Donna Buckley of Noblesville and Ginny Smith of Westfield are among the six Indiana high school girls basketball coaches have been chosen as 2022 Bob King Coaches of the Year by their peers in the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association, it was announced Tuesday.
Joe Huppenthal of Lake Central, Bob Lapadot of Garrett, Tony Hasenour of Forest Park and Anthony Thomas of Waldron were also selected as honorees for the 2021-22 season through voting that occurred from late January through early March, IBCA executive director Steve Witty said.
Honors are awarded according to IHSAA district boundaries, and two coaches from each district are recipients – Lapadot and Huppenthal in District 1; Buckley and Smith in District 2; and Hasenour and Thomas in District 3.
Here is information about the six girls’ Coach of the Year honorees.
– Buckley is honored for the second consecutive season and third time in her career after directing Noblesville to a 25-4 season that included the Class 4A state championship. Buckley has a 304-192 record in 22 seasons as a head coach. That includes a 10-11 record in one season at Fort Wayne South, an 86-63 mark in seven seasons at Greenfield-Central and a 208-118 slate in 14 seasons at Noblesville. Her teams have won four sectionals (2004, 2015, 2021 and 2022) plus this year’ regional and semi-state. The former Donna McCarty is a 1993 graduate of Clinton Central and later played basketball at Taylor University for two seasons. She started her coaching career as an assistant at South Adams for three seasons before becoming head coach at Fort Wayne South in 2000-01. Buckley previously was an IBCA District 2 Coach of the Year in 2015 and 2021. She was named a Junior All-Star assistant coach in 2014. She also was named a senior All-Star assistant in 2020 and again in 2021 as the 2020 games were canceled.
– Smith is recognized after directing Westfield to an 18-5 season that included a runner-up finish in the Raymond James Hall of Fame Classic. In seven seasons as a head coach, Smith led the Shamrocks to a 106-57 record with two Hoosier Crossroads Conference championships (2016 and 2021). The former Ginny Mason attended Caddo Hills High School in Arkansas, where her team won the 1997 Arkansas Class A state championship and she was named MVP of the 1997 Arkansas all-tournament team as well as the 1997 Arkansas Miss Basketball. She went on to Arkansas Tech University, helping the Golden Suns to four NCAA Division II Tournament appearances and a national runner-up finish in 1999. Smith was a teacher and coach for four years in Arkansas before moving to Indiana. She was a Westfield girls’ basketball assistant coach from 2008-15 prior to taking over as head coach beginning in 2015-16. She twice has been voted HCC Coach of the Year. Smith earned a master’s degree from American College of Education in 2011, and she is in her third year as Westfield’s assistant athletic director. Smith stepped down as the Westfield coach at the end of the 2021-22 season.
– Huppenthal is cited after guiding Lake Central to a 24-4 season that included a runner-up finish in the Duneland Conference and championships in the Portage Holiday Tournament and Munster Sectional. In six seasons with the Lake Central girls, Huppenthal is 99-54 with two sectional titles (2018 and 2022). In 13 seasons as a girls’ varsity coach, he has a 215-93 record with seven sectional crowns. In 32 seasons as a varsity coach, including 19 years with the South Bend Clay boys, he has an overall ledger of 419-316 with nine sectional trophies. Huppenthal is a 1982 graduate of Highland High School and went to Purdue, where he graduate in 1987 was a four-year student manager for Gene Keady’s Boilermakers. He became a head coach in 1990 with the East Chicago Central girls, directing them to a 103-27 mark in six seasons with five sectional titles. He coached the South Bend Clay boys to a 204-223 mark with two sectional crowns from 1996-2015. He then coached the South Bend Clay girls for one season, going 13-12, before taking over the Lake Central girls. He earned a master’s degree from Indiana University in 2004.
– Lapadot is recognized after leading Garrett to a 27-2 season that included championships in the Warsaw Holiday Tournament, the Northeast Corner Conference, the NECC Tournament, the Woodlan Sectional and the Bellmont Regional. He has compiled a 179-79 record in 11 seasons with the Railroaders, including four conference titles (two Allen County Athletic Conference, two NECC), two conference tournament crowns (one ACAC, one NECC), three sectional trophies (2014, 2020 and 2022) and this season’s regional. Lapadot is a 1993 graduate of Garrett, where he was a 10-sport letterman in football, basketball and baseball. He went on to IPFW, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1998. While in college, he returned to Garrett as a girls’ basketball assistant coach and just completed his 27th season in the program. He was the Railroaders’ varsity assistant coach for 16 seasons prior to becoming head coach in 2011-12. He was named KPC Media Coach of the Year in 2014 and 2021 as well as the Outside The Huddle Coach of the year in 2021. He has been appointed head coach of the 2022 Indiana Junior All-Stars.
– Hasenour is honored after leading Forest Park to a 23-3 season that included the Class 2A state championship. Along the way, the Lady Rangers also won the Forest Park Sectional, Crawford County Regional and Jasper Semi-State. Hasenour is 104-48 in six seasons in the top job at Forest Park, including sectional titles in 2017, 2021 and 2022. He previously coached the Lady Rangers’ JV team for 16 seasons. A 1995 graduate of Forest Park, he played basketball for one season. He went on to Ball State, graduating in 1999. He later earned a master’s degree from Indiana University-Southeast in 2005. Hasenour began his coaching career in 2000-01 as the JV girls’ basketball coach. He also was a softball varsity assistant coach for four seasons. He became the varsity girls’ basketball coach in 2016-17. He has been chosen to be an assistant coach for the 2022 Indiana Junior All-Stars, and he was named the 2022 Evansville Courier & Press Southwestern Indiana co-Coach of the Year.
– Thomas is cited after guiding Waldron to a 24-2 campaign that included championships in the Shelby County Tournament, Mid-Hoosier Conference, Waldron Sectional and Southwestern (Shelby) Regional. Thomas completed five seasons as the Lady Mohawks’ varsity coach, stepping down at the end of the 2021-22 season with an 82-37 career mark. His teams twice captured MHC titles (2021 and 2022). Thomas previously coached for 17 years at various grade levels, both boys and girls, before becoming the Waldron varsity girls’ coach in 2017-18. That experience included serving as the Lady Mohawks’ girls’ basketball varsity assistant in 2016-17. Thomas is a 1992 graduate of Waldron, where he played two seasons of JV basketball. He later attended IUPUI for one year but left college to enter the work force. During his tenure as varsity coach, Thomas was named MHC Coach of the Year in 2019, 2021 and 2022, Shelbyville News Coach of the Year in 2019 and 2002, and HBCA District 3 Coach of the Year in 2022.
These six coaches will receive plaques as an IBCA District Coach of the Year during the 2022 IBCA Clinic, which is set for April 22-23 at Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis. Five of these coaches (Huppenthal, Lapadot, Buckley, Smith and Hasenour) will make presentations during the clinic. Thomas is unable to make a presentation at the clinic.
The Coach of the Year award is named for the late Bob King, the IBCA executive director from 1984-94. King was a Lebanon native who coached at Sacred Heart and Shortridge high schools in Indianapolis before serving as an assistant basketball coach at Purdue University. He later also was as an assistant athletic director and associate athletic director at Purdue.
