KANSAS -? Experience and stability were the main attributes Lakota was looking for in its search for a
new boys varsity basketball coach.
With the recent hiring of Tim Walsh, the program seems to have filled the position with a coach who
possesses both.
?We?re excited about him. He?s a good family person. He believes in discipline. He has quite a bit of
coaching experience, especially as a head coach at the varsity level,? Lakota athletics director Jim
Kelly said of Walsh. ?That?s kind of what we were looking for ? somebody with experience that could come
in and work to build a program and teach our young kids.?
Walsh has 11 years of varsity head coaching experience and started coaching basketball in 1982. He had
stints as head coach at three different schools, most recently Oak Harbor (2003-07). He also headed the
programs at Gibsonburg (2000-02) and Fayette (1995-2000). Walsh served as the junior varsity coach at
Bowling Green in the 2002-03 season, which was current Bobcat coach Von Graffin?s first season.
He résumé includes three consecutive Buckeye Border Conference titles at Fayette and a sectional title
with Gibsonburg.
Walsh replaced Marc Diels, who did not reapply for the head coaching position after last season. In two
years at Lakota, Diels compiled a record of 10-32 overall and 5-23 in the Suburban Lakes league.
Lakota graduated only two seniors from last year?s roster and could return at least nine players from
last year?s varsity squad, which finished 4-17, 2-12.
?There were just a lot of things that fit well,? Walsh said of Lakota. ?The kids coming back will fit
well with how I like to do things. There?s a lot of excitement in the future.?
?I missed it and I wanted to get back into coaching varsity boys,? he added. ?It?s a good time.?
Plans are for Lakota to have its new school ready for the 2011-12 school year. The Raiders will begin
full membership in the Midland Athletic League this coming school year, as the school officially
departed from the Suburban Lakes League following this spring?s sport season.
?I think with us going into a new league and a new coach, it?s a great opportunity for us to start to
take positive steps,? Kelly said. ?We?re not going to go out and make this all happen in one year. This
is a process for us, obviously. This year, being the first year, we look to take some positive steps
towards rebuilding that culture. It?s really an attitude.?
Walsh said he plans to run an offense that employs both a running game and a focus on half court offense,
while on defense he will have his team concentrate on man-to-man defense.
?On defense, I want to kids to understand the work ethic needed and the fundamentals needed to play sound
man-to-man defense. Offensively, I want to run a mix of a running game and a disciplined half court
game,? Walsh said. ?Teams need to do both to be successful. All one way or all the other way inhibits
you from letting your players? talents show through. A good mix of the two is the way I like to do
things.?
Walsh said he plans on working with players throughout the Lakota school system and hopes to have
programs in place from at least the third grade on up through the older age levels.
According to Kelly, Walsh is someone who could be at Lakota for an extended period of time, as the
program has struggled with stability in the past.
?We have to change the culture, which the culture has been losing. You do that by having something
stability,? Kelly said. ?We feel that having coach Walsh is somebody that plans on being here so we have
some stability there.?
?I?ve coached at big schools and small schools and schools in-between. So I don?t really have aspirations
to go (to Lakota) and move somewhere else. I?ve been in it so long that it?s not really a big thing to
me what size the school is,? Walsh said. ?I think with them building the new facilities that will bring
in a lot of excitement with the student body as well as the community. I just think there?s a lot of
positives there to be built upon.?
Walsh will remain a teacher at Gibsonburg, where he teaches high school psychology and sociology. He also
serves as an intervention teacher, a role in which he works individually with students to help them get
back on track with their studies.