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Editor's note – this is the final story in a four-part series chronicling the coaching legacy in boys basketball at Warsaw Community High School.
Al Rhodes left the Warsaw boys basketball program after the 2001-02 season.
“Due to family responsibilities and Coach (Doug) Ogle being ready, I decided it was best at that time for him to take over,” Rhodes said.
Rhodes thought he would never coach again. He changed his mind when he had an opportunity for another challenge at Logansport, and became the Berries’ head coach before the 2003-04 season.
Ogle was tasked with the formidable challenge of following in Rhodes’ footsteps.
“I wasn’t as ready as I thought I was, but I was probably as ready as you could be,” Ogle said.
Ogle didn’t try to fix what was already working. The only major difference was that Ogle primarily used one defense, as opposed to the multiple sets run by Rhodes. Ogle maintained many facets of Rhodes’ program, even keeping the names of the plays – like “Push Down” and “Carolina” – the same.
“Al was just very good offensively at getting the ball inside, and I like to think that’s one of the things that we are trying to do all the time,” Ogle said.
Ogle’s similar approach led to success. The Tigers won another sectional in 2006.
All the while, Wolfe watched and listened, and learned how to relate to players on an individual level.
“Doug Ogle had tremendous relationships with players,” Wolfe said. “(He spent) countless hours playing one-on-one, writing them cards, and having one-on-one meetings with players. I felt he had a great pulse not only on their basketball ability, but also (on) them as people.”
Wolfe left Warsaw in 2007, and took his first head coaching job at NorthWood in 2008. Like Pete Smith, Shaun Busick, and John Wysong before him, he implemented Warsaw values into his own program.
Due to the makeup of his team, Wolfe’s Panthers are more perimeter-oriented than the post-focused Tigers. Yet, the philosophy remains the same.
“Tiger basketball, in both Coach Rhodes and Coach Ogle, and the rest of the coaches, instills talent-plus-skill-plus-attitude creates a basketball player, or anything in life,” Wolfe said. “We have tried to instill that at NorthWood High School in Panther basketball.”
Wolfe was joined by an old colleague when, in 2011, John Wysong joined his staff.
Wysong was only there a year, but their time together included many strategies drawn from their tenures in Warsaw.
“Coach Wysong is a wealth of basketball knowledge, and there were numerous times during which we were able to draw from Coach Rhodes, Coach Ogle, Coach Wysong himself, even Coach (Jim) Miller,” Wolfe said. “And Coach (Basil) Mawbey, all of those coaches would tie into coach Wysong’s and my conversation.”
Evergreen Tree
And so the coach’s tree continues to thrive. Wolfe has won five sectionals in the last seven years at NorthWood.
Wysong is in his first year as a college assistant. He’s back at his alma mater of Tri-State University, now called Trine University.
Pete Smith won state titles with Guerin Catholic in 2012 and 2015. He retired this year after racking up nearly 400 wins in his 27 years as a head coach.
Shaun Busick is at Zionsville, and has six sectionals, a regional, and a semistate crown to his name.
Ogle has enjoyed immense success at Warsaw with a record of 250-125. He has won six sectionals and two regionals, and made a trip to the state championship game in 2010.
Much of Warsaw basketball’s DNA still includes Rhodes’ philosophies. Players still shout the same plays. They still keep their haircuts tidy. They still take pride in wearing the orange and black.
“Al’s handprint is all over (the program),” Ogle said. “How could it not be?”
And, Warsaw’s great feeder program still is intact.
“Warsaw’s probably still the best basketball program in the state of Indiana,” Rhodes said. “They don’t always have the best players, but in terms of a total program from Grade 4 up, I would say Warsaw’s the best.”
Wolfe and Ogle still see each other each year in Northern Lakes Conference matchups. Wolfe said he enjoys the challenge, as he has when he’s competed against one of Rhodes’ or Wysong’s teams.
Every time we play they make us better, because they expose things that we need to improve on,” Wolfe said.
Rhodes went full circle; he’s now coaching at Penn after his time at Logansport and a stop at Fort Wayne Northrop.
Ogle and Rhodes remain friends. They sometimes help each other prepare for opponents, and made a gentleman’s agreement to face each other in this year’s regional championship game.
Not that the two buddies are excited about the prospect of trying to defeat each other.
“It would be very interesting to people, mentor vs. the pupil,” Ogle said. “It wouldn’t be something that either one of us would enjoy.”
Rhodes has 15 sectional titles, seven regional crowns, four pieces of semistate hardware and one state championship to his name.
“A head coach is only as good as his assistants,” Rhodes said. “I’ve been lucky everywhere to have truly great assistant coaches.”
Rhodes has had multiple assistants from Logansport, Northrop and Penn go on to take the mantle elsewhere. That includes Fishers coach Matt Moore and Valparaiso coach Barak Coolman.
His apprentices have become mentors to their own assistants. Smith had 16 coaches go on to lead their own programs, while Busick has had five and Ogle has had one.
Since his time at Warsaw, Wysong has had one assistant become a head coach.
At the time of publication, Rhodes’ record of 599-285 is fourth-best amongst active Indiana high school basketball coaches, and 14th all-time.
He needs nine more wins to pass Jim Miller on the all-time list.
In Rhodes’ eyes, though, Miller will always be his mentor. Each year, he takes his coaching staff to Miller’s home in New Albany, where Miller holds a coaching clinic in his living room.
“I don’t think I was ever a coach,” Miller said. “I wanted to be a teacher. A teacher of basketball. And that’s the way I approached it.”
It’s poetic, how a tragedy brought Miller to the Hoosier State.
How his love for and knowledge of basketball was passed on to a bespectacled teenager.
How that teenager became a man, and took those lessons to influence a host of willing students.
How those students became masters, and passed on what they learned like a carefully-wrapped gift.
How new coaches and players eagerly open that gift, ensuring that Miller’s and Rhodes’ shouts of instruction will echo across Indiana for a very long time.
