The Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association named their coaches of the year on April 23 and it should come as no shock Oostburg’s Isaiah Ketterhagen was named the girls basketball coach of the year.
That is as easy of a question as 1+1, its impossible to get wrong.
Ketterhagen led the Flying Dutchmen to a 30-0 record and the WIAA Division 3 state championship.
The team was also ranked No. 1 in the country among small towns according to Max Preps.
This is after Oostburg defeated eight teams which made the state tournament including the champions in both Divisions 1 and 2.
There’s a case to be made that this season’s Flying Dutchmen were among the greatest teams of all time, so picking Ketterhagen as coach of the year was a no-brainer.
Having three future NCAA Division I players on your team certainly helps, especially when they happen to be your daughters.
I’ve written more stories about Oostburg girls basketball and the Ketterhagen family the past four years than I can count, starting when twins Ady and Riley received their first Division I offer from UW-Milwaukee just before their freshman school years.
Their younger sister Kinsley has offers from Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan State and now Michigan.
That is a lot of talent and any coach would love to have it, but there’s also challenges that come with it, challenges I don’t know if Isaiah gets enough credit for.
Him and I have spoken at length about how he never wanted just his daughters to get the spotlight or take every shot. There were plenty of other talented players on the Oostburg team whom he didn’t drive to practice.
To go undefeated and beat the teams the Flying Dutchmen defeated it took more than his three daughters.
You see the coaching job he’s done when you watched senior Macy Bruggink play lockdown defense or when freshman Liarra DeTroye made a big 3-point shot at the state tournament.
Sophomore Soraya Benton was asked to keep taking shots from the perimeter in the state championship despite not making one the previous three games.
Isaiah understood not every shot would go in and that’s OK, the key was to keep shooting and trust his players to make the right decisions.
The easy route would be to solely rely on his daughters to carry the whole load, and while they certainly had a gigantic impact, he stressed how valuable all his other players were.
Another thing he does extremely well is delegating to his assistants, even when it comes to his daughters. He understands that if he tells his daughters something they might look at him as dad but if an assistant gives the same advice its coming from a coach.
The smartest coaches know they don’t know everything and are willing to lean on their assistants. Isaiah has no ego and will take a good idea from anywhere.
Oostburg has been a strong program before his daughters stepped onto the court and will continue to be after they’re all graduated.
That’s what great coaches do.
Contact Tom Dombeck at 920-686-2965 or tdombeck@htrnews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @Tom_Dombeck.
This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Isaiah Ketterhagen more than deserving of WBCA Coach of the Year award | Dombeck
Reporting by Tom Dombeck, Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter / Sheboygan Press
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