Lady Redskins hire Alberts as girls hoops coach

WAPAKONETA — The Wapakoneta athletic department has been going through the hiring process for a new girls varsity basketball coach since Rusty Allen stepped down at the end of the season.

That process has come to a close after the school board voted unanimously to hire Marcie Alberts, a former Ohio State women’s basketball player and member of the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame.

Alberts spent 1993 to 1997 as a member of the Buckeyes after her high school career at Wooster. She would then go on to play one season in the WNBA for the Cleveland Rockers.

Alberts has spent time as a head coach in both the high school and college ranks.

After serving as a graduate assistant for the Univeristy of Toledo from 1999 to 2001, she spent seven seasons as the head coach of the Orrville High School girls varsity. She built up a 117-45 record in her time at Orrville, winning three district titles.

In 2008, she took over as the head coach at Heidelberg University, and was there for five seasons.

Since 2013, Alberts has been an assistant at Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne.

Following the vote Wapakoneta athletic director Brad Rex spoke about the hiring process.

“We had some good applicants but then you look at an application like that you can’t ignore it. We felt it was in our best interest to talk to her and see what we could come up with and see if we could get her to come to Wapakoneta,” said Rex. She will be on a coaching salary of $8,153.73 per year.

Rex hopes she can work with the younger girls to get them to one day be productive basketball players in high school along with working with current high school players. “We think we’re really close to very good and we think if she can work with them, maybe relate a little bit with her experiences, I think that can create some excitement in the program, not that we didn’t have it, but the people look at that resume, see she started for Ohio State, which is very big in this area and played in the WNBA and then collegiately coaching,” said Rex. Adding “we’re just hoping each day our kids are getting better and kids want to play basketball.”

Rex said he received seven applications for the job but the draw for her was her resume and showing experience as a head coach.

Rex explained, “She obviously knows basketball, nobody else that applied had the resume she did and had been around the game as much and in-depth as she has, we felt like it was a huge win for us if we could get her to come to Wapakoneta, we’re really excited to have her a part of our community.”