Scott Waterman’s life has been in boxes in recent years as he has followed coaching opportunities, but he’s hoping he’ll now be able to fully unpack and settle down for a while.

The former University of New Mexico’s men’s basketball assistant coach was named the head coach of the program at New Mexico Highlands in late June and has been hard at work assembling a squad that can compete in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

In the latest episode of “The Sports Den” podcast, Waterman joins Santa Fe New Mexican sports writers Will Webber and James Barron to talk about his coaching journey and why he was drawn to the opportunity in Las Vegas, N.M.

Waterman first talks about building a winning program at Division II Academy of Arts University in San Francisco. He inherited a program that had never won more than 12 games and helped the team win 20-plus games in four straight seasons, including two NCAA Tournament appearances. The school decided to discontinue its intercollegiate sports programs at the end of the 2024-25 season, leaving Waterman looking for another job.

He ended up joining Eric Olen’s staff at UNM last season as the Lobos made a deep run in the National Invitation Tournament. In the episode, Olen shares his thoughts on Waterman and what he brought to the Lobos’ program.

Waterman discusses the differences between coaching at the Division I and Division II levels and offers some insight on how his roster is shaping up. 
In the second segment, the guys discuss quarterback situations at Santa Fe High and St. Michael’s, then about a change coming to high school baseball that could lead to an increase in offensive output.