Don’t call it a resignation. Don’t call it a retirement, but Steven Konkle — longtime junior varsity coach of the Switzerland County Lady Pacer basketball team — will not be coaching next year.
“How about calling it a sabbatical?” Steven Konkle said this week. “Who knows? I may live to coach again.”
In the wake of leaving his coaching job, Steven Konkle steps away as one of the most successful coach in school history. With teams posting winning records in 12 of his 14 years of coaching girls basketball, he is the winningest coach in school history.
But it’s not about wins and losses.
“I coached the eighth grade my first year and then I was the jayvee coach for 13 years,” he said. “My first and last years were the only years that we didn’t have a winning record, but that really isn’t important. This decision has to do with my family.”
In fact, one of the issues surrounding his leaving is the feeling by some of his team members that this last non-winning season played a role in his decision.
“The fact that we didn’t have a winning season had absolutely nothing to do with my choice,” Steven Konkle said. “I made this decision at the beginning of the year and told my other coaches. That gave me the opportunity to enjoy this last year with my team, and we had a good year together.”
Steven Konkle’s decision is grounded in his desire to spend more time with his children as they get older. Daughter Alisha is a sophomore at Franklin College; daughter Kayla is a high school junior; and son Kyle is in the fourth grade.
“Coaching basketball has become a year round job, and that has taken away from spending time with my family,” he said. “They’ve been great about that, but next year I’ll be able to go to Franklin when I want to, and can go to Kayla and Kyle’s events here without having to juggle things.”
What will he miss the most? Steven Konkle says it will be the players, but he has also gotten close to his fellow coaches: head coach Wayne Ellegood, varsity assistant Fred Ross, and freshman coach Denny Bowling.
“With this being all year now, you get very close to your fellow coaches, and I will miss those guys,” he said. “But it also brings more stress in other areas of your life, and I think that’s something you have to consider.”
Although he will no longer be patrolling the sidelines of the basketball court, Steven Konkle will remain as the school’s varsity softball coach — a job that he is entering his second season as head coach.
“I have a springtime passion,” he says. “The last couple of years with softball have reignited that. Spring sports have always been my favorite, even when I was in high school.”
Steven Konkle and his wife, Janie, and children live in Vevay.