Girls’ head basketball coach Rick Rhoades and volleyball head coach Scott Dowis both announced that their final Lancer season was this year. Both received an offer to coach at Blue Valley Southwest high school, a new school opening this coming year.
After their resignations, Athletic Director Jim Ricker found new applicants through a large pooling process. Rosacarla Ribeiro will follow in Dowis’ footsteps and former girls’ assistant basketball coach Scott Stein will become the new girls’ head basketball coach.
“[Both coaches will] continue to move the program in the right direction,” Ricker said. “Both coaches did an outstanding job of building these programs. We’ll continue to build and become more successful in postseason play and still keep the community wanting to be a part of the program. The kids will learn a lot and continue to improve their game.”
This year, the girls’ basketball team won the District title for the second year in a row and had a winning record in the mid-20s. The volleyball team concluded their season with a 21-7 record.
Former East Athletic Director Gary Howard currently manages the BVSW athletic program. However, the school had hired all of their coaches for the next school year, and does not plan to challenge East in season play unless via a Quad or Tournament.
Rhoades described several challenges facing the school. As 2010-2011 is BVSW’s maiden year, the school hosts only 50 seniors, and the majority of enrolled students are freshmen or sophomores with no Varsity experience. However, Rhoades looks forward to the challenge and cites proximity as a reason for leaving East.
“That’s my community that’s where I live, it’s less than a five-minute drive,” Rhoades said. “The opportunity to start a brand new program [were on of the reasons to support my decision] and I know the school is going to grow.”
Ricker began the new selection process by posting advertisements on every frequently-trafficked coaching site. The SMSD home page, Kansas Coach’s Association’s space, anywhere a notice could be seen. At first a lot of queries poured in, but once Ricker replied that the positions were strictly coaching and did not have a teaching job attached to them, the pool was lowered to roughly 10 applicants per coaching position.
Ricker then evaluated each candidate based on criteria that he and principal Karl Krawitz had previously discussed: the new coaches had to have prior and successful coaching experience, good communication skills, and knowledge of the game. But most importantly, the coach had to enjoy working with students.
“Everyone’s passionate about the game,” Ricker said. “But if you don’t care about the kids, I don’t care how good you are.”
According to Ricker, Ribeiro’s application “stuck-out.” Living in Brazil, she had played volleyball for 11 years and coached for six years, both club and college.
Last year, Ribeiro led the team at St. Pious in North Kansas City to a district title. She was later named “Small Class Missouri State Coach of the Year.”
“My thoughts about coming after a good coach and a good program, it will push me even harder to keep up the program,” Ribeiro said. “I know the girls and families are very involved with volleyball and they should be more excited because it’s always awesome to have positive support. I’m very focused.”
Ribeiro also describes a dedication to the coaching criteria originally written by Ricker: a drive for the students and a willingness to work with teens.
“My philosophy is more the kids will have to earn things to be on the team,” Ribeiro said. “I plan to bring a lot of competition not only among the players just to get them to become better players. Fight for what they want. Not to get the best in the district, but to be the best they can be.”
With basketball, Rhoades feels confident in his successor, a former assistant basketball during the 2000-2001 season.
Before his first season at East, Stein had coached at four high schools and one college, never taking a year off from coaching since he began in 1973 at St. John’s College. He currently teaches at Schlagle High School, and his record totals over 400 career wins and a State Championship.
“[Stein’s] a great choice,” Rhodes said. “He has a lot of the same philosophies that I do and he was definitely my first choice to succeed me. I want this program to stay what its been, to stay strong and competitive. And he’s the man, he’s a really good coach.”
Rhoades leaves a six year coaching history and Dowis leaves after a three year career, leaving behind notable and memorable players.
“I still care a lot about the players that are still here, that played for me,” Rhoades said. “You know I’ll follow them every step of their career here and I wish them will and wish them well. I want them to succeed and keep the pride and tradition that we’ve built here the past six years.”
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