ONE MORE YEAR

Whitley County Girls Basketball Coach Larry Anderson has spent more than 25 years on the bench as the Lady Colonels coach. There was speculation that the 2011-12 season would be his last, especially after his daughter, Sierra, graduated.

After giving it much thought, Anderson has decided to stay one more season and will retire at the end of the 2012-13 seasons.

“I thought about it and prayed about it. I just didn’t feel like getting out right now was the right time. I felt like the timing was wrong. I am going to do one more year and that will be it,” Anderson said.

“I had said that when Sierra graduated that I would go, but for some reason I could never pull the trigger,” he said. “I don’t know why. I never actually made the statement that I was going. I don’t think the last game had anything to do with it.”

The Lady Colonels, ranked as high as 23^rd in the state, lost a heart breaker to North Laurel in the first-round of the regional tournament.

“I think that was one of the hardest losses that I ever had to deal with. I felt remorse and sadness and some disappointment. All the emotions you could possibly go through and I wanted to make sure that wasn’t the reason that if I stepped down,” Anderson said.

“I thought about it for a long time. There were some other factors that influenced me to stay and I had been asked to stay which is always a good thing,” he said.

Anderson started his career 30+ years ago with the Whitley County Middle School boys’ 8^th grade basketball team. “I remember that team winning only one of their first five. I had to make some decisions and had to let a player go. We won like 16-17 in a roll after that,” Anderson said. “The kids came together after that. In fact, Scott Paul was a member of that basketball team.” Paul is now the superintendent of the Whitley County Schools. “Those kids will be fond memories to me,” he said.

In 1980-81, Anderson was hired at Williamsburg High School to coach the girls’ program. “Bless their hearts, I worked them to death. I made the run gut drills every day after practice, but I did what I could for them to establish a winning program. Anderson guided the Lady Jackets to two straight region tournaments.

 “I remember one day I locked the locker room and they thought I was getting fired. They all went to the office and said if he goes we go with him. Those are the memories at Williamsburg that stick out,” Anderson said.

“I remember in 2006, Kayla Haynes, after a loss to South Laurel, said she was sorry they broke our streak of regional tournaments. And, I hadn’t even thought about that.”

“Those things stay with you as a coach. This year’s team was so close. That’s why it was so hard to take that loss,” he added. “You can’t let one game set the tone for the whole year and remember that. People get upset, that is basketball.”

“What I will miss most of all is the relationships Bev and I have made with our former players through basketball,” he said. “It has been like a family. They come back and to see them become successful is something to behold. They are in important positions and have done really well. It makes you proud of that and to think you had a little role or input into their careers.”
“My love of the game has never diminished over the years,” Anderson said. “I have realized that I could probably coach all my life. I could probably die doing it.”

“I enjoy coming in here and hearing the ball bounce and the smells, the laughter and the upsets, the sadness and the success. I just enjoy those things,” he said.

“There are parts of it I won’t miss, but there are so many good things that out-number the bad. Like the friendships over the past years that I have made,” Anderson said.

Anderson said he doesn’t want to leave the cupboard empty for the next coach. “We have a nice team coming back the next couple of years and I have always said I want to leave somebody with the situation where they can be successful.”

“I think we what we have coming back the next two years, somebody stepping in can be very successful,” Anderson said.

“Bev and I have worked hard on building a good program and giving the kids something nice. I think our locker room is as nice as anyone in the state. We give the kids a lot, but they work hard and represent the program well.”

“The thing I am the proudest of is the fact that I have never had to apologize for our team when they are on the road. We have had a lot of people compliment us on their attitude and sportsmanship,” he said. “I’ve always been proud of being from Whitley County.”

Anderson has seen many changes over the years, but the ones that stick out are

“When I first came in when you had players that were a little unhappy and not working hard or you bench them for it, the parents didn’t support that behavior. They told them to get to work or sit on the bench and watch,” Anderson said. “Over the years it has deteriorated to a point where the work-ethic is not as good as it once was or we don’t hold the kids accountable for what they do.”

“On the positive side of that the athleticism of the girls has increased to the point that it’s unbelievable as to how well they can play the game right now,” Anderson said. “At one time a girl 5’7” was considered an inside player and now the point guards are 6’0” and the forwards and post players at 6’5” or taller. It’s amazing how well the big girls have come.”

“It’s been a labor of love. It has been something that I have done all my life,” Anderson said. “I have played it or coached it or been involved in some way all my life.”

Anderson’s round ball career started at Whitley County as a player. He went on to Cumberland College where he played for the Indians.

After being a grad-assistant for the women’s team, he moved over to Whitley County where he coached the 8^th grade boys.

“Bev and I have been involved in someway or other 30+ years,” he said. “We have drug our children through the bleachers, but it has been a way of life and all of our kids have played and grown up with it.”

“It has been something that we have done and something that we have enjoyed. It is something I’ve enjoyed all my life. I will miss it, but there is a time when you have to go,” Anderson said. “I don’t have a regret.”