On Wednesday, March 16, while the rest of the school was heading home, all female Broughton basketball players were called the the gym for a meeting.

  At that meeting they faced the news of coach Brad McCorkle’s resignation.

  McCorkle has coached the women’s varsity basketball team since the 2011-2012 season. He has grown the team into one of the top programs in the CAP-8 with three out of his four seasons having winning records.

  He gained his basketball experience from playing collegiately at Guilford College in Greensboro and even played overseas in France and Belgium.

  “Coach Mac sacrificed a lot of his time for us and helped us on the small details. He always said, ‘It’s the little things,’” senior Katie Wadsworth said.  

  McCorkle is resigning to be able to spend more time working on his growing medical recruiting business with assistant coach Alex Slater.

  “I’m a community coach, meaning I have a full time job, which over the last four years has grown quite a bit,” McCorkle said.

  Throughout his time as head coach, McCorkle has built a thriving program with multiple players eventually playing collegiately and lots of key wins. The highlight of his career was beating number one seeded Millbrook in playoffs last year.

  “He’s a really good communicator and that made him a leader that I looked up to and the people that played for him respected,” J.V. women’s coach Anna Christian Allen said, “He cares about helping players get better at basketball but also cares a lot for his players as people and developing them into good players and good people.”

  He will be missed by his players and fellow coaches and has made a lasting impact on the program, but makes it clear he plans to stay involved as his kids will be attending Broughton starting next year with his son Carson.

  On Friday, April 15, female basketball players were again called to the gym for news, and this time it was happier.  Special education teacher and football coach Mikeal Loutzenheiser was hired as the new head coach and has big plans for the program.

  Loutzenheiser and McCorkle have many similarities. They are both over six feet tall, played basketball collegiately and go by a shortened version of their last name (“Coach Mac” and “Coach Loutz”). They share a passion for developing players as well as good people.

    As the nine page packet he gave players said, “We are not striving to be good – we are going to be the best.”

  Loutzenheiser already has a serious workout plan including four person workouts every Tuesday and open gym on Thursdays until summer. Once school gets out, summer workouts will be held every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening for an hour and a half.

  The team will even attend the UNC-Pembroke team camp and host a Little Lady Capitals Camp for young players.

  “I really like the new coach and I’m excited to start spring workouts. I think we’re going to be really good next year because of all the girls returning and a few moving up from JV,” JV co-captain sophomore Cate Brewer said.

 “I hope that we have used the program to teach important life lessons of things like hard work, dedication, sacrifice for the benefit of a group and respect. That’s really, I think, the most important aspect of high school athletics,” McCorkle said.

  Coaching has also impacted McCorkle significantly.

  “It’s taught me that athletically, girls are very capable and passionate about the sport of basketball. Coaching has also taught me a lot of things to help me be a dad to my daughter,” McCorkle said.

  McCorkle has a daughter, Sara B., who will attend Broughton in three years and a son, Carson, who will come next year.

   McCorkle made it clear that he intends to remain involved in both the men’s and women’s programs after resignation, especially as his kids begin at Broughton.