Shabaz Khaliq returning to North Side as the new boys basketball head coach

The more things change, the more they say the same.

Isn’t that the old adage?

It certainly feels that way as Monday at the Fort Wayne Community Schools school board meeting, Shabaz Khaliq was named the new boys basketball head coach at North Side. Khaliq joins a very rare list of area coaches who have returned to the same school, especially with just one coach between their first and second tours of duty. Khaliq previously coached at North Side from 2010 to 2018.

“The thing that excites me the most about returning to Northeast Indiana is the opportunity to once again represent three phases that mean a lot to me,” Khaliq said.

“Phase one is obviously North Side High School and there’s a lot of pride in that for me. Phase two is representing the district of Fort Wayne Community Schools and phase three is representing the city of Fort Wayne. I’ve always taken a lot of pride and representing all three on the state level and being able to come back home and do that once again, it is something that I’m tremendously looking forward to and something that I don’t take for granted.”

The move came after quite a few weeks of rumors both pointing towards and the to the contrary of the eventual hire after the exit of Gary Andrews to coach the Huntington North girls team. And now North Side is in a position that they have been in before: bringing in Khaliq with sights set on championships. Because make no mistake, everything in his portfolio of work says that Khaliq is going to bring championships back to North Side.

He left after a Sectional title in 2018 that came just a year removed from North Side’s second every trip to the state finals, after a 52 year absence. Throw in a 2014 Sectional title and five straight SAC Holiday Tournament titles at what many could consider the peak time of that event and all things come up winning in the history of Khaliq at the school. That list does’t even include the Regional title in the final year of existence for Elmhurst High School, something Khaliq did in just his second season of being a varsity head coach.

But all roads led back to the place that is a real home to Khaliq.

“You know North Side is a special place for me because it’s a school to help shape me into the individual that I am today and during my time there I was able to develop lifelong relationships and friendships and North Side help to put me on a path to achieve the things that I wanted to to do in life,” said Khaliq, who is also an alum of the school.

Khaliq’s record after leaving North Side in 2018 went on to be a mixed bag of sorts. He went 12-14 his first year away at Richmond but turned that around into a 17-8 mark in year two before leveling off at 10-10. His three years at Richmond ended and made way for three years at Mooresville, where he went 13-8, 12-12 and 10-14 before not coaching basketball at all this past year.

But North Side Khaliq? That was something special.

He inherited the North Side job in a FWCS shake up in 2010 after Elmhurst’s close. Khaliq was sent to teach and subsequently coach at North Side and then North head coach Mike Novell was moved to rival South Side. The Archers beat the then-Redskins thrice that first year and Khaliq’s team finished 10-10 but that included wins at Carroll and in Sectional play against long time North Side tormentor Marion. That was the last time Khaliq’s North Side teams would ever be .500 or lower during his eight year run at the school.

After winning 12 and then 14 games the next two seasons, Khaliq went on a tear for his final five seasons at North Side, all of which matching up with the SAC Holiday Tournament titles. During his final five seasons leading North Side, Khaliq compiled a record of 109-25.

“I can’t truly express how important North Side has been for me both as a student and now in my adult life coming back as a coach here after leaving for a couple years,” Khaliq said. “You know a good friend of mine said that sometimes you gotta leave home so you can come back and I’m glad that I was able to to see other things, and at the same time have a true understanding of what home truly is and for me that that’s always been North Side High School.”

Overall, Khaliq is 249-130 in his varsity head coaching career and was 145-50 during his eight years at North Side.

Khaliq’s second stint will be just the the sixth run for a boys basketball coach at North Side since 1957. After By Hey, the namesake of the school’s arena, led the way from 1957-1988, the position was taken over by Khaliq’s own high school coach Glenn Heaton. Heaton’s retirement in 2000 brought in Novell, who stayed at the school until the aforementioned restructuring of FWCS made the change to Khaliq and then later Andrews in 2018.