lot has happened last few years. And I loved coaching LCC. It was great to be with my dad (men’s LCC coach Mike Ingram). It was great to be part of the basketball program in that way. But over the last years, especially after coming out (as trans) … life has just started to kind of happen.

“I want to be advocating for trans youth and trans people and continuing my career. I knew (the women’s basketball program) was going to be in good hands if Megan could get the job. … She clearly laid out a vision that leads to us winning championships, which we should do at LCC.”

For Hudson, who was born and raised in this community — and works full-time as a senior buyer at Jackson National — landing the LCC gig, after also coaching at Waverly, is about as good as it gets.

“Being able to coach at both my alma maters, it makes me very happy to be able to give back to both of those communities that help build me as a person,” Hudson said.

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing Community College taps Megan Hudson as women's basketball coach