Ninilchik girls coach stepping down after 18 seasons at helm
By Jeff Helminiak | Peninsula Clarion
When asked over the years about his phenomenal run of success as the Ninilchik girls basketball coach, Dan Leman would always defer the question.
I don't even think about that, he'd say. Some day, when this is all over with, I'll have time to reflect. Just not now.
That some day has finally come.
On Dec. 27, Leman announced at the annual alumni basketball game at Ninilchik School that he is stepping down after 18 seasons as the girls basketball coach.
Leman said he originally planned to coach this season, but some nagging injuries forced him to take a second look at his plans.
In November, he had surgery to repair a pair of torn ligaments in his left knee. Going into that operation, Leman knew something was wrong with his left hip. Magnetic resonance imaging confirmed the hip problem.
"The longer I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that it was time to step back and heal up," Leman said.
Leman, a commercial fisherman, said he expects to be healthy for the fishing season. He doesn't expect to return to the sideline at Ninilchik, where he began coaching the elementary boys and girls in 1982.
"It's a mix of a little bit of burnout and a little bit of other interests," he said. "As I stand back and take a good look, this is a good time to step away."
Thus ends one of the most successful coaching careers in Alaska prep sports history. Leman finishes with a record of 372-37 -- winning at a 91 percent clip.
He won eight Class 2A state championships, including becoming the only program in Alaska state basketball history to win five state titles in a row.
Leman made it to state in 17 of his years as coach, missing only his inaugural 1990-91 campaign. The 1992 state tournament was the only big dance at which Leman did not finish third or higher.
Leman was named the small-schools coach of the year seven times and eight times he coached players of the year. His daughter, Whitney, won the award three times, while Mandi Bock, Trish Nobles, Corrie Lindeman, Amanda Matson and Kendra Moerlein each won once.
The Wolverines won 13 Peninsula Conference tournaments under Leman's watch, and also had 57- and 98-game winning streaks. During the 98-game streak, Ninilchik lost to Homer in 2003, but the game was an endowment game and at the time, endowment games did not count on a team's record.
Kasilof's Tim Moerlein had three daughters -- Kendra, Katie and Janelle -- play for Leman, and each won three state championships.
Tim was introduced to Leman's coaching magic in the mid-90s. Janelle played basketball in seventh grade and lost every game. The next year, Leman took over the same group of girls and they went undefeated.
"I really do think he's one of the best high school women's coaches," Moerlein said. "It's pretty incredible."
Said Chris Hanson, who spent two years as a Leman assistant before going on to coach the Ninilchik and Soldotna boys varsities: "Dan would have been successful coaching a team of rodeo clowns."
The job of replacing Leman goes to Rod Van Saun, who at least has a sense of humor about the shoes he has to fill.
"I've been joking with everybody that I'm coming in and changing everything because it clearly has not been working," Van Saun said. "I very much intend to carry on with the program Dan has created here.
"To come in and change anything that has created such great success would not be too smart."
Born to win
Ninilchik's Larry Matson has known Leman since Leman was born and also served as an assistant in the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons.
Matson said Leman has always had the competitiveness it takes to be a great coach.
"He'd tear your heart out if that's what it took to win," Matson said. "People don't know that about him.
"I've known Dan since he was born, and he's always been very competitive."
Matson is quick to note Leman is not competitive in an ugly way.
"He covers it up really well," Matson said. "He gets along with coaches and referees -- he gets along with everybody. He's a very personable person."
Tim Helvey coached against Leman for four years as the head coach at Bristol Bay, then assisted Leman for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons at Ninilchik.
In 2004, the Angels snapped Ninilchik's string of conference tournament titles at 12. In 2005, Bristol Bay kept Ninilchik from a sixth straight state title.
Helvey said it was always clear Leman was competitive in a constructive way.
"I got a chance to talk to him the year we finally beat him at state," Helvey said. "He said, 'It was time. That's going to make us that much more hungry and that much more competitive next year.
'
"He was a real gentleman about it."
Growing up in Ninilchik, Leman, a 1975 graduate of Ninilchik School, put his competitiveness to use at basketball.
"Back in '75, we didn't have a whole lot of options," Leman said. "Basketball was something I really did enjoy."
Dan eventually married his high school sweetheart, Jamie, who graduated from Ninilchik in 1974. Jamie knew Dan loved the game from his successful high school career and encouraged Dan to get into coaching.
Leman worked his way up through the elementary and junior high ranks until Ken Satre gave him a chance to coach the Ninilchik girls in the 1990-91 season.
The rest was almost a footnote in history as Leman didn't make state and Jamie had to talk him out of quitting.
"I think he was just thinking this isn't really my cup of tea because they didn't have a really great year and he wasn't sure that's what he wanted to do even though he loved basketball," Jamie said.
Leman was able to call on his competitiveness and love for basketball to give him the energy to travel what he estimates is 54,000 miles -- or twice around the world -- in his career.
"He had a passion, not just for the game, but for his teams -- every single team," Whitney Leman said. "He treated them all equally. He really cares about the girls."
It all starts at home
In the 1991-92 season, Leman won his first of 12 straight conference titles and the program was off and running.
One of the factors in Leman's success was his ability to handle girls. Leman raised daughters Tasha, Whitney and Krista.
"Living with me and three daughters, he knows how girls can be," Jamie said. "There's all this little drama in a girls program, and he knows how to handle it.
"Off the court, the girls can be having all these little issues. On the court, that stuff doesn't happen anymore."
Krista, who graduated in 2007 with two state titles to her credit, said her dad is the most patient coach she has seen.
"He's had three daughters to help him with that," she said. "A lot of people coach girls with tempers, but he handles himself."
Matson said that the ability of Leman to combine his competitive nature with his knack for dealing with young women made Ninilchik a perennial powerhouse.
"He was very good at getting kids to play up to their full potential," he said. "To be that successful, kids have to give up a lot. Dan was able to relate with kids, and that's the No. 1 thing that made him a success."
Helvey said Leman's patience allowed him to get something done every practice.
"Even when his practices aren't going well, he has the patience to build on that," said Helvey, now the West girls varsity coach. "That makes them that much better."
Always a coach
Of course, a person can be competitive, love basketball and relate very well to players, but if that person doesn't know the intricacies of basketball, those first three don't mean much.
Leman said one of the things he is looking forward to in retirement is actually going to a game as a fan and not as a coach constantly breaking down what the other team is doing.
"I was really locked into the mechanics and I really enjoyed the coaching side of it," he said. "I put a lot of effort into it."
Hanson said Leman was great at making halftime adjustments.
"Dan was a really good game coach," Hanson said. "I'm not saying he was a bad practice coach, but coaches have one strength or the other -- practice coach or game coach -- and Dan was a really good game coach."
Moerlein said he saw 80 percent of his daughter's games in high school. When the team trailed at halftime, Moerlein said Leman always had the answer.
"We'd go to gyms where the other girls would be bigger, faster players from 4A teams," Moerlein said. "I'd think there wasn't a way to be competitive with these girls.
"Dan would always manage to scrap something out. If it wasn't a victory, it was a competitive fight."
Moerlein said it was Leman's insistence that the girls could do anything that helped many of them find success later in life.
The pride of Ninilchik
As the program had more and more success, more and more girls wanted to be a part of it. This let the school of 50 to 100 students draw enough participants to keep the program healthy.
"I remember watching in fifth grade and I could not wait to play high school basketball," Whitney said. "The girls looked like they were having so much fun."
Jamie, a teacher at Ninilchik School, said the team even helped with school enrollment, since girls would come from surrounding communities to join the team.
"I think Ninilchik was put on the map because of the basketball program," Jamie said.
Dan said he takes immense pride in what basketball has done for the community. Leman's father, Harry, and Dave Cooper were the first two graduates of Ninilchik School.
Jamie also has deep Ninilchik roots that go back four generations.
"I felt very lucky to be where I am, and I was able to achieve what I did as coach because of the tightknit community that we have," Dan said. "Ninilchik is very near and dear to me."
Throughout the years, Leman showed players from Ninilchik were able to compete with players from larger Class 3A and 4A schools.
Leman is grateful to those schools for scheduling both games and scrimmages with him. Up until about 10 years ago, Leman said Class 2A schools rarely played larger schools.
"Basketball really brought the community together," Hanson said. "They really rallied, especially at state time. Dan always joked that going up to Anchorage and playing at Service was like a home court."
Leman said he owes the success of the program to the school's administrators, to his assistant coaches, to his players and to the parents of the community.
He said Van Saun has paid his dues just like he once did, assistant coach Chuck Johnson will help with the transition, and the team is stocked with talent after losing a few players from last year's state runner-up squad.
"My biggest thing is trying to make sure people know how much I appreciate the fact that I was able to coach their kids," Leman said. "... The support from the community, school and kids is something I'll never forget.
"The fact that we won a few games along the way is extra."
