Coaching shakeup coming in Fox River Classic Conference girls basketball
GREEN BAY – The Fox River Classic Conference will have some new faces on the sideline for girls basketball next season.
Green Bay Southwest, Bay Port and Ashwaubenon all are seeking new coaches, with Tony Lee stepping down at Southwest, Dennis Gladwell at Bay Port and Nicky VanLaanen at Ashwaubenon.
Southwest
It’s been a wild ride the past year when it comes to the girls basketball coaching position.
Former Trojans coach Berri West stepped down before last season after three years, and the school named Jacob Polfus as her replacement in May.
That didn’t last long. He backed out later that month after landing a college job, sending Southwest athletic director Amy Hogan back to the drawing board.
She found a familiar face to lead the team in July when the school hired Lee, a 1992 Southwest graduate who spent the previous four seasons in the boys program under John Polkowski.
Lee guided the Trojans to a 15-10 record this season, including 11-7 in the FRCC. They continued to get better as the year went on, enjoying a six-game winning streak in January and ending the season winning eight of their last 12.
“It’s twofold,” Lee said about stepping down. “The first factor is the amount of time it takes to be a varsity coach. I thought I had a good grasp of it being under Coach P for four years, but when it’s your own program, it’s a lot of time. My professional job is changing a little bit, which would have made it very difficult and more stressful than it already was to put on myself and my family.
“The other part of it is the outside noise, to be honest.”
Lee declined to say what the outside noise was, although he said the administration always treated him well.
His tenure wasn’t long, but he is proud of what the coaching staff and players accomplished.
“Records are important,” Lee said. “We all want to win, but there is a lot more behind the scenes that you want to do for the girls, for the team. Camaraderie. Sportsmanship. … I thought we had a pretty good year. We had 11 conference wins. To get to 11 conference wins, I believe it was (former Southwest star) Jaddan Simmons, the blue chipper playing at ASU now, it was her senior year. Then you back up a couple years, Jaddan Simmons’ freshman year, they had 12 wins. You have to go all the way back to, I believe, 2012-13 to get to 11 wins.
“That really put things in perspective. Like, ‘Hey, we had a pretty good year.’ It’s just a shame that it is what it is and I’m stepping down.”
Finding a replacement for a coaching job at any school is not as easy as it once was, and that won’t be different when it comes to hiring the new coach at any of the three schools.
“It’s going to be a challenge,” Hogan said. “There is not a lot of coaches right now.”
Bay Port
Gladwell took over the Pirates in November 2020 after former coach Kati Coleman stepped down after six seasons and one WIAA state title.
It was his second opportunity to be a varsity head coach after serving as an assistant under Coleman at Bay Port and both Kelly McNiff and Dave Johnson at De Pere.
He previously coached the junior varsity team at Marinette Catholic Central and the boys varsity team for one year before moving to De Pere.
Bay Port went 33-37 during Gladwell’s three seasons but produced winning records in each of the last two.
The Pirates went 13-12 this season and finished fourth in the 11-team FRCC.
“I think he was ready to be done,” Bay Port athletic director Dillon Maney said. “He and his wife are both retired now, and they want to enjoy retirement. He wanted to possibly go south during the wintertime where it’s a little bit nicer and spend time with his wife.”
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Maney’s only in his first year as AD at Bay Port — he first arrived at the school in 2020 — but he saw enough of Gladwell to be appreciative of what he brought to the program.
“I’ve always been impressed with him,” he said. “He’s a great person. Did a lot of great things for our girls basketball program. He stepped up in a time of need, especially during COVID. We needed leadership. He did a really nice job of that transition and getting us through those difficult times.
“Ultimately, he led our team to some nice seasons. Like anything else in life, times change and things change and demands change. We just have to be able to change with it, because if we don’t, we are just going to drive ourselves crazy. At the end of it, I think that’s exactly why he said, ‘Enough is enough. I just want to go enjoy my retirement.’ I told him I can’t blame him.”
Bay Port is working on a few things at the district level, and once those get locked up and there is more clarity, Maney will have a better idea of the number of teaching positions that will open after retirements and other movement. He hopes to have the basketball position posted by early next month.
Ashwaubenon
VanLaanen joined the Jaguars in April 2014, replacing former coach Dave Herzog, who stepped down after eight seasons to spend more time with family.
It was her second stint with the team after previously coaching the Jaguars from 1999 to 2002 before leaving to be an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at St. Norbert College for the next decade.
Ashwaubenon was one of the top programs in the state in the years before she took over for Herzog, including winning its first state title in 2005.
But it had gone 9-37 in the two years before she arrived and the struggles mostly have continued, although the Jaguars enjoyed three winning campaigns in nine seasons under VanLaanen.
“Working with student-athletes and having a connection with them through the years and being impactful with them is a legacy I see with Nicky and her coaching of kids around here,” Ashwaubenon AD Nick Senger said. “Coaching is tough. Wins and losses are tough. Our size school to compete in the FRCC is no easy task. I know Nicky gave her best year in and year out preparing kids and getting the team ready to be competitive and battle in a very tough conference.”
Senger hopes to have a new coach in place by the middle of next month.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Girls basketball coaches step down at Bay Port, Southwest, Ashwaubenon
