SAN ANTONIO — Karen Aston needed a reset on her coaching career.

After a year away from the game, Aston is now in her first season leading the UTSA women's basketball program. It's a fresh start that brings the former University of Texas coach back to her roots. 

“There was a little bit of why I do what I do lost, you know, why do I coach?," Aston said. "UTSA and level of play, all of that, was not in my brain at all. It was simply, who do I want to work for? What is their vision?”

Aston took over a Roadrunners program that's posted just one winning season in the past eight years. It's a return to the non-Power Five level where she got her first head coaching job, 15 years ago at UNC-Charlotte.  

“Anytime that you take a step back in any profession, you probably reevaluate what's important to you," Aston said. "Is it about the kids and is it about their experience, or is it about winning?"

It had become all about winning in Austin, where Aston felt she lost her identity as a basketball coach. Sixteen of Aston's 22 years as a college coach were spent at Texas before coming to UTSA. The first eight as an assistant under Jody Conradt and the final eight as head coach. 

“It is a winning business. There's absolutely no question about it at the Power Five level and at the University of Texas," Astons said. "I enjoyed the winning side of that, but there was another side to it that at times you don't feel like anything's ever going to be good enough.”

After eight seasons, Aston was abruptly fired in April 2020. Her tenure included four Sweet 16 appearances and one Elite Eight. 

"I can honestly say that is not why I got back into it. I don't feel like I have anything to prove. This is really about me wanting to give back to the game and continue to mentor young women," Aston said.

Jamie Carey has experienced Aston's guidance first hand, as a player at Texas in the early 2000s and then assistant coach on her staff with the Longhorns.

“She pushes me. She demands excellence. I don’t think you can not want to be around that if you want to keep excelling at your career," Carey said.

That belief made for an easy decision when Carey was asked to rejoin Aston's staff in San Antonio as associate head coach last spring.

“Anytime you can be around someone that's been in your life for so long and has been so loyal to you, it made a lot of sense to come back here," Carey said. "It was a no-brainer."

Wins and losses, at least this season, are the furthest thing from Aston's mind, although she patrols the Roadrunners sideline with the same intensity that she had at Texas.

“This isn't going to happen overnight, we're just trying to win the day and trying to win moments in the day and learn how to compete at a higher level," Aston said. 

Changes that Aston believed will be the foundation of a winning program.

“I want this group of young women to say, 'You know what? We started something that has now been built, and we were the groundwork of that'," Aston said.

And possibly the start of a new tradition for a basketball coach that has her priorities back in order. 

“I enjoy the teaching part. I enjoy seeing a team grow. I want to build young women," Aston said. "This is more than winning and losing basketball games. I think we have a chance to build something really, really special here.”