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“I’m going to have big shoes to fill,” said Harner, who will also work as an intervention specialist at Miami View Elementary. “The coaches in that program have done a really good job.”
Last year’s team struggled to a 7-17 record in Bob Wehner’s only season.
Harner, who was a standout player at Cedarville High School and Cedarville University, already has a variety of coaching experiences. He’s been a high school boys assistant in Dallas, a high school girls coach in Michigan, a two-year men’s assistant at Oklahoma Wesleyan and a club coach for all ages the past year and a half in the Dallas area.
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Harner had not considered being a coach until he was offered the opportunity during his first time in the Dallas area.
“I fell in love with it,” he said. “It’s different than playing. It makes you think and makes you see things so much differently. If I had coached before I played, I would’ve understood things a little bit better, a little bit quicker as a player and I might have been a little bit better.”
Making his new players better is Harner’s first goal. He inherits a young team that he hopes will be led by senior Leslie Flores, a member of this past year’s all-Clark County team. The Trojans will also count on sophomores Tatum Mohanan and Raelyn Severt, junior Trinity Cline and junior Laney Mills, who missed last year with an ACL knee injury.
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“I’m really looking forward to coaching this team,” Harner said. “We have quite a few young girls that need to develop just a little bit – skills, shot, footwork – the little things that were lacking previously. And if we can do that, we’ve got a chance to be pretty good next year.”
Harner moved home in May and has worked with the team in open gyms and at Cedarville University’s team camp.
“It was great opportunity and learning experience for me to get to know the girls and for the girls to get to know me,” he said. “It did what it was supposed to do. It went really well.”
Harner enjoyed his past experience coaching a girls team and looks forward to this one for the same reasons.
“They are legit in it for the team aspect,” he said. “If they buy into your system and everything can click, it can be a good program year in and year out.
“I enjoy the slower-paced game of girls basketball. I think I like it because it’s more of a chess match – how well can I get my girls to play and execute down the stretch. That’s the part that I’m really drawn to.”
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