By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Ty Baumgardner has enjoyed his time as Topeka High's athletic director the past year, but still had the overwhelming urge to coach basketball after a 25-year career as a high school and college coach.
Ty Baumgardner
Topeka High will give Baumgardner the opportunity to fill both of those positions moving forward, naming Baumgardner the Trojans' new boys coach on Monday. Baumgardner takes over for Eric King, who resigned after two seasons.
Baumgardner admitted that he missed coaching more than he thought he would over the past year, making the opportunity to do double duty at Topeka High an attractive option.
"Coaching is all I've ever done,'' Baumgardner said. "I was pretty good in the fall, but then once the season rolled around and I was watching games every Tuesday and Friday night, I missed it a lot, just working with kids and the camraderie and those types of things.''
Baumgardner takes over a Trojan team that won just three games last season, but he is familiar with High's returning players and is eager to get started.
"There's a lot of work that needs to be done, a ton of things that need to be improved on,'' Baumgardner said. "You will see a much different Topeka High program next year, but that's not unusual any time you have a coaching change because new coaches are going to come in and do things their way.
"I think we've got a total of 8 points returning next year from this year's team, but on the flipside of that, there's a lot of opportunity for playing time, a lot of opportunity for guys to step up and take advantage of the things that are there in front of them.''
Baumgardner said the Trojans will go to work this summer as soon as the state allows.
"I think June 1st is the first day and we'll be in the gym June 1st,'' Baumgardner said. "We've got to take advantage of every day that we can be in the gym to get better. They need to learn our philosophy and our terminology and how we're going to do things.
"It's going to be a very critical summer, no doubt about it.''
Baumgardner served as a head high school coach for 19 years in North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina, including a state title in North Carolina's largest class, following six seasons as a college assistant at Emporia state and Elon University (N.C.).
An Emporia native, Baumgardner was a multiple-sport athlete at Emporia High before playing basketball at Hutchinson Community College and Emporia State. Baumgardner also served as a graduate assistant at ESU under legendary Hornet coach Ron Slaymaker.
Baumgardner has compiled a career coaching record of 370-154 for a 71 percent winning percentage over his high school career.
He spent 10 seasons at Olympic High School in Charlotte, N.C., where he amassed a 222-63 record while winning seven conference championships and the 2013 state shampionship in Class 4A, the largest classification in the state.
Olympic finished the 2012-13 season 30-0 and ranked No. 5 in the country by MaxPreps.
While at Olympic Baumgardner also won a city-record 59 straight conference games with a 42-game home winning streak.
Baumgardner then moved on to Collins Hill High School in Suwanee, Ga., where his team captured only the second regional championship in school history while also setting a school record for most wins in a season at 25-5.
Baumgardner captured another regional championship at Westwood High School in Columbia, S.C., the second in school history with a school-record 25 wins in a 25-2 season. Baumgardner has coached more than 50 players that went on to play collegiately, 18 at the Division I level.
Baumgardner said he had some initial reserversations about filling the dual role of athletic director and basketball coach, but said he thinks the support system is in place to allow him to be successful in both positions.
"It's very rare, but I visitied with some really good coaching friends of mine who have done both and are doing both and just kind of picked their brains and got some thoughts,'' Baumgardner said.
"There's such great leadership here at Topeka High with Miss (Rebecca) Morrisey (High's principal) and the assistant principals and our athletic secretary. There's a lot of help that can play a part in maybe taking some of the stuff off my plate during basketball. Fall and spring I'll have my AD hat on.''
