The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Sports

May 10, 2008

Scarlets hire girls basketball coach

Johns moves into varsity spotlight

By Jim Rueda

MANKATO — It’s safe to say Dianne Johns has paid her dues.

Johns has toiled as an assistant coach in the Mankato West girls basketball program for 17 years. On Friday morning, she was named the new head coach at West beginning next season.

Johns replaces Mark Schmiesing who resigned this spring after eight seasons.

“I’m very excited, a little nervous, but very excited,” Johns said Friday afternoon. “It’s nice to be coming into a program where I’ve already coached all the players who are coming back.

“I know them and they know me so we won’t have to start from scratch. This is not a situation where I have to build a program all over again.”

Johns matriculated at Minnesota State University, graduating in 1989 with a degree in physical education. She was a substitute teacher in District 77 for two seasons before landing a full-time position at Franklin Elementary.

That’s when her basketball coaching career also took off as she was promptly hired by West head girls basketball coach Cliff Woodford to be his assistant in 1991. She worked with him for seven years and then moved over to become the head coach at Dakota Meadows Middle School when Kendra (Carter) Hinz took over the varsity program.

When Schmiesing became the head coach two years later, Johns coached the ninth-grade team for two seasons before moving up to coach the B-squad the last six years.



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