Kay Foster was looking for a sign it was time to get back into coaching.
With a plethora of open girls basketball positions in the immediate area this offseason, she got more than one.
"I was asking God to open one door, I didn't know there would be four," Foster said after she was named as the head coach of the Jefferson City Lady Jays. "That was a sign for me that I needed to do this thing. So I applied."
It's a return to Jefferson City's girls program for Foster, who has served two stints as an assistant coach for the Lady Jays. Foster retired as a teacher from the public schools four years ago, in no small part to watch her daughter, Megan, play basketball at Lindenwood.
"Basketball is just a passion," Foster said. "I've had four years to reflect, being retired, God just wasn't done with me. It was a calling, I'm a coach and the biggest impact I could have with kids and people is to get back into it.
"I just answered that call."
Basketball has always been a part of Foster's life. Her father was the first head coach in the women's program at Trenton Junior College (now North Central Missouri College). Foster played basketball and softball at Missouri Western.
"I'm a gym rat, I've come from a coaching family," Foster said. "When you hear the squeak of basketball shoes on a gym floor, the first day of practice, I can't tell you what that feels like to me."
Foster has been a coach in club basketball for years in the area. Among the players she has coached are Napheesa Collier and Sara Rhine. She also has coached three current Lady Jays - Sarah and Hannah Linthacum, along with Hannah Nilges - in club basketball.
"They're familiar with me and my style," Foster said. "With the other kids, I'm going to have to be doing some Zooming for now."
Foster also worked with Kara Daly as a youth player at basketball camps.
"Those four have grown not only into good basketball players, but five-star good people," Foster said.
The foursome will be the nucleus of a Jefferson City team that figures to among the short list of favorites to contend to win a state championship next season.
There will be some pressure on the first-time head coach.
"You don't think that hasn't crossed my mind?" Foster said. "We will be prepared for every game, we know there will be a bull's-eye on our backs. Let's go out there and play. We'll expect to see the best shot from every other team and we'll see what happens. It will only make us stronger for the end of the season.
"You either sink or swim."
Foster first was an assistant at Jefferson City from 1983-88, then from 2010-16. Her final season was the first for Brad Conway, who she replaces as head coach.
"I learned a lot from Brad when it comes to Xs and Os," Foster said. "He has a mind for putting together a game-plan and that's going to be hard to follow.
"But the only thing you can do is the best you can with the tools you have. You let the chips fall where they may."
Foster will not be coming back as a teacher.
"I will be able to work as much as I want as a coach," she said.