Letter to the editor: Highlands coaches save basketball season
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I would like to recognize Highlands boys basketball coaches Mike Foster and Steve Bielak for stepping up to save the team’s season. At the beginning of the year, they were the middle school coaches, but after players were dismissed from the team and the previous head coach and assistant resigned after Thanksgiving, their season was in jeopardy.
With no candidates and a daunting clearance process, the solution was to ask these two coaches to coach four teams, seventh, eighth, junior varsity and varsity. Both coaches are middle school teachers, so this amounted to 15-hour work days for three months. To their credit, they accepted so all teams could complete their seasons.
Teaching classes, having four practices a day and coaching over 50 games would have been enough, but that was not their plan. They told the remaining varsity players they were committed to not just coaching but extending their 10-year streak of making the playoffs. Players bought in when they realized the sacrifices the coaches were making, and their goal was realized as they made the playoffs this year.
Teams don’t win; programs do. Foster and Bielak’s dedication to the program is to be commended.
Mike Choma
Buffalo Township