Steve Gomez
Head Coach

Eight seasons at the helm and eight consecutive trips to the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball National Championship tournament. Coach Gomez's arrival to the LCU women's basketball program has certainly changed the foundation of the program. In those seven seasons at the helm, LCU has posted a 175-86 record under Gomez.  LCU went 25-10 last season and marched into the Elite Eight for a third time in program history.  The Lady Chaps, who finished third in the Sooner Athletic Conference, lost in the NAIA National Championship to evential national champion Azusa Pacific.

LCU went 19-12 in the 2009/2010 season, which included a 13-9 finish in the Sooner Athletic Conference, and had their season come to an end in the National Tournament. The highlight of the season was an exhibition victory inside the United Spirit Arena against Texas Tech University. The Lady Chaps ranked eighth in the NAIA with a 44.9% field goal percentage. They were also fifth in the NAIA with a 76.7% free-throw percentage.

In 2009/2010, the Lady Chaps finished with a solid 27-7 record and made a trip to the “Sweet Sixteenâ€? of the National Tournament following a second-place Sooner Athletic Conference season.  Gomez chalked up a milestone during the season, becoming the all-time women’s basketball wins leader at LCU.  Their 27 wins was an LCU single-season record.

LCU had a memorable 2007/2008 campaign, as the Lady Chaps made another voyage to the NAIA National Tournament.  The 25-10 Lady Chaps completed a 25-10 season, which included a trip to the “Elite Eightâ€? in the tournament for their second best finish in program history.

In 2006/2007, Gomez led the Lady Chaps to a myriad of firsts in their near thirty year history.  Lubbock Christian never left the Top 10 in the NAIA National Poll, and set a school mark for wins in a season with 26, eclipsing the school mark of 23 they set the prior season.  In addition, LCU made its fourth consecutive trip to the NAIA National Tournament, finishing in the “Sweet Sixteen,â€? and most impressively, the Lady Chaps captured a share of the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season championship, becoming the first school from outside of the State of Oklahoma to do so in the thirty-one years since the conference was founded.

In 2005/2006, Gomez’s Lady Chaps enjoyed perhaps the best season in school history, as they finished with an overall record of 23-12, and made an unparalleled run at the NAIA National Tournament.  Seeded 6th in their eight team bracket in the tournament, Gomez’s girls proceeded to oust four of the top six teams in the nation and become the lowest seed ever to reach either the Fab Four or National Championship; appropriately enough, he was named the SAC’s Coach of the Year.

In his first season, Gomez's Lady Chaps went 16-14 and finished fifth in the Sooner Athletic Conference.  While this might appear to be an average year, big wins for the Lady Chaps and entry into the NAIA National Poll for the first time proved good enough for an at-large bid to the NAIA National Tournament: LCU women's first trip to the big dance.  In his second season, the Lady Chaps were able to maintain that level of success.  After getting off to the best conference start since joining the Sooner Athletic Conference at 6-2, LCU finished SAC play at 10-8, good enough for another 5th place finish, and for the second season in a row, Coach Gomez guided the Lady Chaps to the NAIA National Tournament.

An LCU graduate, Gomez was a standout perimeter player for Coach John Copeland in the late 1980s, and to this day, he still holds the school record for career free throw percentage at .855.  He graduated in 1988 with a Bachelor's of Science Degree in Mathematics and consistently used his degree to teach in the classroom while pursuing coaching on the sidelines.  Gomez's career began at Lubbock Monterey High School where he served as an assistant coach in the men's basketball program from 1988 to 1995.  In 1996, Gomez accepted the men's basketball head coaching position at Lubbock Cooper High School, where he remained until returning to Lubbock Christian University to take over the reigns of the Lady Chaps in 2003.  During his seven seasons at Cooper, the basketball program broke new ground making the playoffs four times, managing the school's first state ranking, and capturing the Pirates only district championship in Gomez's final season.  One of the main reasons Coach Gomez is so successful on the court is the support he receives off of it.  Steve has been married to his wife Shawna for nineteen years, and the couple has two children: Hayden (14) and Landon (12).