The 300 Club

Finally! The 300 Club has a woman coach.

Jeri Been Goodman, girls coach at Springlake-Earth, moves into the exclusive club after notching win No. 300 last season.

There may be other women coaches who have achieved 300 or more wins, but none have reported their precise records on their Panhandle-Plains Basketball questionnaire.

So Goodman is No. 31 in the club with her 307-218 won-lost record, achieved primarily at Springlake-Earth. She also coached at Hale Center.

The 300 Club is a compilation of the active basketball coaches in the PPB area who have reached that magic number of varsity high school wins as a head coach.

Last year there were 30 club members. This year there are 31.

Six coaches dropped out, either by retiring, no longer coaching (or assisting) basketball or by moving out of the area. Six new coaches gained membership, while one past member returned.

The Nos. 2 and 3 coaches on last year’s membership both have retired. No. 2 Shallowater’s Chuck Darden called it quits after 41 years at that school. His Fillies won two state championships and posted a 1,052-288 record for a .785 winning percentage.

No. 3 Denny Wrenn (781 wins) retired a year ago. The longtime Plainview girls coach spent his final year at Lubbock Kingdom Prep.

Other former members are:

No. 6 Kyle Bean of New Deal (606 wins), who retired after serving the past few years as an assistant to his son, Kyler;

No. 7 J.D. Sullivan (603 wins), who moved from the Abernathy boys to coach at Ponder;

No. 14 Brian Legan (526 wins), who moved from the Sundown girls to coaching girls softball at Seminole;

No. 25 Alan Ayers, the Lubbock Trinity Christian girls coach who had 394 wins entering last season, no longer is coaching in the area.

The six newbies are No. 5 Kevin Richardson, West Plains girls (600 wins); No. 13 Brad Crow, Lubbock Christian girls (489); No. 23 Will Flemons, Lubbock Cooper boys (422); the Canyon duo of No. 29 Travis Schulte (boys 318) and No. 30 Tate Lombard (girls 314); and No. 31 Goodman.

Steve Rhodes, No. 26, returns to the club after a two-year hiatus from coaching. Rhodes, now leading the River Road boys, has 346 victories.

The club has two brothers – Kevin and No. 24 Kurt Richardson (Shallowater girls) – and a father-son duo.

The father, of course, is the club leader, Canyon’s Joe Lombard, with a staggering record of 1,379-133 for a .912 winning percentage. The son is Tate Lombard, whose .826 winning percentage isn’t too shabby.

Joe Lombard still is a member because several years ago it was decided that a former head coach who is still active in a school’s basketball program deserves to keep his or her place in the club. Joe Lombard still is serving as a volunteer assistant coach for Tate Lombard’s Lady Eagles.

So, after Joe Lombard, there’s a 700-plus win gap to No. 2 Leslie Broadhurst of Randall. Broadhurst has the most boys wins with 638.

The list is arranged in order of total combined wins. (Story and chart by Dave Wohlfarth and Cathy Martindale)