Woman Coaches Boys Basketball Team To State Title

Tennessee has been holding a state high school boys basketball championship since 1921, and for the tournament’s entire history, a woman never served as head coach of a winning team. Until yesterday.

Dawn Barger, coach of the Lake County High School Falcons became the first woman in the history of the Tennessee state tournament to lead a team of boys to victory. Her Falcons, who entered the game with a 26-10 record, came from behind in the fourth quarter to defeat the heavily favored Middleton by a score of 83-62.

Reports The Tennessean,

“Just watching that team play, it was obvious she was in total control of them and she did a fantastic job of coaching them,” said Bernard Childress, executive director of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association. “You could tell those kids really cared about her. It seemed like they would run through a wall for her.”

This was Barger’s first year, and Lake County High School’s first ever boys state basketball title. I can’t wait to see the 10-years-from-now inspirational Disney rendition of this story, with Coach Barger played by that girl from Kick Ass as an adult and the Falcons played by the future offspring of Hanson and The Jonas Brothers.