Rating the girls coaches
I could rail on and on about the Browns and the Steelers game.
And how I am an old school guys and I the that they can’t run the football or even slow down the run on defense. Suffice it to say by the end of last nights game I wanted to break off the end of my bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon and cut my entire head off my body. That would be the only way I could assure myself of never watching another exhibition of Cleveland Browns football like I had to watch last night.
But I’d rather talk roundball today. Specifically girls basketball. There are lot of terrific coaches around the area and as our tab indicated a surprisingly few number of women in the coaching field in this area.
But I’d like to give you my top five list of coaches from The Courier coverage area. Please remember this isn’t covering all of Northwest Ohio it’s just the 30 or so schools we cover or try to anyway.
1, Upper Sandusky’s Andra Bell -- A coaching institution. Andra has forgotten more basketball than most coaches actually know. Her team’s are always competitive. Andra is an Ohio girls basketball coaching legend…enough said.
2, Arcadia’s Randy Baker -- The Redskins win with teamwork, coaching and defense. They rarely have that go-to player that is going to score 20 points a game, it doesn’t matter they just win. Even when many of the Arcadia programs are struggling, the girls basketball team is always a contender for the BVC title. That’s the hallmark of Baker’s program.
3, New Riegel’s Steve Lucius -- Lucius is another proven winner. His teams are always in contention for the MAL crown and while players come and go in the program he is always able to plug in the right players to be successful.
4, Findlay’s Connie Lyon -- Since Connie took over the girls basketball program at Findlay they haven’t missed a beat. They are one of the premier girls programs in Division I in the Northwest District. But I think the biggest thing Connie does is work with girls at the middle school level and younger to be certain the overall program is healthy from the ground up. Not every Division I coach does this.
5, Ottoville’s Dave Kleman -- Kleman’s teams are always competitive in the PCL. Despite the size of their school, they aren’t afraid of taking on some of the bigger schools around the area either.
Any thoughts on other excellent girls basketball coaches around the area?
NOTEWORTHY:
CG vs. OTTOVILLE SELLOUT: If you want to go to Saturday’s Putnam County League boys basketball game. Between Columbus Grove and Ottoville if you don’t have your ticket already, forget about it. There will be no tickets sold at the door for the Columbus Grove boys basketball game with Ottoville Saturday. Also no senior citizens
passes, scouting passes, or Northwest District passes will be honored for this game unless prior arrangements have been made.
NEWSWORTHY:
Today’s Wrestling Stories from the NW District
Findlay Courier Friday Sports
Fostoria Review Times Friday Sports
Bucyrus Area Prep Roundup
Colonel Crawford’s Pifher to run at Malone
Browns-Steelers game coverage from the Plain Dealer
Lima News prep roundup
Mansfield News Journal Prep Sports roundup
Woodmore beats Gibsonburg in OT
Genoa beats Eastwood 50-49
Tiffin Advertiser Tribune Friday sports
And how I am an old school guys and I the that they can’t run the football or even slow down the run on defense. Suffice it to say by the end of last nights game I wanted to break off the end of my bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon and cut my entire head off my body. That would be the only way I could assure myself of never watching another exhibition of Cleveland Browns football like I had to watch last night.
But I’d rather talk roundball today. Specifically girls basketball. There are lot of terrific coaches around the area and as our tab indicated a surprisingly few number of women in the coaching field in this area.
But I’d like to give you my top five list of coaches from The Courier coverage area. Please remember this isn’t covering all of Northwest Ohio it’s just the 30 or so schools we cover or try to anyway.
1, Upper Sandusky’s Andra Bell -- A coaching institution. Andra has forgotten more basketball than most coaches actually know. Her team’s are always competitive. Andra is an Ohio girls basketball coaching legend…enough said.
2, Arcadia’s Randy Baker -- The Redskins win with teamwork, coaching and defense. They rarely have that go-to player that is going to score 20 points a game, it doesn’t matter they just win. Even when many of the Arcadia programs are struggling, the girls basketball team is always a contender for the BVC title. That’s the hallmark of Baker’s program.
3, New Riegel’s Steve Lucius -- Lucius is another proven winner. His teams are always in contention for the MAL crown and while players come and go in the program he is always able to plug in the right players to be successful.
4, Findlay’s Connie Lyon -- Since Connie took over the girls basketball program at Findlay they haven’t missed a beat. They are one of the premier girls programs in Division I in the Northwest District. But I think the biggest thing Connie does is work with girls at the middle school level and younger to be certain the overall program is healthy from the ground up. Not every Division I coach does this.
5, Ottoville’s Dave Kleman -- Kleman’s teams are always competitive in the PCL. Despite the size of their school, they aren’t afraid of taking on some of the bigger schools around the area either.
Any thoughts on other excellent girls basketball coaches around the area?
NOTEWORTHY:
CG vs. OTTOVILLE SELLOUT: If you want to go to Saturday’s Putnam County League boys basketball game. Between Columbus Grove and Ottoville if you don’t have your ticket already, forget about it. There will be no tickets sold at the door for the Columbus Grove boys basketball game with Ottoville Saturday. Also no senior citizens
passes, scouting passes, or Northwest District passes will be honored for this game unless prior arrangements have been made.
NEWSWORTHY:
Today’s Wrestling Stories from the NW District
Findlay Courier Friday Sports
Fostoria Review Times Friday Sports
Bucyrus Area Prep Roundup
Colonel Crawford’s Pifher to run at Malone
Browns-Steelers game coverage from the Plain Dealer
Lima News prep roundup
Mansfield News Journal Prep Sports roundup
Woodmore beats Gibsonburg in OT
Genoa beats Eastwood 50-49
Tiffin Advertiser Tribune Friday sports
posted by --J-- @ 8:53 AM
4 Comments:
At 10:42 AM,
Anonymous said…
I can't speak to quality girls coaches because I don't follow girls basketball, but I have some thoughts.
While it would be difficult to identify all the reasons for a lack of female coaches, a couple thoughts come to mind, one might not go over very well. I was in high school when there was still a Girls Athletic Association (GAA) and the girls played intramural 9-person basketball. This was in the 70's. Have we had enough time to generate adequate interest by female coaches? It might depend on the geographic area. Another notion ties in to your earlier blog about Title IX in some ways. You see some high-profile female coaches in premier programs like Tennessee basktball, but the whole Tile IX thing has not turned into the cash cow that many women hoped it would, especially at the grass roots level. Ergo, they go, meaning that the hours and effort weren't worth the payoff. Again, there are dedicated, knowledegable female coaches out there so I don't want to paint with too broad a brush. It just occurs to me that my scenario plays out more and more frequently.
When I first broke into coaching, and I'm well into my third decade, the head track coach I was working under took his two green horn assistants over to talk track coaching with a coach at Minster. It was Katie Horstman. My male ego resisted at first. As the session went on I came to realize that this coach had a firm grasp on what it was to be a complete coach, and it went well beyond having Minster girls as athletes. We used many of her principals to good success. She was a fine coach, I learned alot from her. We need more Katie Horstmans.
At 8:42 PM,
Anonymous said…
Gary Kreinbrink is starting his 21st year of coaching girls varsity basketball at Leipsic High School. He has won 2 PCL, 3 BVC, and 4 sectional championships. He is a 2-time PCL, 3-time BVC, 2-time District 8, and 1-time Northwest Ohio Coach of the Year. With a current overall record of 235 - 229, he has the third highest number of wins in PCL girls basketball history (2nd among active coaches). His team this year is 6 - 1 (2-1 BVC)(3-0 PCL).
~ Viking 22
At 12:28 PM,
Anonymous said…
FYI: I got the information about Coach Krienbrink from Leipsic's winter sports program. It did not include information about where his number of wins rank in the BVC. He is also Leipsic's AD and girls varsity track coach.
~ Viking 22
At 6:24 AM,
Anonymous said…
Great topic... Coaches Kleman and Kreinbrink are good choices, I agree. I have not seen Findlay's girls play this year, but any Coach that earns a victory over Steve Pfahler's bunch at Toledo CC
gets my respect.. Up this way there are a few that should make this, allow me to elaborate:
Jerry Sigler-Sylvania Northview:
Two unbeaten seasons,four trips to Columbus and the final four, and more than a dozen NLL titles in over 25 years. 500 victories in a storied career, currently has four graduates in the last three years
playing Division I basketball.
Steve Pfahler-Toledo CC: They are down this year but will still win 12-14 games because of coaching.
Won 85 consecutive City League Games from 1997-2004. Over 300 career wins for him as well....
Manny May-Toledo Waite: Took over a team six years ago that lost a game to Toledo CC by around 100 points. Since then has won back to back City League titles and a regional birth last year. Hard to do in a league where there is open enrollment and stong catholic programs getting good players...
Enjoyed the topic....
Great website by the way...
JH
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