Congratulations to the 2021-22 “Bob King Award” winners as Girls' Coaches of the Year.
District 1
Joe Huppenthal, Lake Central
Joe Huppenthal is an IBCA District 1 Coach of the Year after leading Lake Central to a 24-4 season that included a runner-up finish in the Duneland Conference and championships in the Portage Holiday Tournament and the Munster Sectional.
In six seasons with the Lake Central girls, Huppenthal has compiled a 99-54 record with two sectional championships. In 13 seasons as a girls’ varsity coach, he has a 215-93 record with seven sectional crowns. In 32 seasons as a varsity coach, Huppenthal has a combined boys-girls ledger of 419-316 with nine sectional titles.
A 1982 graduate of Highland High School, Huppenthal attended Purdue University and was a student manager for Gene Keady in the men’s basketball program from 1983-87. He served as the Boilermakers’ head student manager his final two seasons.
During his four years on the sidelines, he contributed in a support role during a Purdue era that included players such as Curt Clawson, Greg Eifert, Ricky Hall, Jim Rowinski, Mark Atkinson, James Bullock, Steve Reid, Mack Gadis, Troy Lewis, Todd Mitchell, Everette Stephens, Kip Jones, Melvin McCants, Ryan Berning, Tony Jones and Stephen Scheffler.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in math, Huppenthal became a teacher and coach. His first head coaching job was with the East Chicago Central girls, whom he led to a 103-27 record in six seasons with five sectional trophies from 1990-96. He then moved to South Bend Clay, where he guided the Colonial boys to a 204-223 mark with two sectional crowns in 19 seasons.
Huppenthal crossed the gender line a second time in 2015-16, leading the South Bend Clay girls to a 13-12 record in one season. He then returned to The Region by accepting the girls’ job at Lake Central in the spring of 2016. In six seasons there, the Indians have gone 19-7, 22-2, 9-14, 16-11, 9-11 and 24-4 with sectional crowns in 2018 and 2022.
Huppenthal earned a master’s degree in secondary education from Indiana University in 2004. He is in his sixth year teaching geometry at Lake Central.
Huppenthal and his wife, Shannon, are parents to Jared, Timmy, Teddy and Phoebe. They also have one grandson, Zeke.
Bob Lapadot, Garrett
Bob Lapadot is an IBCA District 1 Coach of the Year after guiding Garrett to a 27-2 season that included championships in the Warsaw Holiday Tournament, the Northeast Corner Conference, the NECC Tournament, the Woodlan Sectional and the Bellmont Regional.
Lapadot has compiled a 179-79 record in 11 seasons with the Railroaders, including four conference titles (two Allen County Athletic Conference, two NECC), two conference tourney crowns (one ACAC, one NECC), three sectional trophies (2014, 2020 and 2022) and this season’s regional title. In 2013-14, Garrett posted a 20-0 regular-season mark, the only undefeated season in school history.
This season’s squad set school records for most victories (27) and consecutive victories (25), the two losses coming to eventual Class 4A champion Noblesville in the third game of the season and to eventual Class 3A champion South Bend Washington in the LaPorte Semi-State.
He also has been appointed head coach of the 2022 Indiana Junior All-Stars.
Lapadot is a 1993 graduate of Garrett, where he was a 10-sport letterman in football, basketball and baseball. He excelled in baseball, twice being named team MVP, four times all-conference and all-area. As a senior, he was selected area Player of the Year and chosen for the Indiana All-Stars Home Run Derby.
He matriculated to IPFW, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1998. While in college, he returned to Garrett as a girls’ basketball assistant coach and just completed his 27th season in the program. He served as the Railroaders’ varsity assistant for 16 seasons before becoming the head coach in 2011-12. The program is 460-176 in the past 27 years. He was named KPC Media Coach of the Year in girls’ basketball in 2014 and 2021, and Outside The Huddle girls basketball Coach of the Year in 2021.
Lapadot also was the Railroaders’ head track coach for eight years, advancing athletes to the State Finals in five of those seasons. He currently is in his 21st year of teaching eighth-grade social studies at Garrett Middle School.
Lapadot had his wife, Sarah, are parents to two children – Brandon, 25, and Brooke, 17.
District 2
Donna Buckley, Noblesville
Donna Buckley is an IBCA District 2 Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season and the third time in her career after guiding Noblesville to a 25-4 season that included the Class 4A state championship.
Buckley has completed 14 seasons as varsity girls’ basketball coach at Noblesville and is 208-118 with the Lady Millers. In 22 seasons as a head coach, including stops at Fort Wayne South and Greenfield-Central, she has a 304-192 record.
The former Donna McCarty is a 1993 graduate of Clinton Central, where she played for Hall of Fame coach Linda Barnett and helped the Bulldogs to a sectional crown as a senior. She attended Taylor University, where she played basketball for two seasons.
Buckley started her coaching career at South Adams as an assistant coach for three seasons. She then became the head coach at Fort Wayne South for one season in 2000-01 with a 10-11 record. She moved to Greenfield-Central, where her teams posted an 86-63 ledger in seven seasons, including a sectional crown in 2004. Her Noblesville teams have won three sectionals (2015, 2021 and 2022) as well as regional and semi-state crowns this season.
Buckley was an assistant coach for the 2021 Indiana All-Stars. She also was to be an assistant coach the 2020 Indiana All-Stars, but the 2020 All-Star games were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She previously was named a Junior All-Star assistant coach in 2014, but she was unable to take part in those games because of a death in her family.
She also was an IBCA District 2 Coach of the Year in 2015 and in 2021.
Buckley is a teacher at Noblesville High School, where she teaches classes on avoiding substance abuse.
Ginny Smith, Westfield
Ginny Smith is an IBCA District 2 Coach of the Year after directing Westfield to an 18-5 season that included a runner-up finish in the Raymond James Hall of Fame Classic.
In seven seasons as head coach, the Shamrocks compiled 106-57 record with two Hoosier Crossroads Conference championships (2016 and 2021).
Smith stepped down as the Westfield coach at the end of the recently completed season. This is to allow her time to watch her son Braden, a current Westfield senior who is bound for Purdue University and who will join the Boilermakers’ men’s basketball program in 2022-23.
Smith has spent a large portion of her life in a gym and around the game of basketball. Whether she was playing the game or coaching the game, her level of commitment to the sport has remained.
The former Ginny Moore grew up in southwest Arkansas and attended Caddo Hills High School, where her team won the 1997 Arkansas Class A state championship. At the end of that season, she was named MVP of the 1997 all-tournament team and the 1997 Arkansas Miss Basketball.
She continued with basketball at Arkansas Tech University, where the Golden Suns made an NCAA Division II Tournament appearance in each season of her career with a national runner-up finish in 1998-99. During her career at ATU, she totaled 1,219 points, 230 assists, 120 steals and 127 3-pointers in 93 games as the team compiled a 103-28 record. She was named second-team all-Gulf South Conference in 2000 and first-team all-GSC in 2001.
After graduating in 2002, Smith spent four years in Arkansas as a teacher and coach before moving to Indiana. She was an assistant coach to Shane Sumpter with the Westfield girls from 2008-15, then succeeded Sumpter as the Shamrocks’ head coach starting in the 2015-16 season. She twice has been selected HCC Coach of Year during her tenure as the Westfield head coach.
Smith, who earned a master’s degree from American College of Education in 2011, also is completing her third year as assistant athletic director at Westfield.
She and her husband, Dustin, have two sons – Braden, 18, and Maddox, 10.
District 3
Tony Hasenour, Forest Park
Tony Hasenour is an IBCA District 3 Coach of the Year after guiding Forest Park to a 26-3 season that included the Class 2A state championship. Along the way, the Lady Rangers also claimed trophies in the Forest Park Sectional, Crawford County Regional and Jasper Semi-State.
Hasenour is 104-48 in six seasons in the top job with the Forest Park girls, including sectional titles in 2017, 2021 and 2022. He previously coached the Lady Rangers’ junior varsity team to a 203-93 mark over 16 seasons.
He has been chosen to be an assistant coach for the 2022 Indiana Junior All-Stars, and he has been named 2022 Evansville Courier & Press Southwestern Indiana co-Coach of the Year.
A 1995 graduate of Forest Park, Hasenour played high school basketball for one season. He went on to attend Ball State University, graduating in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in secondary social studies education and history. In 2005, he earned a master’s degree in secondary education from Indiana University-Southeast.
Hasenour began his coaching career in 2000-01 as the girls’ JV coach at Forest Park. He was also the Lady Rangers’ varsity assistant coach in softball for four seasons. He was on the softball staff for three sectional titles and the 2001 Class A state championship.
He is in his 22nd year as a teacher at Forest Park. He currently teaches eighth-grade social studies, high school world history and high school geography.
Hasenour and his wife, Janelle, have been married for 20 years. They have three sons – Calvin, 18, and twins Charlie and Will, 15.
Anthony Thomas, Waldron
Anthony Thomas is an IBCA District 3 Coach of the Year after directing Waldron to a 24-2 season that included championships in the Shelby County Tournament, Mid-Hoosier Conference, Waldron Sectional and Southwestern (Shelby) Regional.
Thomas completed five seasons as the Lady Mohawks’ head coach, stepping down at the end of the 2021-22 season with an 82-37 career ledger that included MHC titles in 2021 and 2022. His year-by-year finishes included marks of 12-12, 16-7, 12-12, 18-4 and this season’s 24-2.
During his tenure, Thomas was named MHC Coach of the Year in 2019, 2021 and 2022, Shelbyville News Coach of the Year in 2019 and 2022 and HBCA District 3 Coach of the Year in 2022.
Thomas previously had coached for 17 years of various grade levels, both boys and girls, before becoming the Waldron varsity girls’ coach in 2017-18. That experience included serving as the Lady Mohawks’ girls’ varsity assistant in 2016-17.
A 1992 graduate of Waldron, Thomas played two seasons of JV basketball. He later attended IUPUI for one year but left college to enter the work force. Farming has been his primary occupation for 14 years.
Thomas is married to Heather Ross, and the blended family has six children. They include Lindsey Thomas, 24; Lauryn Thomas, 19; twins Hadlie and Hallie Ross, 18; Matthew Thomas, 16; and Grace Ross, 15.
Coaching has allowed him to be on the bench with all five daughters – Lauryn, Hadlie and Hallie for four years each, Lindsey and Grace for one year each.
