The game has changed in 30 years,
but not the coach
By Zachary Dzurick
Sports
Published March 22, 2006

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Thirty years can be a long time, but it can also be gone in a blink of an eye. It has been 30 years since the OHSAA finally allowed girls to have their own state tournament in basketball.

Lutheran West played in the first ever Class A title game. Karen Wittrock, the only girls coach in school history has nothing but good memories of that game.

“I still think we won it,” she said with a laugh. “It was so weird when Carla (Shimek) put that shot in from half court, it was the greatest thing that had ever happened. We were cheering and oh wait we lost. It is a fond memory.”

The Longhorns came up short by two points, but it was a team that wasn’t even supposed to get that far.

“Since it was the first ever tournament we didn’t even know what we were doing,” Wittrock said. “It was a great thing they were doing because the boys had done it for years. We didn’t think we even had a chance to get down there. We would go to scout the teams outside of our district and they looked so good and seemed to have so much talent. My girls were young. We were rebuilding. We had just lost Cathy Rothacker to graduation and she had scored 18 points a game. Joan (Heidmann) was back, but she really toughened up from her sophomore year to her junior year and especially at the end of that season. She always had a perfect shot form that it didn’t take much for her to become a good shooter.”

If OHSAA had started the tournament a few years early, many observers believe there could have been some state championship banner hanging in the school’s rafters. That 1975-76 team was the one of only three Lutheran West team not win their conference in a 16 year period.

“Cathy Rothaker makes me think about all the time,“ Wittrock said. “She says ‘Why didn’t they do it a few years early.’ We had thought why they weren’t letting us do the same things as the boys. They only let us play 12 games, once the OHSAA took over in, I think 1972. They took over and told the girls what they were allowed and not allowed to do. So for three or four years, we had to cut back and only play 12 games.”

In fact just getting gym time was a chore.

“We practiced two days a week in a gym outside of school, then two days a week we practiced in the hallway and then the other day if we could on Fridays, if the boys were playing, we would try to use our own gym,” Wittrock said. “Girls basketball has come a long way. It is like night and day. We used to play at 4:30 p.m. or on the weekends. We would have to play at recreation centers or where ever we could. You go down there now to state and the skill level is just awesome. I mean we used to press and fast break back then, but you did them a lot in the strategy of the game. Now it is just common place. Everybody just does it. The game is so much faster and quicker.”

Recently the school honored several of its sports heroes with a Red and White Night dinner. The 1976 girls basketball team was one of the teams honored. Many of the members of the team attended the dinner.

“It was a blast. We had a great time laughing and reminiscing,” Wittrock said. “I know a lot of those kids personally now as friends. I go to church with a lot of them. It was great to see them all and say hello.”

Despite being the all-time winningest girls basketball coach in the state of Ohio (her 38-year record is 639-178), Wittrock has always judged herself on what she taught her players outside of the game. Her current program features three daughters and a niece from her state team. Another player’s daughter is on the varsity volleyball team. To see how her former players have raised such impressive children is the greatest reward for Wittrock.

“I look at their children and I am in awe,” Wittrock said. “To think they went to Lutheran West and to have something to rub off on them whether it be basketball, or another sport or area or something in the classroom or a teacher. You see them grow into adults and it is great to see them as equals.”

Varsity players Molly and Katy Thomay are the twin daughters of Joan (Heidmann) Thomay. Freshman team member Michelle Kurz is the daughter of (Cathy Sherman) Kurz. Varsity’s Aimee Carpenter is the niece of Chris (Carpenter) Gator. The girls bring constant reminders of their mothers to Wittrock

“They look like them, but they have a lot of the little things like maybe how they turn their head. They remind you of their mothers,” she said. “It doesn’t seem like 30 years. I think back and it gosh I don’t feel that old. I feel good and energetic. The parents tell me I have lightened up and gotten easier, but I don’t know.”

Thomay is thrilled her daughters are being coached by her role model and mentor.

“It can't be 30 years. Time goes so fast,” she said. “When my daughters were born, I thought about how great it would be if they could play for a coach like her and now they are playing for her. My daughters can't believe she is still there. But it is a great thing.”

While Thomay agrees the game as changed, she believes Wittrock has not changed who she is as coach and mentor.

“ In my eyes, she still seems young,” Thomay said. “She was a great role model for me. I remember very fondly. She is a wonderful person who is always available and never in a hurry.”

Three years ago, Wittrock was able to return to the state tournament as a coach, but not in basketball, instead it was boys golf. The mainstays of that team as sophomores were her senior captains this year, Sam Morrison and Scott Blackburn.

“I thought those two boys were special not just as golfers but as young men,” Wittrock said. “They have grown so much. I taught both of their sets of parents, all four of them. That whole experience with that golf team for all four years. To see them grow and become leaders. We talk about what we want kids to become here at Lutheran West and these boys came from kid you taught and touched at Lutheran West was special to me. People talk about wins, but wins don’t mean much in golf. You have to be good at the right moment and time. It is about the kids and what they can do. I have been down there twice once with the girls and once with boys. And they only way I got to go was for them to take me.”

This year, the golf team won conference and just missed a return trip to states. Morrison did qualify as a individual. During the season, Wittrock had several chemo treatments as she battled ovarian cancer.

Wittrock’s faith combined her father, Gerry’s example helped through the experience.

“Cancer was far more a blessing than a detriment,” she said. “People sent messages of hope was blessing. People praying for me from all over the country. Blessings of me to be able to see better what my purpose is here. At the time, it was hard. But now I can only see it as a blessing. I learned a lot from my dad growing up. he had a really good perspective on life. It is how I got through the cancer. He had a stroke at 55 and then lived with a constant pain for 20 years. He is a huge influence on me.”

Wittrock has now been a part of Lutheran West 39 years. It is her home.

“It is like a family and the longer you are here, the more family it becomes,“ she said. “There is something special about this school and there is a spirit here. You know Jesus is here. It is like going to church and being rejuvenated. The kids are awesome too.”

This weekend, she was recognized at the state tournament for upcoming induction as part of the inaugural class of the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame. The list is a Who’s Who of basketball and includes Oscar Robertson, Jerry Luca, Wayne Embery, John Havlicek, Nate Thurmond, Fred Tayloe and Bobby Knight. Wittrock is the only female coach on the list and one of just three high school coaches.

Hall of Fame Executive Board member and legendary Euclid High coach Doc Daugherty said Wittrock deserves to be mentioned with all of those greats.

“She is the pinnacle of high school girls basketball. Her number of victories speaks for it self. She is also a class person and she has always been that way. I coached for a long time as well and coaches like Karen and I realized a long time ago that it is not about winning games. It is about mentoring. If you do that the wins take care of themselves.”

Lutheran West athletic director Joel Gesch said Wittrock has impacted countless kids.

“There is probably no one more deserving in high school sports than Karen. She was an innovator here. She just didn’t start the girls basketball program, she started every girl’s sport we have. The thing that is impressive about Karen is that not only she has been successful with 600 some wins, but the impact she has had on her girls’ lives is unchanging. She has never wavered in her faith and her approach to teaching what is really more important than basketball. One of the real blessings for Karen is to coach her player’s daughters and the tradition continues. It is the second generation of athletes who are being impacted by Karen in a positive way.

Gesch said her two teams this year were prime examples of Wittrock’s dedication.

“She had a young team in basketball and won the conference,” he said . “She stood up to all the health challenges she faced and she had a really successful golf season as well. I know those young men on that golf team were really impressed with Karen’s faith and character. When she was feeling really lousy and going through some personal struggles, her faith was really evident then.”

Her battle with cancer just confirmed what peers, parents and students have known for almost 40 years, Karen Wittrock is a winner regardless of the score.