Coach Showalter in Press-Citizen Article

Showalter put his reputation on the line

by Susan Harman
Press-Citizen sports reporter
Jan. 24, 2013 4:31 PM,   

City High’s hiring of former Mid-Prairie boys basketball coach Don Showalter captured the area spotlight back in April, something that’s all too rare in a college town obsessed with Division I sports. Twitter lit up. TV stations featured it on the 6 o’clock news, something that’s very unusual for a high-school hiring. It was even a topic of conversation in the Tipton press box at the girls Tigerette Relays a day later. 

It was an example of “out-of-the-box” thinking by both the school and Showalter. For both it was a leap of faith in some ways. 

City High won a state championship in 2008 but hasn’t been a major factor since then for various reasons but mostly because the Little Hawks didn’t have the same level of talent as they did when Division I players such as Matt Gatens and Malcolm Moore were on the floor along with other D-I athletes.

When Adam Loria called it quits to spend more time with his growing family, City High saw an opportunity to make a statement. Principal John Bacon and Athletic Director D’Anne Kroemer were pro-active and sought out Showalter who, despite his Hall of Fame credentials and then-562 victories, was an unorthodox choice. 

Showalter played at Mid-Prairie and spent 28 of his 38 years coaching at his alma mater. He was 59 years old and retired from teaching after having already accepted an early retirement package the previous year.

Showalter wasn’t casting about for jobs. He was comfortable at Mid-Prairie, and he had his camps and USA Basketball coaching in the summer to add a little spice to the mix. 

But something happened after that first contact that was likely more along the lines of asking him for some recommendations. Something piqued his interest and that of City High. The courtship began in earnest.

Good coaches come in all shapes, sizes, personalities and ages. City’s had some different types just in the last 30 years when you think about Denny Thiessen, Andy Woodley and Loria. Some had ties to the school and others did not.

Young up-and-coming assistants or accomplished coaches from smaller schools usually fill the applicant pools for 4A positions. But I don’t think it’s going out on a limb to say that a 59-year-old Hall of Famer from a 2A school who coaches the nation’s best in the summer is an unusual possibility.

But as interesting as the hire is from the school’s perspective, the decision to leave behind a lifetime of memories in your hometown is the more fascinating to me. At a time when many are just glad to get out of the workforce, Showalter left his comfort zone, a place where his authority was unchallenged, his success cemented, to go to a completely unfamiliar place. You may laugh, but City High is an “urban” high school in many ways, with the positive and negative connotations that brings. Mid-Prairie, decidedly, is not.

Showalter didn’t know the school, the staff, the kids or the athletic culture. The team was struggling at a time when its biggest rival was ascendant. Red flags abounded. And still he took the job. 

“I think it was a real big jump for Don,” said Williamsburg coach Dave Schlabaugh, a longtime assist to Showalter at Mid-Prairie. “I’d like to say surprising but the challenge of it is what he was chasing. He called me from the City High parking lot that morning he met with John Bacon and D’Anne. I could just tell from my first conversation with him that it was something he really wanted to do.”

Schlabaugh told him it would be an “awesome challenge.” You have to think he was using the word in the dictionary sense, a really BIG challenge, not the teenage sense of wonderful and exciting.

Clearly the enthusiastic Bacon and Kroemer are a combo who can sell the proverbial refrigerators to Eskimos. But it’s Showalter who risked his retirement and his reputation by accepting the challenge.

“When you think of Mid-Prairie, you think of Don Showalter, and I think you still do,” Schlabaugh said. “I think for him to trade that black and gold in, that he’d worn as a player and as a coach for so many years, that was a huge step for him. He just seemed so ready for the challenge. It was a fresh start with something new again.” 

Don’t underestimate that step or the challenges that came with it. Showalter credits the administration with assuring him of the support he would need. He talked to football coach Dan Sabers about the school’s athletic culture. But when it comes down to it, Showalter is the one who stuck his neck out.

“A new challenge was something I had to take into consideration,” he said.

He says frankly it will take at least three years to be consistently competitive and shore up the program at the lower levels, but he’s happy with the effort he’s getting from players. 

Maybe if you are secure enough in who you are and what you’ve accomplished, as Showalter surely should be, taking this kind of step isn’t as big of a leap as some would think. I still think it took a lot of guts.