Warren Central's William Unseld named Kentucky high school boys basketball coach of year
William Unseld was asked if his life has changed at all since winning a state championship, and the Warren Central High School boys basketball coach joked about his waistline.
Turns out a lot of fans in Bowling Green want to celebrate the Dragons' success.
“I’m eating a lot more, which is not a good thing,” Unseld said with a laugh. “It’s time to get this 35 pounds I’ve gained during the season off of me. We’re eating together like three times a week because somebody is buying us a meal.”
These are good times, indeed, for Unseld and his Warren Central program. A year after falling in the state championship game, the Dragons dominated the 2022-23 season and won their first title in 19 years.
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Warren Central beat George Rogers Clark 64-60 in last month’s Sweet 16 championship game, capping a 36-1 season. The Dragons won their final 27 games.
For the second straight year, Unseld has been voted The Courier Journal’s Boys Basketball Coach of the Year. He’s thankful for the honor but is ready to move on to next season.
“I’m gracious that everybody wants to celebrate the young men,” Unseld said. “But I’m ready to get back to some normalcy and ready get back to work with my guys for next year.”
Much like his team this season, Unseld dominated the Coach of the Year voting. He received 75 votes from the 110 coaches who returned ballots. Three other coaches received four votes apiece to tie for second place — Male’s Tim Haworth, Frederick Douglass’ Wes Scarberry and Newport’s Rodney Snapp.
Unseld, 48, was born in Louisville — Wes and George Unseld were his cousins – and moved to Bowling Green as a middle-schooler. He’s a 1992 graduate of Warren Central, where he earned third-team Courier Journal All-State honors as a 6-foot-8 senior.
He played two seasons at Wabash Valley before transferring to South Carolina. After playing professionally and then moving back to Bowling Green, he got into coaching. In 12 seasons at Warren Central, Unseld has a 289-94 record and has won six Fourth Region championships.
Unseld is the first coach to win back-to-back honors since Madison Central’s Allen Feldhaus Jr. did so in 2012 and 2013. Coincidentally, Feldhaus was the only coach to beat Unseld this season — 60-43 on Dec. 27 in the first round of Lexington Catholic’s White, Greer & Maggard Holiday Classic.
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But the Dragons never looked back after that defeat. They were ranked No. 1 in the state all season and rarely were tested. Unseld said the biggest hurdle came in the Fourth Region Tournament final, a 52-50 overtime victory over rival Bowling Green. It was the fourth meeting of the season between the schools.
“The tightest I’ve seen them in two years was in the regional championship game,” Unseld said last month. “I could see the next practice, it felt like the weight of the world was off them because they got back. All year it was like, ‘Gotta get back to Rupp (Arena). Gotta get back to Rupp.’”
The Dragons featured a balanced attack with five players averaging at least 8.9 points per game. Senior Chappelle Whitney (16.7 ppg) and junior Kade Unseld (16.1 ppg), the coach’s son, earned first-team All-State honors from The Courier Journal. Seniors Damarion Walkup (12.1 ppg), Omari Glover (10.5 ppg) and Izayiah Villafuerte (8.9 ppg) also played key roles.
Kade Unseld has scholarship offers from Bellarmine, Murray State, Ohio and Southeast Missouri State and will be the key to the Dragons’ success next season.
William Unseld said rumors of his son transferring to a prep school for his senior season are “the furthest thing from the truth.”
“He’s going to have to be a little bit more selfish next season,” William Unseld said. “He’s played with those guys so long … and the next jump for him is, ‘OK, now this is my team. They’re going to go as far as I can take them.’ He has to have that mentality.”
The coach expects point guard Cadin Hammer, who will be a senior next season, to emerge as another leader.
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“Will we be as good as we were the last two years? Not possible,” William Unseld said. “We’ll probably never have a group like that ever again. But we’ll be really good. … Ever since I started, each time I lose a group, the rumor is, ‘We’re done.’ We never are. We just bring another group on.”
Jason Frakes: 502-582-4046; jfrakes@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @kyhighs.
Past Courier Journal Kentucky Boys Basketball Coaches of the Year
1946 – Bobby Laughlin, Breckinridge Training; 1947 – Earle Jones, Maysville; 1948 – McCoy Tarry, Brewers; 1949 – Letcher Norton, Clark County; 1950 – Ralph Carlisle, Lafayette.
1951 – Dale Barnstable, Manual; 1952 – Norton, Clark County; 1953 – George Conley, Ashland; 1954 – Delmas Gish, Central City; 1955 – John Burr, Adair County; 1956 – Bill Carter, Heath; 1957 – John Bill Trivette, Pikeville; 1958 – Norton, Clark County; 1959 – Charlie Lampley, North Marshall; 1960 – Jim Morris, Flaget.
1961 — Bob Wright, Ashland; 1962 – Elmer “Baldy” Gilb, Henry Clay; 1963 – Morton Combs, Carr Creek; 1964 – Gene Rhodes, Male; 1965 – Bill Harrell, Shelby County; 1966 – Harrell, Shelby County; 1967 – Bob Fox, Earlington; 1968 – Jim Richards, Glasgow; 1969 – Bob Graves, Louisville Central; 1970 – Gary Schaffer, Pleasure Ridge Park.
1971 – Jack Upchurch, Anderson County; 1972 – Ray Vencil, Elizabethtown; 1973 – Bob Barlow, Bryan Station; 1974 – Graves, Central; 1975 – Wade Houston, Male; 1976 – Richard Schmidt, Ballard; 1977 – Schmidt, Ballard; 1978 – Wayne Chapman, Apollo; 1979 – Charles “Jock” Sutherland, Lafayette; 1980 – Bobby Watson, Owensboro.
1981 – Barlow, Bryan Station; 1982 – Allen Feldhaus Sr., Mason County; 1983 – Craynor Slone, Carlisle County; 1984 – Gerald Sinclair, Logan County; 1985 – Glenn Collie, Seneca; 1986 – Feldhaus Sr., Mason County; 1987 – Bobby Keith, Clay County; 1988 – Keith, Clay County; 1989 – Keith, Clay County; 1990 – Gary French, Elizabethtown.
1991 – Nolan Barger, Tates Creek; 1992 – Danny Haney, Lexington Catholic; 1993 – Tim Davis, Marion County; 1994 – Billy Hicks, Corbin; 1995 – Gary Moore, Franklin County; 1996 – Curtis Turley, Greenwood; 1997 – Haney, Lexington Catholic; 1998 – Haney, Lexington Catholic; 1999 – Ernie Simpson, Bowling Green; 2000 – Jimmy Just, Iroquois.
2001 – Bryce Hibbard, Male; 2002 – Rodney Woods, Wayne County; 2003 – Kelly Wells, Mason County; 2004 – Wells, Mason County; 2005 – Mike Szabo, Trinity; 2006 – Buddy Biggs, Pendleton County; 2007 – Billy Hicks, Scott County; 2008 – Champ Ligon Jr., Bryan Station; 2009 – Jason Booher, Shelby Valley; 2010 – Szabo, Trinity.
2011 – Wayne Breeden, Tates Creek; 2012 – Allen Feldhaus Jr., Madison Central; 2013 – Feldhaus Jr., Madison Central; 2014 – Scott Ruthsatz, Covington Catholic; 2015 – Rod Drake, Owensboro; 2016 – Josh Cook, Mercer County; 2017 – Tim Sullivan, Cooper; 2018 – Hicks, Scott County; 2019 – Jared McCurry, John Hardin; 2020 – Jason Mays, Ashland Blazer.
2021 – Kevin Listerman, Highlands; 2022 – William Unseld, Warren Central; 2023 – Unseld, Warren Central.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: KHSAA basketball: Warren Central's William Unseld named coach of year
