Lawrence to lead out Cougars again in ’23-24 season

As mentioned in the 2023-24 Putnam County Girls’ Basketball Previews, North Putnam will be under the guidance of Curtis Lawrence for the upcoming season.

The change took place in September when the North Putnam School Board accepted the resignation of Craig Franklin from the head coaching position with Lawrence, a former head coach of the Cougar girls and assistant for the last several years, tapped to take charge.

“A little bit,” Lawrence said about being surprised to be in the head coach’s chair again. “I had actually resigned my position (as an assistant) at the end of last year but things happened and (North Putnam athletic director Bart) Jochim asked if I would be interested in taking the job.

“We were in a tough position, being right before school started. Kelly Windmiller and I are sort of co-coaching this year; I have the head coach title but we’re splitting the coaching duties.”

Lawrence coached the North Putnam girls’ basketball team for two years, going 8-32 between the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons, a dry period for the program as a whole with 13 seasons of sub-.500 basketball.

As time has gone on, Lawrence said the type of athletes playing basketball have gotten more physical while playing at a tempo that would likely not have been possible during his first coaching stint.

“The athletes have changed and the style of play is different,” Lawrence said. “A decade ago, it was, let’s get the ball down the floor, let’s get set up, let’s try to run an offense.

“Now, we have girls where we want to run and get up-and-down the floor. The athletic ability of some of the kids has gotten better. Athletes have gotten bigger and stronger from a decade ago and that’s true even on the girls’ side.

“We have some girls that can hold their own, something we didn’t necessarily have back then,” Lawrence added.

For Franklin, who was 10-13 in the 2022-23 season, his first foray as a head coach came with a steep learning curve beyond the Xs and Os of play calling.

“This was the first time I’ve been a head coach after being an assistant for 10 years with the boys’ program,” Franklin said. “The biggest thing I learned is about all the things behind the scenes that have nothing to do with basketball, whether it was things like collecting money for attire, getting practice schedules to the office so it could be checked off, working with boys’ basketball on scheduling, film work, practice jerseys, ordering gear and being responsible for money through sponsorships.

“I knew those things were there but underestimated the amount of time that goes in to doing all those things and always felt like I was playing catchup. Scouting with the boys’ team, I watched a lot of games but only about one out of every three teams we played; as a head coach, you have to hone in on every team, find ways to take advantage of the things other teams do while preparing for what they do well.

“That takes a lot of extra time as well, on top of the extra time for those other things and even more items, whether it was staffing for events or even concessions at other events,” Franklin added.

Franklin added those lessons would prove valuable after moving back to an assistant role on North Putnam boys’ head coach Vince Brooks’ staff.

“For me, understanding how much of a toll the other things behind the scenes take on a head coach has become clear,” Franklin noted. “Vince does a phenomenal job with everything he does.

“When I used to scout, I used to wonder why he would make certain decisions and, having been in that same position now, I understand why the decisions I might have given before weren’t taken. I get why Vince does what he does now, why he wouldn’t be worried about certain things. He was building for something further down the line.

“Those little things I’ve picked up, I can’t wait to drop back to being an assistant because I feel like I will be a better assistant now,” Franklin added. “I want to be the best person I can be for the program with what I’ve learned.

“Even though I’m no longer their coach, I wish both the girls and Curtis the best of luck this season.”

Having been an assistant for a decade now, Lawrence said he would take the lessons he too had learned as a coach, as well as items he has picked up over the course of his time as an assistant, to try and keep the current squad going in the right direction.

“In my career, I’ve been very fortunate to work with some great head coaches,” Lawrence pointed out. “I worked with Doug Miller at Greencastle; he’s the one that got me started into coaching.

“When I took the position here, I sat down with (DePauw women’s basketball head coach Kris) Huffman to talk Xs and Os. I worked with and picked up a lot from Jim Spencer, Lukas, since we’re going back to something closer to his style, I’ve learned several things from and picked up some things from Craig as well.

“I’ve always been in a position where I’ve worked with good coaches, learned and taken something away from each of them that we’re able to implement now,” Lawrence added.