One of the longest tenured basketball coaches in Northeast Indiana is leaving his post. Westview’s Rob Yoder has resigned as the school’s boys basketball coach after 17 years as the head coach of the program.
The news of the resignation was first reported by The Goshen News. The resignation was approved at a school board meeting on Thursday.
“First, I want to thank our school board, our superintendents we’ve had while I coached, our principals, the assistant coaches and the players who have worked so hard. I have been in a perfect situation and I couldn’t ask for more from everyone that has been involved with helping us build a program,” Yoder said.
Westview finished the 2019-2020 season at 21-4 including winning streaks of eight and 12 games. The Warriors finished in a tie atop the NECC standings with Churubusco as co-champions.
Yoder is a Westview lifer, mentioning to Outside the Huddle that as a baby he fell asleep in the bleachers of the gym. Yoder says he has been attending Westview games his entire life except when he was attending college. He has been a fan, player, coach and now sees his time coming full circle by being a Westview Warrior fan again.
“I love Westview basketball, I always have. I will be a fan next year and following years. I’ve done that my whole life,” Yoder said. “I think it is a unique place and awesome place to be involved. If you love basketball, I think Westview is the place to be.”
Yoder went 303-125 in 17 seasons coaching the Warriors as their head coach. He won nine sectional titles, four regionals and a semi state championship, which came in 2014. That season, Westview lost to Park Tudor in the Class 2A state championship game. Yoder had been to the state finals two other times, as an assistant to Troy Neely in 1999 and 2000 when the school won two straight state titles.
Yoder ultimately followed Neely as the head coach in 2003. He went 10-14 in his first season and 6-15 in his second. Yoder’s third season saw the team win a Regional and he only had one other losing season after that. With Yoder at the helm, Westview went on to have winning seasons 14 of the next 15, most recently with son Charlie becoming the program’s only Indiana All-Star ever and the 2019-20 Outside the Huddle Player of the Year. Seven of those seasons were of 20 or more wins.
But when it is time to walk away, it is time. And after 27 total seasons of coaching, Rob Yoder felt it was time.
“It was just a good time for myself and my family. I would like to watch Charlie play some when he goes to college,” Yoder said. “We want to be able to go as a family to watch those games. I have coached a long time and you can’t coach forever. I have enjoyed every minute of it, I wouldn’t trade it for anything but it just seemed like the right time for us and I feel good about our decision.”
Yoder says that the timing not only works perfectly for his family and the desire for he and wife Cori to see as many of Charlie’s games as possible, but it also works for the next Westview coach. While this season saw little varsity experience coming back, the 2020-2021 season will have 10 returning letterman.
“It is an ideal situation because he has an experienced team coming back, a versatile team coming back,” Yoder said of the next Westview coach. “Instead of coaching another year and leaving with only a couple of returning letterman, this way the guy has 10 lettermen back and gives the next coach the best chance he can possibly have to be successful.”
The future of potential coaching is not something Yoder says he has even considered at this point one way or the other. He says his hopes are to continue to work kids out, even on his family court as he did earlier in the day Friday. For now, the Rob Yoder coaching story ends how it has been most of the time he has been at Westview: a winner and a champion.
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