Lake Havasu High School coaches Ted Darnell and Wade Novy have stepped up to coach the girls basketball team after the sudden midseason departure of former coach Charles Welde.
“Mr. Novy and Mr. Darnell have stepped up in a big way and taken over the program,” Lake Havasu High School athletic director Dustin Zampogna said. “We’re just grateful we had some people willing to do that.”
Welde took over the head coaching position last year after Karen Rockell resigned. Rockell accumulated an 8-36 overall record over three years at the helm.
Under Welde, the squad finished last season with a 2-20 overall record, and were 0-9 in their section – the 5A Desert West.
The varsity team is currently 0-9 midway through the season with 11 games left to play.
“These teams are just way better than us,” Darnell said. “It’s not even a matter of us playing really, really bad, the teams just outmatch us bigtime.”
Darnell likes to tell the girls to focus on controlling their effort and attitude, because they can’t control much else in a basketball game.
“We just get to a point in the game where we tell them, ‘Hey that was a good little series,’” Darnell said. “Just harp on the positive things.”
Darnell previously coached the Knights boys basketball team from 2014 to 2021, and took a hiatus from coaching until the girls basketball team needed a coach a couple weeks ago.
Darnell and Novy decided to split the program into just two teams (junior varsity and varsity) comprised of 10 players, to ensure players aren’t playing more than four quarters (the Arizona Interscholastic Associations allows six quarters in a night) and getting too gassed.
Darnell and Novy also aim to “spoil” the girls with a nice end-of-season banquet and tons of Knights gear.
School officials didn’t provide a reason for the departure.
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