2 women have rare job of coaching both girls, boys HS teams
LAS VEGAS — The Centennial High School girls’ basketball team had just left the floor after yet another victory and coach Karen Weitz didn’t have time to waste.
She quickly addressed the girls in the locker room before hurriedly returning to the court, ready to coach the boys.
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Weitz is a rarity — a high school coach overseeing both the boys and girls varsity teams. A woman handling those responsibilities is even rarer.
“I’m not saying I’m anything special, but it’s a lot,” Weitz said. “It’s a lot to manage.”
Weitz has company in her unusual club: Ashley Fouch, who coaches the boys and girls teams at Daleville High in Indiana.
The National Federation of State High School Associations doesn’t keep statistics, media relations manager Nate Perry said, but he believes someone coaching both the boys and girls basketball teams at the same time is atypical.
“It’s not any different for me if I’m coaching girls or if I’m coaching boys,” said Fouch, who is in her second season coaching the boys team and who took on the girls team three weeks before the season. “I’m a basketball coach and I understand that it’s a big deal and barriers are being broken with it.
“But at the end of the day, I’m just coaching basketball. So I think that’s my baseline and just it kind of releases my pressure of everything when I think about it deeply.”
Weitz was already a standout in Nevada. Centennial, which plays in the state’s highest classification, has won a state-record seven consecutive championships. Its 13 overall titles, all under Weitz, are second in state history.
She is the only Nevada girls coach to win more than 700 career games; no one else has more than 600. Her record and retiring from teaching gave Weitz, 54, more time to do both jobs.
And she has an especially challenging job with the boys program, which last season went 9-14. This season’s team won nine games by Jan. 5. The team was 12-7 through last weekend.
“I was excited for her to bring in a whole new life for us,” senior point guard Elijah Burney said. “She’s a winning coach. She instills that in us every day in our practices.”
Weitz sees similarities to when she took over the girls team. It didn’t have a winning culture, either, and she said it took about three years to build it into the powerhouse it is today.
