Former Pflugerville high school coach Nancy Walling to join Texas basketball hall of fame
The honors continue to roll in for former Pflugerville girls basketball coach Nancy Walling.
Two years after earning an induction into the Texas Girls Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Walling will join the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame as part of its 2023 class.
Also in Walling’s class are Chuck Darden (Shallowater High School), Larry Davis (Lufkin), Keith Edmonson (San Antonio MacArthur), Jim Forbes (El Paso Andress, El Paso Riverside), Larry Goad (DeSoto, Henrietta), Larry Spruiell (Pottsboro, Petrolia) and Trenia Tillis-Hoard (Grapeland).
More:Former Pflugerville girls basketball coach Nancy Walling to join TGCA Hall of Fame
A native of Canyon in the Texas Panhandle, Walling came from a family of coaches, with her father and four of her five siblings in the profession.
“Really, I never considered basketball work, and coaching is in my family,” Walling told the Statesman in 2020.
After helping Canyon win back-to-back state championships as a player in 1977 and 1978, Walling suited up for the Texas women’s basketball team and helped turn the Longhorns into a perennial national power. She took an assistant job at Pflugerville in 1984 before embarking on a head coaching career that would lead to a 647-255 record and four appearances at the state basketball tournament.
Walling first became a head coach at Belton in 1987, then returned to become Pflugerville’s head coach in 1989, where she remained until her retirement in 2014. Overall, Walling made 18 playoff appearances and won 13 district championships as a coach.
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Pflugerville became a perennial playoff participant under Walling and almost always employed the same style — using 10 to 12 players, playing pressure defense, and relying on each player to serve in a key role. That system helped the Panthers reach four state tournaments, in 1993, 2005, 2009 and 2013.
“I started early and just love basketball, loved coaching and never really thought about doing anything else,” she told the Statesman in 2020. “One of the thrills I have had as a coach is to watch the girls play and use the lessons of basketball to help them in life.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Ex-Pflugerville high school basketball coach joining hall of fame
