Tuttle’s Lester stepping down one year after winning 4A title
TUTTLE — Brian Lester decided to call a brief, impromptu team meeting after spring break.
The Tuttle girls basketball players were turning in their equipment on March 21 after a 25-2 season and finishing as the Class 4A state runner-up.
“I just feel it’s best at this time,” Lester told his players in an emotional speech.
After nine seasons, Lester is stepping down as girls basketball coach. He will remain as the school’s athletic director. Lester guided Tuttle to the 2021 Class 4A state championship, its first in girls basketball. During his tenure, Tuttle had a 161-84 record with a 73-10 mark the past three years.
“Anytime you step away it’s somewhat emotional and that’s always tough,” Lester said. “You hate to disappoint people. But mentally I just felt like I needed to take a break.”
Lester took over as Tuttle’s athletic director before the season and realized he was getting pulled in several directions handling both positions. And with the understanding of how well Tuttle was supposed to play just after winning the state championship and returning all of its key players, Lester didn’t feel like he could perform both jobs at the highest level.
“I felt that if we didn’t get back to the finals, it’d be a disappointing year,” Lester said. “I think in order to keep a program (great) at a school our size, a person has to be invested in our youth hoops program. You have to be invested in the middle school and you’ve got to put in a lot of time.
“When I got here nine years ago, we were just hoping to get out of our regional, a district championship those types of things. Which is why I was appreciating anytime we did anything.”
Even though Tuttle won the state championship last season, it didn’t win its first 5-on-5 girls basketball area championship until this year. All of its other state tournament appearances came from the loser’s bracket. So, Lester could see the turnaround the program was making.
“I could probably coach the girls for another year or two and everything would be fine,” Lester said. “Tuttle is going to be good, we’ve got good players in the community in every grade. But I always preach to the kids you’ve got to do what’s best for the team and the program.”
The timeliness of Lester’s departure has much to do with his job as the athletic director, but he also wants to give the next coach a head start with the talent Tuttle will have returning next season.
“I’ve seen people go into situations where (a coach) is out of high school a couple years because they have really good talent,” Lester said. “And then they leave and they’ve not done a very good job at being invested in their younger kids, coaching them up, and they just have trouble getting back to winning. I didn’t want that happening here.”
Lester announced his decision to the Oklahoma Coaches Association last Tuesday. He said he believes Tuttle is a top-five job and that he already has about 30 resumes on his desk.
“I don’t think anyone’s had better success in a three-year period,” Lester said, with the exception of Howe High School.