Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Nov 21, 2000 by Capital-Journal
The debut of the new Washburn women's basketball coach went off without a hitch on Saturday.
Not surprising, since Ron McHenry had been preparing for the day almost all his life.
"I didn't think I'd be nervous, but I woke up ... about six o'clock, so that meant I was nervous. I went out and did some yard work, which really means I'm nervous."
--- RON McHENRY, on his debut as Lady Blues head coach
Story by KEN CORBITT, Photos by PATRICK L. PYSZKA
When he emerged from the locker room after winning his first game as head coach of the Washburn University women's basketball team, Ron McHenry did not light a victory cigar.
Instead, McHenry, his players and assistant coaches munched on brownies. The tasty treat, however, was nothing compared to the sweet taste of victory.
With his 39th birthday two months away, McHenry has begun a long- awaited chapter in his life as a head coach after 15 years as an assistant on the high school, college and professional levels.
"It was big," McHenry said last Saturday after the Lady Blues opened their season with a 73-59 victory over Bethany College at Lee Arena. "I've coached here forever, or what seems like forever. You always want to win and you want (your team) to look good doing it.
"Washburn has a great tradition. I played here, and I've been here long enough that I want things to be done the right way. To be able to win one on your own record for Washburn is a big deal."
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McHenry actually has experience as a head coach. He was interim coach for the Topeka Sizzlers of the Continental Basketball Association in the 1988-89 season, and he was head coach of Washburn's golf team the past eight years.
He was ready to run his own basketball team. His family was entrenched in Topeka, and he knew Ichabods head coach Bob Chipman, under whom McHenry had worked for 11 years, wasn't going anywhere. When Patty Dick retired as the Lady Blues' coach after last season, McHenry was the immediate front-runner once he decided he wanted the job.
"Over the years as an assistant on the men's side, coach Chipman gave me a lot more responsibility than a lot of other assistant coaches have," McHenry said. "I think he was training me to be a head coach."
Chipman knew McHenry was up to the task.
"Mac has a great feel for coaching the game," Chipman said. "He makes good, solid, common-sense decisions. He's good at evaluating situations in the game.
"Being an assistant coach, he was probably never wrong. Over the last 11 years with me, he made a lot of great suggestions. Now, he has to call his own timeouts and make all of his own decisions."
That mantle of responsibility includes more than calling a timeout, signaling a play or making a substitution.
"I don't sleep quite as well at night as I used to," McHenry said. "There are a lot more time-consuming things you have to get through during the day. I used to just go to practice and now I have to make the practice schedule every day. There's a lot of preparation that you didn't do as an assistant.
"Your call is the final call. Your discipline is the final discipline. When you're a head coach, those things fall on your lap."
There also was the adjustment of coaching female athletes for the first time.
"The game of basketball is the same," he said. "The girls like to be treated like athletes, and you have to treat each other with mutual respect. That's the same everywhere."
McHenry does have an insight into female athletes with two daughters among his three children. His daughter, Dani, is an All- City player in volleyball and basketball at Shawnee Heights and recently signed a letter of intent to play volleyball at Kansas.
"When she was younger, I may have pushed her a little harder and she responded differently," he said. "I was pretty tough on her, and it taught me not to do that all the time."
Watching McHenry pace the sideline and bark instructions, it's evident he hasn't turned into a softy.
"He makes you work, but he makes you want to work," said Jodi Rausch, a senior on the Lady Blues team.
A native of McLouth, McHenry's college basketball career took him to Coffeyville Community College and KU for one year each before two seasons as an Ichabod from 1982-84. He immediately began his coaching career as a graduate assistant under Chipman in the 1984-85 season, then it was on to Perry High School for three years, one year with the CBA Sizzlers and back to Washburn in '89 to work for Chipman.
McHenry's life changed on May 8, 2000, when he was named the fifth coach in Lady Blues history. A summer of recruiting and preparation led into preseason conditioning for his team when classes began in August, then practice started on Oct. 15.
The big day was last Saturday, Nov. 17: Game 1 for Ron McHenry's basketball team.
"I didn't think I'd be nervous," McHenry said as he took the last bite of the brownie after the game, "but I woke up this morning about six o'clock, so that meant I was nervous. I went out and did some yard work, which really means I'm nervous."
The nerves lasted until only five seconds remained in the game. Finally confident of the victory with a 14-point lead, McHenry turned to his assistant, Reggie Hulbert, for a congratulatory handshake.
"You can't win them all if you lose the first one," said McHenry, undefeated (for now) as a head coach. "We have a long way to go, and the girls know that. They're ready to work hard. We may stumble along the way, but we'll get better."