SYRACUSE -ÊFifteen days into the school year, Wawasee has found a head varsity boys basketball coach.

The new coach will be named at tonight's Wawasee school board meeting.

While athletic director Mary Hurley declined to say who she will be recommending to the board, sources close the athletic department say it will be Phil Mishler.

When contacted Monday, Mishler refused to confirm he would be named coach, saying only that he had applied for the job and that nothing was "official yet."

Mishler, a teacher in the school corporation, already coaches Wawasee's varsity boys tennis team in the fall and Wawasee's varsity girls tennis team in the spring. He previously coached Wawasee's junior varsity girls basketball team in the winter.

Wawasee was forced to scramble to fill the position as previous coach Robb Berger, 31, left for Mishawaka High School just five days before the 2000 school year began. Mishawaka hired Berger on Aug. 9 as its head varsity boys basketball coach.

Most schools are not searching for basketball coaches in August.

"It was an unusual set of circumstances," Hurley said of searching for a coach after schools around the state had started classes. "It limits your pool, it puts parameters on a lot narrower than we would have ourselves. It put a time constraint on us."

Even with the time crunch, Hurley received 21 resumes for the basketball opening.

Wawasee had an opening for a science teacher when Berger left. Wawasee held the teaching job open for the first 24 to 36 hours after Berger resigned in hopes of finding one person to fill Berger's dual role. When that didn't happen, the science teacher and basketball coach openings were separated, and the school sought to fill the positions with two people. The school quickly hired a science teacher.

Because there were no other teaching positions open, Hurley said Wawasee could choose its coach from three groups of people: people already teaching in the school corporation, people who have retired but still hold an active teaching license and people who hold a teaching license but now work in the business community.

While Wawasee faced the strain of finding and hiring a coach in August, it wasn't a worst-case scenario.

"Last year, Muncie Central's basketball coach resigned in October a week before practice," IHSAA sports information director Jim Russell said.

Russell could not verify how many other Indiana high schools still are seeking basketball coaches in late August.

Wawasee posted a 6-15 record last year under Berger in his only year at the school. Berger guided the Warriors to six wins a year after they went 1-21 under former coach Jerry Davis. The Warriors last had a winning season in 1994-1995, when the Warriors won the sectional and finished 17-7 under Gary Goshert.

Hurley stressed Wawasee's next basketball coach will not be an interim coach and is not a stopgap solution. Asked if she views the coach hired tonight as the right person to lead the program into the future, Hurley said, "Absolutely." She also said the coach hired tonight will receive a "multi-term contract."

The school board meeting begins at 7 p.m. [[In-content Ad]]