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NORTH MANCHESTER - With over 90 elementary and middle school-aged kids sitting in a circle around him and hanging on his every word, the passion and drive of Manchester’s new boys basketball coach Pat Lepper is incredibly apparent. To match the community that he’s joining, it needs to be, and he knows it.
“The stars kind of aligned perfectly for this to happen. I’ve wanted to get back to being a head coach and running my own program for some time now,” Lepper said. “The quality of character that the Manchester community has made me want to go after this job and I’m blessed for the opportunity I have now.”
Hosting his first youth basketball camp at the high school since taking the job in May, it’s quite the change of pace when compared to his previous gig. Lepper had previously been an assistant coach for Purdue Fort Wayne for the previous four seasons. He spent his college career playing for the Mastodons as well, graduating in 2008. In between, he spent time as the head coach for Division II Lincoln College in Illinois.
So how does it feel going from coaching 12-15 college kids to filling a gym with almost 100 youngsters?
“There’s definitely a lot more chaos going on, but I’ve got three young boys so I’m already in the chaos every day,” Lepper said with a laugh. “I think it’s going to be really cool to get back into the roots of things, coaching kids from a young age and developing their skill sets and fundamentals. It’s a different challenge, but one I’m looking forward to.”
It wasn’t just that the new head of Squire hoops was looking for a new challenge, but also the fact that he, like many others in the profession, began getting tired of the new world of college athletics. Citing the biggest culprits, NIL and the transfer portal, Lepper explained that the college level was no longer for him.
“The college game is getting a lot away from being based in relationships like it was in the past. A player used to stay for four years, you’d develop him, build a relationship with him, and that part of the sport is kind of getting phased out,” he said. “I’m a big relationship coach. I feel like I can make a much bigger impact at the high school level when I look at that climate of basketball right now.”
The relationships that Lepper has built over the course of his career were on full display at the youth basketball camp this week, as a plethora of his former players showed up to take part in drills, instruct the campers with tutorials (which included wowing them with dunks) and even referee some games.
“I love Lepp. He’s a great guy and people person,” Bobby Planutis, who played for Lepper at PFW before playing professionally overseas said, “He’s been a college coach for over 20 years, so his basketball knowledge is off the charts. I think he’s going to really excel here and Manchester is lucky to have him.”
It’s an interesting situation for Lepper as he enters his first school year in North Manchester, as he inherits a team that is coming off its first ever state championship in basketball. However, a large majority of the players that were key contributors to that run graduated this past spring. Despite this, the team will return players with experience on a championship roster and a desire to pick up where they left off last season.
“We know that Gavin Betten isn’t walking through that door, but that gives this next group of guys the chance to fill that role and come into their own,” Lepper said. “We played a really tough schedule this summer and we took a lot of licks. We had to learn a whole new style of play and it came with its challenges. But what impressed me the most is how competitive these guys are. You can’t really teach that. They want to win, and they want to do so badly.
“We may not have a superstar, we may not have a guy that scores 20 points a game, but that’s okay,” he continued. “If we can play together as a unit, if there’s no hidden agenda, if we’re all willing to work together, great things can be accomplished. That’s the beauty of basketball.”
Make no mistake, Lepper wants to win as badly as his players do. According to him, maybe even more so. But he wants his impact at Manchester to stretch far beyond his win-loss record. Numerous times throughout Tuesday’s interview, Lepper could not hold back his excitement to be joining his new community.
“Everybody I know has been pulling their weight, which you need to do in a smaller community because of the lack of resources. Stuff like that helps move the needle quickly. The parents have been great. The local business owners have been great,” Lepper said. “We want to pack our gym every game. We want this to be an event, not a game. We want local businesses to thrive because of our basketball program. That takes some work, but we’re ready to make it happen.”
On August 7, Lepper and Manchester basketball will be hosting a golf fundraiser. According to him, 14 teams have signed up and they are capping the total number of teams at 19.
“It’ll be a great opportunity to meet me, to come see some of the great alumni that have put on the uniform in the past,” Lepper said. “We’re hoping [former Manchester coach] Pete Smith is going to be there, it should be a great event.”
When asked if he had anything else left to add, Lepper kept it simple.
“We’re going to put great basketball on the court, win or lose. Our guys are going to give 110% and they are going to represent their town with pride.”
