Three girls coaches honored by IBCA for 2022-23 season
Garber, Newby and Allen to receive Bob King Awards as girls' District Coaches of the Year
Three Indiana high school girls basketball coaches have been chosen as 2023 Bob King Coaches of the Year by their peers in the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association, it was announced Monday (March 27).
Brodie Garber of Class 3A state champion Fairfield, Zach Newby of Class 2A state runner-up Lapel and Jeff Allen of Class 4A state champion Bedford North Lawrence have been selected as honorees for the 2022-23 season through voting that occurred from late January through early March, IBCA executive director Marty Johnson said.
Honors are awarded according to IHSAA district boundaries, and one coach from each district is a recipient – Garber in District 1; Newby in District 2; and Allen in District 3. These three coaches will receive plaques as an IBCA District Coach of the Year during the 2023 IBCA Clinic, which is set for April 20-21 at Mt. Vernon High School in Fortville.
The Coach of the Year award is named for the late Bob King, the IBCA executive director from 1984-94. King was a Lebanon native who coached at Sacred Heart and Shortridge high schools in Indianapolis before serving as an assistant basketball coach at Purdue University. He later also was as an assistant athletic director and associate athletic director at Purdue.
A list of former IBCA/Bob King Coaches of the Year in girls' basketball is below. The 2023 IBCA/Bob King Coaches of the Year for boys' basketball will be announced later.
Here is information about the 2023 IBCA/Bob King girls' Coach of the Year honorees.
District 1: Brodie Garber, Fairfield
Brodie Garber is the IBCA District 1 Coach of the Year after guiding Fairfield to a 28-2 season that included a 49-42 victory over Corydon Central for the Class 3A state championship. Along the way, his Falcons also captured Northeast Corner Conference, Fairfield Sectional, Jimtown Regional and LaPorte Semi-State trophies.
Garber has directed the Falcons to a 180-89 record in 11 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 semi-state and state titles while adding their fourth sectional and third regional during Garber’s tenure.
The IBCA award is Garber’s second. He previously was an IBCA District 1 Coach of the Year in 2018. Garber also twice has been recognized as Coach of the Year by The Goshen News, in 2018 and again this season.
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 also 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 points during his basketball 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 University in 2003, teaches physical education at Fairfield Junior-Senior High School.
He and his wife, Amy, have two children – Brea, a senior standout on the 2022-23 Fairfield team, and Brant.
District 2: Zach Newby, Lapel
Zach Newby is the IBCA District 2 Coach of the Year after leading Lapel to a 22-8 season that included a Class 2A state runner-up finish. His Bulldogs earlier had clipped the nets by winning the Madison County Tournament, the Wapahani Sectional, the Lapel Regional and the Logansport Semi-State.
Newby has compiled an 82-42 record in five seasons as a head coach after assisting the boys’ and girls’ programs for a combined eight years at Lapel, his alma mater. His teams posted 16-8, 17-7, 10-11 and 17-8 ledgers in his first four campaigns, then broke through this season with program’s first county title in 17 years and snapping 16-year sectional and regional droughts before seizing the Bulldogs’ first semi-state trophy.
A 2006 graduate of Lapel, Newby was a four-year member of the basketball program and played for coaches Derek Shelton, Tim Hillenbrand and Hall of Famer Jimmie Howell. He then attended Ball State, earning a bachelor’s degree in education in 2010.
Newby then returned to Lapel, serving as an assistant coach in Howell’s boys’ program for three seasons, in Kevin Brattain’s girls’ program for four seasons and in Howell’s boys’ program for one more season before becoming the girls’ head coach in the spring of 2018.
He has been a teacher for Frankton-Lapel Community Schools for 13 years, currently teaching health and physical education classes at Lapel High School.
Newby and his wife, Kayla, are parents to two children – Noah, 10, and Laken, 6.
District 3: Jeff Allen, Bedford North Lawrence
Jeff Allen is the IBCA District 3 Coach of the Year after directing Bedford North Lawrence to a 27-3 campaign that included a 46-42 victory over Fishers for the Class 4A state championship. During the season, the Lady Stars also won the Hoosier Hills Conference, the Bedford North Lawrence Sectional, the Bedford North Lawrence Regional and the Southport Semi-State.
Allen is 206-40 in nine seasons as the varsity coach of the Lady Stars, a tenure that has included five HHC crowns, nine sectional trophies, three regional titles and his first semi-state and state crowns. This is his second IBCA District 3 Coach of the Year award, joining a previous honor in 2019. He also was head coach of the 2020 and 2021 Indiana All-Stars, although the 2020 All-Stars did not get to play because of COVID-19.
A 1979 graduate of Eastern Greene High School, Allen averaged 21 points and 12 rebounds as a senior and was named all-Southwest Indiana Conference, the Bedford Times-Mail co-Player of the Year, small school all-state and honorable mention all-state selection in boys’ basketball.
He went on to become a two-year starter for coach Dan Sparks at Vincennes University, averaging 8.1 points for a 27-10 team as a freshman and 8.6 points for a 19-10 squad as a sophomore. Allen then went to DePaul, playing two years for Hall of Fame coach Ray Meyer on squads that posted 26-2 and 21-12 seasons.
Allen began his coaching career as a men’s basketball graduate assistant from 1984-1986 at DePaul while completing a master’s of business of administration. He returned to coaching in 2007 for a two-year stint as a boys’ basketball assistant at Bedford.
He shifted to the girls’ program in 2009, serving as a Lady Stars’ assistant for five seasons and helping the program capture Class 4A state championships in 2013 and 2014. He was promoted to BNL girls’ varsity coach for the 2014-15 season.
Allen received a bachelor’s degree in business in 1983 and his MBA in 1986. He currently is the chief financial officer for InFab, Inc., of Bedford.
He and his wife, Linda, have four children – sons Jared and John as well as Indiana All-Star daughters Jenna and Jorie, the 2019 Indiana Miss Basketball.
Garber, Newby and Allen to receive Bob King Awards as girls' District Coaches of the Year
Three Indiana high school girls basketball coaches have been chosen as 2023 Bob King Coaches of the Year by their peers in the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association, it was announced Monday (March 27).
Brodie Garber of Class 3A state champion Fairfield, Zach Newby of Class 2A state runner-up Lapel and Jeff Allen of Class 4A state champion Bedford North Lawrence have been selected as honorees for the 2022-23 season through voting that occurred from late January through early March, IBCA executive director Marty Johnson said.
Honors are awarded according to IHSAA district boundaries, and one coach from each district is a recipient – Garber in District 1; Newby in District 2; and Allen in District 3. These three coaches will receive plaques as an IBCA District Coach of the Year during the 2023 IBCA Clinic, which is set for April 20-21 at Mt. Vernon High School in Fortville.
The Coach of the Year award is named for the late Bob King, the IBCA executive director from 1984-94. King was a Lebanon native who coached at Sacred Heart and Shortridge high schools in Indianapolis before serving as an assistant basketball coach at Purdue University. He later also was as an assistant athletic director and associate athletic director at Purdue.
A list of former IBCA/Bob King Coaches of the Year in girls' basketball is below. The 2023 IBCA/Bob King Coaches of the Year for boys' basketball will be announced later.
Here is information about the 2023 IBCA/Bob King girls' Coach of the Year honorees.
District 1: Brodie Garber, Fairfield
Brodie Garber is the IBCA District 1 Coach of the Year after guiding Fairfield to a 28-2 season that included a 49-42 victory over Corydon Central for the Class 3A state championship. Along the way, his Falcons also captured Northeast Corner Conference, Fairfield Sectional, Jimtown Regional and LaPorte Semi-State trophies.
Garber has directed the Falcons to a 180-89 record in 11 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 semi-state and state titles while adding their fourth sectional and third regional during Garber’s tenure.
The IBCA award is Garber’s second. He previously was an IBCA District 1 Coach of the Year in 2018. Garber also twice has been recognized as Coach of the Year by The Goshen News, in 2018 and again this season.
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 also 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 points during his basketball 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 University in 2003, teaches physical education at Fairfield Junior-Senior High School.
He and his wife, Amy, have two children – Brea, a senior standout on the 2022-23 Fairfield team, and Brant.
District 2: Zach Newby, Lapel
Zach Newby is the IBCA District 2 Coach of the Year after leading Lapel to a 22-8 season that included a Class 2A state runner-up finish. His Bulldogs earlier had clipped the nets by winning the Madison County Tournament, the Wapahani Sectional, the Lapel Regional and the Logansport Semi-State.
Newby has compiled an 82-42 record in five seasons as a head coach after assisting the boys’ and girls’ programs for a combined eight years at Lapel, his alma mater. His teams posted 16-8, 17-7, 10-11 and 17-8 ledgers in his first four campaigns, then broke through this season with program’s first county title in 17 years and snapping 16-year sectional and regional droughts before seizing the Bulldogs’ first semi-state trophy.
A 2006 graduate of Lapel, Newby was a four-year member of the basketball program and played for coaches Derek Shelton, Tim Hillenbrand and Hall of Famer Jimmie Howell. He then attended Ball State, earning a bachelor’s degree in education in 2010.
Newby then returned to Lapel, serving as an assistant coach in Howell’s boys’ program for three seasons, in Kevin Brattain’s girls’ program for four seasons and in Howell’s boys’ program for one more season before becoming the girls’ head coach in the spring of 2018.
He has been a teacher for Frankton-Lapel Community Schools for 13 years, currently teaching health and physical education classes at Lapel High School.
Newby and his wife, Kayla, are parents to two children – Noah, 10, and Laken, 6.
District 3: Jeff Allen, Bedford North Lawrence
Jeff Allen is the IBCA District 3 Coach of the Year after directing Bedford North Lawrence to a 27-3 campaign that included a 46-42 victory over Fishers for the Class 4A state championship. During the season, the Lady Stars also won the Hoosier Hills Conference, the Bedford North Lawrence Sectional, the Bedford North Lawrence Regional and the Southport Semi-State.
Allen is 206-40 in nine seasons as the varsity coach of the Lady Stars, a tenure that has included five HHC crowns, nine sectional trophies, three regional titles and his first semi-state and state crowns. This is his second IBCA District 3 Coach of the Year award, joining a previous honor in 2019. He also was head coach of the 2020 and 2021 Indiana All-Stars, although the 2020 All-Stars did not get to play because of COVID-19.
A 1979 graduate of Eastern Greene High School, Allen averaged 21 points and 12 rebounds as a senior and was named all-Southwest Indiana Conference, the Bedford Times-Mail co-Player of the Year, small school all-state and honorable mention all-state selection in boys’ basketball.
He went on to become a two-year starter for coach Dan Sparks at Vincennes University, averaging 8.1 points for a 27-10 team as a freshman and 8.6 points for a 19-10 squad as a sophomore. Allen then went to DePaul, playing two years for Hall of Fame coach Ray Meyer on squads that posted 26-2 and 21-12 seasons.
Allen began his coaching career as a men’s basketball graduate assistant from 1984-1986 at DePaul while completing a master’s of business of administration. He returned to coaching in 2007 for a two-year stint as a boys’ basketball assistant at Bedford.
He shifted to the girls’ program in 2009, serving as a Lady Stars’ assistant for five seasons and helping the program capture Class 4A state championships in 2013 and 2014. He was promoted to BNL girls’ varsity coach for the 2014-15 season.
Allen received a bachelor’s degree in business in 1983 and his MBA in 1986. He currently is the chief financial officer for InFab, Inc., of Bedford.
He and his wife, Linda, have four children – sons Jared and John as well as Indiana All-Star daughters Jenna and Jorie, the 2019 Indiana Miss Basketball.
