Congratulations to the 2017-18 Bob King Award winners as Girls' Coaches of the Year.

District 1

Jack Campbell, Chesterton

Jack Campbell is an IBCA District 1 Coach of the Year after directing Chesterton to a 20-3 season that included the championship of the Warsaw Holiday Tournament.

Campbell’s teams have amassed a 369-282 record in 30 seasons as varsity girls’ basketball coach. His Trojans have won three sectionals (1994, 2006 and 2011) and one regional (1994). The ’94 team lost in the semi-state to Seeger and Stephanie White, and the ’06 squad fell in the regional to South Bend Washington and Skylar Diggins.

Campbell was head coach of the 2005 Indiana All-Stars, and he was an assistant coach for the 2002 Indiana Junior All-Stars. He also guided the North team in the 1999 Indiana North-South All-Star Classic.

He also was named Coach of the Year by The Times of Northwest Indiana in 2006.

Campbell also is entering his 48th season as Chesterton’s baseball coach, compiling 742 victories from the 1971 season to the present. In baseball, the Trojans have won 18 sectionals and three regionals, and the field at Chesterton is named in his honor. He has been selected a coach of the year in baseball on multiple occasions, and he was inducted into the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013.

Campbell is a 1962 graduate of East Gary Edison High School, now part of Lake Station Edison. He went on to Indiana University, where he played basketball for one season and was a three-year letterman in baseball for the Hoosiers. In 1966, he was selected first-team all-Big Ten as a first baseman after posting a Big Ten-best .361 batting average plus team highs of 43 hits, 31 runs, three triples, 21 walks and 28 RBIs that season.

He was a part of the inaugural class of inductees into the Lake Station Edison Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987.

He and his wife, Carol, have four adult daughters – Carrie, Jill, Jackie and Cat.

Brodie Garber, Fairfield

Brodie Garber is an IBCA District 1 Coach of the Year after guiding Fairfield to a 24-3 season that included sectional, regional and Northeast Corner Conference championships.

Garber has directed the Falcons to a 93-48 record in six seasons, annually finishing in the upper half of the NECC during his tenure. This season was the best in program history, the Falcons claiming their first regional crown before falling to Class 3A eventual state champion Northwestern in the Logansport Semi-state.

At season’s end, he was named 2018 Coach of the Year by the Goshen News.

Garber is a 1995 graduate of Fairfield, where he earned 11 letters in basketball, baseball and tennis. He was an all-NECC selection in all three sports and was selected Fairfield Athlete of the Year as a senior. In basketball, Garber scored 1,076 career points at Fairfield, was a three-time team MVP, a three-time all-conference selection and led his team to a 20-3 record as a senior.

He was a three-time all-conference choice in tennis and a two-time all-conference choice in baseball, posting a state No. 2 batting average of .529 as a senior.

Garber then attended Huntington University, scoring 1,766 during his career with the Foresters, earning all-Mid-Central Conference accolades four times and helping the team to the NAIA national final four in 2000. Garber also earned three letters in baseball at HU, and he was inducted into the Elkhart County Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.

Garber began his coaching career as a boys’ assistant at Fairfield for two seasons (2001-03). He then became an assistant in the Fairfield girls’ program for eight years (2004-12) before become the girls’ head coach starting in the 2012-13 season. Garber also served as the Falcons’ head baseball coach from 2002-13.

Garber, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Huntington University in 2000 and a master’s degree from Olivet Nazarene in 2003, teaches junior high social studies at Fairfield Junior-Senior High School.

He and his wife, Amy, have two children – Brea and Brant.

District 2

Debbie Guckenberger, Brownsburg

Debbie Guckenberger is an IBCA District 2 Coach of the Year after guiding Brownsburg to a 19-6 season, a sectional championship and a co-championship of the Hoosier Crossroads Conference at 5-1.

Guckenberger has directed the Bulldogs to a 50-25 record in three seasons. She has a 177-158 mark in 15 season overall, including a 127-133 slate in 12 seasons at Greenwood. She guided the Lady Woodmen to a sectional crown in 2012 as well as to three Johnson County Tournament titles and two Mid-State Conference crowns. At Brownsburg, Guckenberger’s teams have won two Hendricks County Tournament trophies, one HCC title and sectional crowns in 2017 and 2018.

She will be the head coach for the 2018 Indiana Junior All-Stars.

Guckenberger is a 1991 graduate of Rushville, where she played for four seasons for Hall of Fame coach Cinda Brown. She then went to Franklin College, where she played for the Grizzlies, earned a bachelor’s in biology and added a bachelor’s in education in 1997. Guckenberger received her master’s in education in 2002.

Guckenberger began her coaching career as a women’s basketball assistant at Franklin College from 1995-2001. She then assisted in the Greenwood girls’ program for two seasons before taking over as the Lady Woodmen head coach from 2003-15. She took over the Brownsburg program in 2015.

Guckenberger has been a biology teacher for 21 years, and she also has coached cross country for 19 years (18 years as a head coach) and track & field for 16 years (10 years as a head coach). She currently is a cross country assistant at Brownsburg.

Guckenberger has two daughters – Kiera, 14, and Ava, 12.

Stacy E. Mitchell, Warren Central

Stacy E. Mitchell is an IBCA District 2 Coach of the Year after guiding Warren Central to a 20-7 record and the 2018 Class 4A state championship.

Mitchell has been the Warriors’ head coach for three seasons, compiling a 44-31 overall mark during his tenure. He previously coached as men’s assistant at Tennessee-Martin, his alma mater, as well as being a boys’ assistant for one year at Syracuse Cochran (N.Y.), a boys’ and girls’ middle school head coach for one year at Indianapolis Washington, a boys’ middle school head coach for two years at Indianapolis Marshall, a boys’ assistant for two years at Brebeuf Jesuit, a boys’ assistant for one year at Crispus Attucks and a boys’ assistant for seven years at Warren Central.

Mitchell will be an assistant coach for the 2018 Indiana Junior All-Stars.

A 1985 graduate of Bolivar Central High School in Bolivar, Tenn., Mitchell was an all-state player in basketball in Tennessee. He also ran track for two years and competed in tennis for one year while in high school.

He went on to attend Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn., where he was honored as the basketball team’s outstanding newcomer as a freshman. He transferred to the University of Tennessee-Martin, where he played basketball for the Skyhawks, helped them win the 1988 Gulf South Conference championship and later served as an assistant coach. He received his bachelor’s degree in education from UTM in 1994.

Mitchell teaches special education algebra at the high school level at Warren Central.

He and his wife, Liza, have two children – Ezra and Emani.

District 3

Bob Meier, Castle

Bob Meier is an IBCA District 3 Coach of the Year after guiding Castle to a 23-1 season that included a sectional championship, a Southern Indiana Athletic Conference regular-season title, an SIAC Tournament trophy and the top spot in the Toyota Teamwork Holiday Classic.

Meier also was named 2018 Metro Coach of the Year by the Evansville Courier & Press.

This was Meier’s first season in the Knights’ girls program after serving for 23 years in the Castle boys’ program (1991-2014). He was a boys’ varsity assistant for four years, the boys’ freshman coach for five years, the boys’ JV coach for 10 years and a boys’ varsity assistant for four more years before stepping away from coaching for a time to watch is son, Cayman, play college basketball.

Meier is a 1986 graduate of Boonville High School, where he played basketball for a team that went 21-2. He also played golf in high school and was selected all-conference in that sport. Meier then attended the University of Southern Indiana, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1991 and a master’s degree in 1995.

He teaches social studies at Castle.

Meier and his wife, Scarlett, have two children – Cayman, 23, and Kennedy, 18.

Jason Simpson, Greensburg

Jason Simpson is an IBCA District 3 Coach of the Year after directing Greensburg to a 23-4 season that included an Eastern Indiana Athletic Conference championship at 7-0 and a Class 3A state runner-up finish.

Simpson has been the Pirates’ head coach for four seasons with an 80-19 record during that span. His teams have won two sectionals (2016, 2018), one regional and one semi-state. Previously, Simpson was a boys basketball assistant at Greensburg for 14 season and he worked on the boys’ staffs that captured Class 3A state championships in 2013 and 2014.

He will be an assistant coach for the 2018 Indiana Junior All-Stars.

Simpson is a 1994 graduate of Greensburg, where he played basketball for four years with the Pirates. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in 1998 and a master’s degree from Ball State in 2005.

He currently teaches physical education at Greensburg High School.

Simpson and his wife, Heather, are parents of two children – Kylee, 12, and Logan, 9.