Chad Pohlmann, who took the Oswego girls basketball program to its greatest heights, has stepped down after eight seasons and will join Matt Borrowman’s staff as a boys varsity assistant.
“Chad has been very successful in the girls position and we certainly will miss his leadership with the girls,” athletic director Darren Howard said in an email to the press.
“However, we support his wish to look at new coaching opportunities in his career and are glad he will remain in our program.”
While conceding that “reaching state (and finishing fourth in 2010) was really awesome,” Pohlmann doesn’t necessarily consider it his defining moment.
“The records all belong to the kids,” he said, not even sure of his final won-loss numbers — an impressive 149-87 for a .631 winning percentage. “That’s something I learned from my mentors, like my (Stevenson) high school coach Ken Johnson.
“I’ll always remember the excitement the kids had. Seeing a girl like Samiya Wright, who had such a great work ethic, stopping at half court with her hands on top of her head immediately after we won the supersectional with this, ‘We actually did it,’ look on her face.
“Even successful athletes, despite their natural talent, have to put in a lot of hard work.”
That team won a school-record 29 games with just four losses. He had three other teams win regional titles in seasons they had 22 or more wins.
His run closed this season with a 22-10 team that featured three Division I recruits — Jordan Campbell (Evansville), Amri Wilder (SIU-Edwardsville) and Erin Sinnott (Evansville). The Panthers lost to state champion Benet in a sectional championship game.
A Stevenson graduate who played basketball at Carthage College, Pohlmann came to Oswego in 2007-08 for the 10th year of his teaching career. He had coached in boys programs for nine seasons, one at his alma mater, five at Lincoln-Way Central and three at Addison Trail.
“I wanted to be a head coach and had applied for several boys positions and made it to the final interviews for a couple but never cracked it,” he said.
Pohlmann said he coached girls the same as boys, trying to teach them to play the right way and stick to the principles he had learned.
His father Greg had coached boys and girls simultaneously in Shelbina, Missouri for “five or six years” when Chad was very young before taking a job with Aldi and moving the family to Illinois.
“He would coach the girls game on Friday night and then coach the boys game,” Pohlman said. “He had one of his girls teams go 32-0 and win a state title in 1974-75.”
Returning to the boys program “has always been on my radar and is just another neat opportunity. I’ll be thrown in a different role. I am the boys varsity golf coach, teach physical education classes and am involved in another program at the school. This takes a little bit of the pressure off.”
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Borrowman, who worked with Pohlmann in the golf program, is looking forward to it.
“We share the same ideals and philosophies and the last eight years, both (boys and girls) programs have worked hand-in-hand,” Borrowman said.
Twitter: @RickArmstrong28