By Kevin Lonnquist
NTX Varsity Sports Columnist
The silence in Drew Coffman’s house kept turning up the volume.
Even the savviest of basketball coaches know a one-on-three matchup will never be drawn up on the blackboard. It’s guaranteed failure.
A boys basketball coach all his life including nine previous seasons at Decatur, Coffman enjoyed the content setup at Haslet V.R. Eaton. He just completed a 21-win effort in his first season in 2021-22.
But when the girls job at Decatur opened that offseason, athletics director Steve Huff gaged Coffman’s interest. Initially, there was little.
That’s when the rest of the Coffman family gave Dad the big freeze. Two daughters, who played and loved the game, and a wife who probably knew the support staffs at countless gyms on a first-name basis recognized the potential familial connection.
It was just going to take some tough love combined with an appeal to broadening Coffman’s coaching acumen to convince him to do it.
“I originally told [Huff] no,’’ Coffman said. “When we were in the family room together, I told them what happened. They would not speak to me for a weekend.’’
Coffman understood if he took this job, he would be coaching his daughters, Laken, a senior, and Maddyx, a rising junior. The two were in middle school at the time of courtship.
He went through the struggle of playing basketball for his father in high school. It can be a tough relationship because everybody looks at the son differently weary of favoritism. Coffman hesitated to put his daughters through that.
That was until one day, Laken sent a text: Dad, I want you to be my coach.
With that, Coffman accepted.
An eight-word text has led to history with the Decatur girls’ basketball program. The Lady Eagles’ come-from-behind 58-54 overtime victory over Waco La Vega in the Class 4A Division I state championship game March 6 in San Antonio’s Alamodome cemented back-to-back titles.
Decatur finished 2025-26 at 37-4 and won its last 25 games. Prior to the 2024-25 season, Decatur had never won a state title.
“The key was making sure we play to our standard,’’ Coffman said. “The scoreboard wasn’t going to tell us that. It was how we played the game. Our kids are high character kids. They knew they needed to play a certain way regardless of the opponent.”
After winning it all last year, the pressure to repeat in 2025-26 became the talking point as soon as the team bus returned to Decatur. Heck, even the maintenance crew created the setting for another title. It placed the 2024-25 banner in a part of the gym where there would be room for another.
No pressure, coach.
“Everybody just assumed we were going to do it again,’’ Coffman said. “Honestly, once you do it and with so many people coming back, anything less than a state championship would be a disappointment. That was the thought from the very beginning.’’
This team was returning three four-year starters in senior and Oklahoma State signee Bralyn Peck, Senior point guard CeCe Davis and Laken Coffman, a shooting guard.
All successful coaches remain successful because they are humble enough to know they haven’t figured out everything. Glory is fleeting.
Coffman did what coaches in his position do. Pick the brain of other successful coaches to learn and understand how to maintain. He talked with veteran cross country coach David Park who has made a name for himself for decades. Coffman also spoke with Mega State Championship boys basketball coach Danny Henderson who won titles at Peaster and Flower Mound Marcus.
“[Park] simply told me that we’re not defending anything. We’re pursuing this year’s state title. We’re going on the hunt. I liked that.
“With Danny, he just said never speak the words state championship.’’
With that, Coffman established three rules in the offseason. No. 1 – Have fun. No. 2 – Work at your very best. No. 3 – Never say the words state title. It was just a mindset to get better each day.
Yet it was incumbent upon Coffman to know his team and when to push hard and when to dial back as the season approached. It’s about knowing the roster, the leadership and work ethic and trusting they buy in.
“We dialed back in the summer and did not go quite as hard in the fall,’’ Coffman said. “It was just knowing when to push them.”
After losing to eventual girls back-to-back state 5A Division I state champion Denton Ryan, 46-42, in December, this team knew it would play the first weekend in March if it stuck to core principles. “We lost but we played really hard,’’ Coffman said of the Ryan outcome.
The Lady Eagles blew through District 7-4A. They blew through the first five rounds of the playoffs against what should be a really good tournament run. Decatur beat No. 15 Wolfforth Frenship Memorial, No. 10 Seminole, No. 2 Canyon and No. 14 Prosper Richland all by double figures to reach San Antonio.
Sometimes, teams that coast through the postseason and get into a tight game may not handle the adversity so well. Decatur faced that against La Vega. The Lady Eagles trailed 41-35 going into the fourth quarter and then by a bucket, 52-50, with five seconds to play and with the ball.
They needed to execute coming out of timeout. They were about to run their play until another stoppage could have zapped the intensity. Instead, they ran the play. Peck made a move with a layup to tie the game and send it into overtime. Decatur then finished.
“The whole fourth quarter they kept fighting and they were going find a way,’’ Coffman said. “We never lost our poise.
“The big deal is to be your best when your best is needed. That’s when a coach can push the envelope. They rounded into form when we needed them to.”
Little dribbler programs in Wise County produced the lifelong friendships and on-court togetherness between Peck, Coffman and Davis.
It is hoped what is building through the sub-varsity teams can continue and help the current standouts in rising junior point guard Style Brazile and Maddyx Coffman and the rest of the returning varsity roster.
This program understands as it chases another gold medal it will get everybody’s best shot in 2026-27…again.
“I definitely had so much to learn as a girls coach,’’ Coffman said. “Each year, I’ve improved to understanding what their needs are and meeting them where they are. It changed my outlook. I truly want to enjoy it, and I want them to truly enjoy it.”
All that’s left from this championship season is if the sneaky Decatur maintenance crew will creatively hang this new state championship banner in a place with an eye on something else.
