By Terry Boehmker
NKTribune sports reporter
Nell Fookes has been swamped with e-mails, phone calls, texts and Facebook comments since Monday night when she announced that she is retiring as Boone County High School girls’ basketball coach after 30 years.
The messages she got from former players, other coaches and officials made her smile and a few brought a tear to her eye. And the e-mail she received from a former player on another high school team really surprised her.
Jaime Thiem, a four-year starter at Newport Central Catholic, sent the email because she wanted Fookes to know how much she respected her as a coach and competitor.
“I wouldn’t have expected someone who you battled against and had such an intense rivalry with to do something like that,” Fookes said. “For her to take the time to write all that and express herself the way she did, that was very humbling to me.”
Fookes, 58, closed the book on her coaching career Monday night after her Boone County team was eliminated in the first round of the 9th Region Tournament. She compiled a 686-253 record and won nine regional championships as the Rebels’ head coach. None of her teams finished a season with a losing record.
According to records posted on the Kentucky High School Athletic Association website, Fookes ranks third in career wins among Kentucky girls’ basketball coaches. She never won a state championship, but two of her teams made it to the final four in the state tournament.
“It took a concerted group effort for us to have the success we’ve had,” Fookes said, “starting with our administration at Boone County and all the assistants who coached with me and, of course, all the young women who played.”
Fookes grew up in Virginia and was a four-year starter on the Radford University women’s basketball team before getting into coaching. She was an assistant at Eastern Kentucky University before becoming the head coach at Boone County in 1985.
During games, Fookes was often as much fun to watch as her team. She seldom sat down and seemed to be constantly yelling instructions to her players in a high-pitched voice that no one could ignore.
“I was just one of those high-energy coaches,” she said. “Just by nature, I’m that way and I absolutely love the game. I just tried to get my players to realize they could always give more than they were giving.”
Her intensity was contagious. Boone County teams have always been fiercely competitive, and that became the cornerstone to the program’s continuing success. A comment one former player posted on Facebook this week gives an insight to what it was like having Fookes as your coach.
“Nobody ever drowned in sweat was her motto, and we definitely lived up to that,” wrote Ashley Grobmyer Dowell. “Thanks coach, for all you did for me and all the lessons you taught me on and off the court.”
The basketball court at Boone County was named in honor of Fookes. She has already been inducted into the Greater Cincinnati Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the Northern Kentucky Athletic Directors Association Hall of Fame. In 2010, she was named as one of the finalists for Coach of the Year by the National High School Athletic Directors Association.
But she felt like the time had come for her to turn the Boone County program over to someone else. She and her husband, Dean, who served as an assistant coach the last few seasons, have already retired as teachers and they want to see what life is like away from basketball.
“Coaching is a 24-7 job,” she said. “It’s time for me to be able to do some things when I want to do them and not be tied down with all that.”
Fookes said her former players who have become successful women in all walks of life are the most rewarding aspect of her 30-year coaching career. Several of them became teachers and coaches themselves.
“In some way, I believe the discipline they developed working toward team goals and working harder for something than they ever thought they could is what propelled them to be successful,” Fookes said. “That supersedes anything I’ve done or the titles we won. That truly is what makes me proud.”
Terry Boehmker, NKyTribune sports writer, is former sportswriter and editor for The Kentucky Post. He is an award-winning writer with extensive background in both print and digital. Reach him at terryboe@yahoo.com.