By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
A few months after Nancy Winstel retired as head coach of the Northern Kentucky University women’s basketball team in 2012, she got a call from a friend who worked in the Office of Student Affairs on campus.
“She had a son that was in the seventh grade and she asked me if I would be willing to train him,” Winstel recalled.
The Hall of Fame coach agreed to her friend’s request … and Winstel has been conducting one-on-one workouts with aspiring basketball players of all ages in our area ever since.
Over the last two weeks, she shared her expertise with a young woman on a college team, a boys high school player and another boy who’s in the fourth grade.
“I make a little bit of money doing it, but it’s more for the fun of it and trying to help kids get better,” Winstel said. “It makes me feel good to go watch them play and see them do well.”
Winstel’s highly successful coaching career at NKU is the reason behind the steady stream of requests for her training sessions.
During her 29-year career as head coach, the Norse compiled a 636-214 record and won two NCAA Division II national championships. She also mentored six Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Year award-winners.
Winstel as named Coach of the Year in NCAA Division II after her team won the 2000 national championship. After she retired, she was inducted into the Great Lakes Valley Conference Hall of Fame in 2014 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association in 2015.
Working with young people has been an ideal way for the Winstel, 69, to stay connected to the game she loves.
“I think that to be a good coach, you have to know how to teach,” she said. “To me, there’s the teacher part of it and there’s the strategist part of it, and to be really good you’re got to be able to do both.”
Winstel conducts most of her 60-minute training sessions at Next Level Academy in Wilder. She’ll work on whatever facet of the game a player wants, but most of them come to work on shooting.
“I don’t make them buy so many lessons,” Winstel said. “I just say, ‘I’ll evaluate you and give you my two cents and what I’d recommend and then we’ll go from there.’”
Nathan Rickard is a 6-foot-4 sophomore at Highlands High School who started training with Winstel when he was in the fourth grade.
“One of my friends was going to her and he suggested her to me,” Nathan said. “It’s been nice because we get to focus on small details about my game so I can get better.”
Jennifer Rickard has been watching her son’s workouts with Winstel for six years. Nathan often tells his mom she’s the toughest coach he ever had.
“She will have Nathan and her other students do drills over and over until she is satisfied with the results. But that tough coaching has really helped Nathan improve his game, and he knows it,” Jennifer said.
“She balances this toughness with a genuine interest in her students. Everyone around here knows what a great coach she is, but we’ve seen her go above and beyond. She’s a great person, too.”
Winstel’s former NKU players have sent their daughters to her training sessions. Two of them were sisters Kay and Liz Freihofer, who were each named most valuable player in the last two 9th Region girls basketball tournaments for Cooper.
Winstel said she also worked with Will Herald when he was in grade school. He went on to become a three-year starter at Highlands and set a 9th Region record for most 3-point goals in his varsity career.
“When I work with players, they make themselves better,” Winstel said. “Hopefully, I kind of point them a little bit in the right direction.”