ASHLAND — Her dream of winning a second national championship was stolen away, so Renee Stimpert closed one chapter and quickly started the next one.
The new girls varsity basketball coach at Ashland High School is no stranger to adapting on the fly.
Stimpert was introduced as Ashland’s girls coach late last week, only weeks after finishing her undergraduate requirements at Ashland University and two months removed from her final game with the Eagles.
The 2016 Crestview High School product and her AU teammates were in Springfield, Missouri preparing for the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Tournament when word came that the season had been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Eagles were 31-0 and ranked second in the nation behind Midwest regional host Drury.
“It was pretty disappointing at first. We drove all the way to Missouri before finding out the season was ending because of the coronavirus,” Stimpert said Monday afternoon. “It made you realize what’s going on in the world around us is so much bigger than basketball.”
The Eagles were in search of their third national title overall and second in the past four years when the season came to an unceremonious end in early-March. Stimpert was leading the nation in assists when play was halted, averaging 7.4 a game to go along with 11.2 points a night.
In her four seasons at AU, Stimpert handed out a program-record 839 assists and scored 1,225 career points. She was a major contributor off the bench in 2017, when AU went 37-0 and won its second national title, and moved into the starting lineup the following year, when Ashland went 36-1 and was national runners-up.
The Eagles were 133-4 during Stimpert’s career with four Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament championships. AU qualified for the NCAA regional tournament all four years.
“At Ashland University we really didn’t know how to lose,” Stimpert said. “We had very high expectations for ourselves.”
Before arriving at AU in the fall of 2016, Stimpert was one of the most decorated high school players in north central Ohio history at Crestview. She scored a Richland County-record 2,305 career points and led the Cougars to the Division III Associated Press poll championship and a 24-1 record as a senior.
The transition from scorer at Crestview to facilitator at AU was a smooth one.
“Coming from Crestview, I was the main player,” Stimpert said during her sophomore season at AU. “I came into an awesome program with two All-Americans and took on a different role. My job is to get my teammates involved.”
Stimpert inherits an AHS program that won just one game last season. The Arrows lost to Holland Springfield 53-43 in the opening round of the sectional tournament in mid-February.
“Ashland won one game last year, but you’ve got to start somewhere,” said Stimpert, who will teach sixth-grade social studies in the district. “I see a program that needs rebuilt from the bottom up and I’m ready for a challenge.”
Her lack of coaching experience didn’t scare off Ashland officials.
“What sold us on hiring Renee is her passion and confidence,” Ashland athletic director Jason Goings said. “We are on the same page with where we want the program headed and she will instill the same culture of excellence that made her the all time assist leader at Ashland University, not to mention a 1,000 point scorer.
“For Renee it is about more than basketball. Leading our young women will be about reaching and teaching the entire person, which is at the core of educational-based athletics at Ashland High School. She may not have the coaching résumé of some others but for us it’s not always about that. We want the best coach for us and right now Renee is that coach.”
Stimpert can’t wait to get started. Current social distancing mandates have limited what she can do.
“It’s going to be a struggle my first year, but it’s a good struggle,” Stimpert said. “It’s a big challenge right away but I’m looking forward to it.”
Stimpert may be the youngest head coach in the state next winter.
“I feel like I know the game well enough and I have awesome resources around me,” Stimpert said. “I have people willing to help me along the way and I’m all ears, especially being a first-year head coach.”
