{"id":35056,"date":"2015-02-18T17:40:58","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T22:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=35056"},"modified":"2015-02-18T17:40:58","modified_gmt":"2015-02-18T22:40:58","slug":"coach-dawn-mcnew-faca-6a-coach-of-the-year-what-a-success-story-in-boys-hoops-at-lehigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2015\/02\/coach-dawn-mcnew-faca-6a-coach-of-the-year-what-a-success-story-in-boys-hoops-at-lehigh\/","title":{"rendered":"Coach Dawn McNew FACA 6A Coach of The Year – What A Success Story In Boys Hoops at Lehigh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Florida Association of Basketball Coaches<\/a> and the\u00a0Lehigh Acres Gazette<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
Coach Dawn McNew FACA 6A Coach of The Year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s been four years since Dawn McNew took over the Lehigh Senior High boys\u2019 basketball team.<\/p>\n

And much has happened since then, in no small part to McNew.<\/p>\n

The Lightning, who last won a District 6A-12 title in 2004, are currently 27-1, and heading to the regional finals in Tampa.<\/p>\n

But McNew still believes in the Lightning, and the Lightning still believe in McNew.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we\u2019ll do everything to carry this season as long as we can,\u201d McNew said. \u201cShort term, we win districts. Long term, we want to win our last game together. We\u2019ll do everything in our power to see if we can get those two things accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Optimism at Lehigh is thriving in no small order to McNew, who brings a half-glass full kind of mentality everywhere she goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest thing is that we have come in as a staff and earned the kids\u2019 respect,\u201d McNew said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I think you need to do first and foremost. If you want the kids to come in and work hard, you have to come in and work hard and do that yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making an impact<\/strong><\/p>\n

McNew has made quite an impression in her four years at Lehigh, and not just because she\u2019s a woman. It\u2019s never been about that.<\/p>\n

It started with how she pieced the team together.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Coach) treats everyone equally, even from varsity to freshmen,\u201d senior Andre Thomas-Cobb said. \u201c(Coach) doesn\u2019t label it as varsity or freshmen. Everyone gets close.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that first year, after McNew kicked seven players off the team, it wasn\u2019t a quick-fix. The Lightning suffered, going 8-16, which was the program\u2019s fourth losing season in five years.<\/p>\n

It would be enough for any program, especially one at Lehigh, which won three consecutive district championships from 2002-04 and won 19-games twice in 2007 and 2009, to question where the team was headed.<\/p>\n

But McNew, who won a state championship with the Beech Grove High girls basketball team in Indiana in 2003, and who traveled the world in 1991 playing with the USA National softball team, wasn\u2019t deterred.<\/p>\n

McNew just kept believing in Lehigh, and Lehigh, in return, began to trust her.<\/p>\n

Following summer workouts in the weight room and games on weekends and fall conditioning tests on the track, the Lightning responded with 16 wins in her second year. It improved to 22 wins and a berth in the district championship game and advancement into the regional final.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been improvement on defense and an improvement on offense,\u201d said senior Alex Debham. \u201cAnd (coach) is really good at letting us know what our individual games are like and contributing to the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

McNew is like any other coach. She isn\u2019t immune to the commonalities of any season, such as when a player gets frustrated by playing time or when a veteran gets angry after being singled out at practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do get frustrated, we get frustrated at ourselves because we know we can do better than what we\u2019re doing on the court,\u201d sophomore Jarvis Martin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know they\u2019ll get frustrated at me,\u201d McNew said. \u201cWe had a practice like that last week, and I told them, \u2018Look, you\u2019re very unhappy with me now and you\u2019re not liking me right now and that\u2019s fine. I\u2019m not here to be your friend. I\u2019m your coach and one who will do anything in the world for you, but I\u2019m not your friend right now.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond basketball<\/strong><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s more than just the practices and the games that show it. McNew is here for the Lightning when they don\u2019t have the answers elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike off the court, if one of us don\u2019t have money to eat, or we need a ride,\u201d senior point guard Abed Abu-Khadier said, \u201c(Coach) is there. (Coach) is that person we can go to.\u201d<\/p>\n

In four years with Lehigh, McNew has bought shoes for athletes who couldn\u2019t afford them. She\u2019s taken players to the movies and paid for pizzas at Il Primo\u2019s, a place some players say is their third home.<\/p>\n

In an area where single-parent homes are not uncommon and financial means are not always guaranteed, McNew has been more than just coach. She\u2019s been a parent. She\u2019s been a mentor. She\u2019s been a friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of families in our community don\u2019t have a lot, not that I do, but I\u2019ve always been one that if a kid is in need, we help them out,\u201d McNew said. \u201cIf they bust their tails for us, we\u2019ll do the same for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, that emotional support has been seen the other way around, too. When McNew\u2019s husband Dean, who sat the bench alongside her for many years and provided hand-in-hand support, died in 2012, the team was there for her, too. Her players call her coach, or coach McNew, but they never call her Dawn and they never refer to her as a \u2018woman.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all a family,\u201d freshman Berrick Jean Louis said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been with each other since the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

McNew may be the only woman in Southwest Florida coaching high level boys\u2019 hoops, but she feels she\u2019s no different than anyone else.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Lehigh Senior #22
Abed Abu-Khadier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She\u2019s brought calm into the locker room, which can be seen during the prayer Jose Altimeaux leads before each game. She\u2019s earned the trust of her players, built not only on the court with the plays she draws up, but for the things she does off the court, too.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s earned the respect of her team and Lee County for her basketball mind.<\/p>\n

And not because she\u2019s a woman. It\u2019s because she\u2019s a coach, like anyone else.<\/p>\n

Now McNew has been selected as the Florida Athletic Coaches Association 6A Coach of the Year.<\/p>\n

FACA Player of the Year for 6A Lehigh Senior #22 Abed Abu-Khadier.<\/p>\n

FACA Nominee for All State Teams 6A Lehigh Senior #22 Abed Abu-Khadier.<\/p>\n

And Nominee for All Star Player Rank 4th<\/sup> Lehigh Senior #22 Abed Abu-Khadier.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Florida Association of Basketball Coaches and the\u00a0Lehigh Acres Gazette It\u2019s been four years since Dawn McNew took over the Lehigh Senior High boys\u2019 basketball team. And much has… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35056"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}