Triad junior Cati LeVan drives to the basket during a 2018-19 season game. The Lady Cardinals will have a new head coach next winter as assistant coach Erica Wilkins Trainer was named in charge of the program.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Sam Dillon)
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High school basketball teams in Ohio have been using the summer months to help prepare for the 2019-20 campaign next winter.
Up until Thursday evening, the Triad High School girls hoopsters were doing so without an official head coach.
The position became vacant a few months ago when Jeff Merklin stepped down after three years at the helm.
Merklin resigned for personal reasons, according to superintendent Vickie Hoffman.
School officials did not conduct a wide search for his successor, since they already had someone in mind.
During Thursday evening’s meeting of the district’s board of education, assistant coach Erica Wilkins Trainer was named the new head coach.
“We never posted the position externally,” Hoffman told the Journal-Tribune. “Erica has done the assistant job for many years and we knew she wanted to move up once the position became available.
“I believe she was the only interview and we didn’t have to post the job externally.”
Although she was not the official head coach, Trainer conducted team activities during the spring and early summer under her contract as the assistant coach.
The 2004 Triad High School graduate played hoops for the Lady Cardinals before continuing her education at Otterbein University.
She graduated from Otterbein in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
Trainer obtained her post-bachelor’s teaching license in 2013 from Urbana University and teaches Language Arts at Triad.
Trainer, who is also a Triad assistant softball coach, has been affiliated with the Lady Cardinals’ basketball program for a number of years.
She served as the eighth-grade coach from 2009-2016 before moving up as the junior varsity coach/varsity assistant.
Trainer has held those positions for the past three years.
She feels she’s ready to be in charge of the program.
“I feel I have a great rapport with the girls,” said Trainer. “I have been with this senior class (2020) since they were in seventh grade.
“I think I relate to the girls well and give them a sense of familiarity,” she said. “I also pride myself on being very organized, so the players and parents can always know that everything will be in order and they will be well informed.
“I am a very direct person and so I feel I am able to articulate what I need from my players and they are very aware of the expectations up front,” said the new coach. “Working with great coaches over the years (basketball coaches Jason Malone and Merklin and Shari Dixon in softball) has really helped mold me into the coach I am today and those experiences and life lessons will carry over.”
Trainer addressed one of the main difficulties the program has experienced the past few years … roster depth.
“Honestly, we are going through a stretch in the high school and junior high where the classes are boy-dominated,” she said. “There are just not that many girls.
“When you present them with all their options of what they could participate in, they are getting spread pretty thin,” said Trainer. “We have seen a drop in our softball program as well. We weren’t able to field a JV team this year and last year we were spread so thin with limited girls that we only played four JV games (when the varsity wasn’t playing).
“We are seeing it starting to affect other girls sports as well,” she said. “Basketball has just really taken the brunt of it the last few years.”
Trainer hopes she can eventually reverse the current trend.
“By putting on the Youth Clinic each year, we can reach more and more young girls in the elementary grades and get them interested in basketball,” she said. “I try to work closely with our Triad Junior Basketball Program to promote the sport and try to keep kids interested.
“We are seeing a decline in girls participating all the way through the program at all grade levels. I know we need to start from the bottom.
“I hope to foster a very open and family-like atmosphere at the high school level so that girls feel welcome and want to play the game.
“This summer I have been trying to reach out to student-athletes who maybe have played basketball in the past and gave it up,” said Trainer. “I want to see if I can spark their interest again.
“My current returners have also been doing a good job of talking to their friends and encouraging them to try it out and at least come to an open gym/lifting session to see if they enjoy it.
“While basketball is challenging, I hope to reach some girls who may be on the fence about playing and let them know that even though it requires hard work, it can be fun as well,” she said. “We really need to get our numbers back up.”
This year’s youth clinic will be held tonight from 6-7:30 p.m. and from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday.