Jenks, Tulsa Central choose girls basketball coaches
BY KELLY HINES World Sports Writer
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
5/01/12 at 4:53 AM
Mandy Nightingale has accepted an offer to become head girls basketball coach at Jenks, athletic director Tony Dillingham said Monday.
"This has kind of always been my dream job," Nightingale said. "I'm really excited and looking forward to it."
Nightingale, a former all-state player at Sapulpa, spent the past two years at Coweta and formerly was Jenks' ninth-grade coach for two seasons.
"It was just a really good fit for us," Dillingham said. "We're excited to have her on board."
Jenks' board will vote on whether to approve the hire at its May 7 meeting.
Nightingale also will return as a counselor, a position she held for three years.
As a senior, Nightingale averaged 15.8 points and 5.4 assists while leading the Chieftains to the Class 6A championship and was named the 1998 Tulsa World All-Metro co-Player of the Year. She went on to play at Colorado, where she was Sports Woman of the Year in 2002.
"She has a really good knowledge base of the game," Dillingham said. "I think she'll have a wonderful rapport with her athletes."
Rhonda Fields retired in March after compiling an 81-45 record in five seasons at Jenks and leading the Trojans to their first state tournament since 2007.
"My goals and expectations are definitely going to be high," Nightingale said. "Getting back to the state playoffs and making runs at the state championships, that's kind of the goals and expectations I'll have for them."
Central names coach: Also on Monday, Damon Guthery was named Central's girls basketball coach after serving as interim coach last season.
"He has performed well this past season and we look forward to marked improvement in the future under his leadership," said Gil Cloud, Tulsa Public Schools interim athletic director.
Guthery is a former assistant athletic director and assistant women's basketball coach at Langston University. He also was a men's basketball assistant at Western Wisconsin Technical College in LaCrosse, Wis.
He will look to turn around a struggling program that hasn't seen more than one victory in each of the past three years and hasn't had a winning season since 2004.
Original Print Headline: Jenks, Central choose coaches
Kelly Hines 918-581-8452
kelly.hines@tulsaworld.com
