The 300 Club The prestigious 300 Club membership has grown. It now has 30 members. The 300 Club is a compilation of the active basketball coaches in the Panhandle-Plains Basketball area who have reached that magic number of varsity high school wins. The membership still is all men. Not by design. Either the area’s women coaches who have won 300 games – and there are some – don’t have an accurate count of their wins and losses or they have chosen not to report their records. Information is based primarily on records coaches submit on their PPB questionnaires. The 300 Club had 26 members a year ago. One coach retired, but five new members entered. Longtime Coach Leland Bearden retired with a career girls record of 753-224 (.771 winning percentage). Bearden, whose last position was with the Ropes girls, was No. 4 on last year’s list. Two of the five new members have taken positions at Abernathy. Wayne Johnson, who moved back into the area to take the Abernathy girls job, is the new No. 4 coach with 620 girls wins. J.D. Sullivan, Abernathy boys, moved into the No. 7 slot with 603 boys victories. Shane Perkins of Farwell takes over the No. 15 spot with 490 boys wins. Alan Ayers, the new girls mentor at Lubbock
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Trinity Christian, takes No. 25 with 394 girls wins. And making the membership list at No. 30 is Nazareth’s Eric Schilling with 310 girls victories. Of course, the legendary Joe Lombard of Canyon still holds the top spot with an amazing combined (girls and boys) record of 1,379-133 for a .912 winning percentage. Lombard is no longer the head coach at Canyon but is serving as an assistant to his son, Tate Lombard, the Lady Eagles head coach. Several years ago, it was decided that a former head coach who still is active in a school’s basketball program deserves to keep his or her place in the club. This applies to No. 1 Joe Lombard, No. 6 Kyle Bean, New Deal boys assistant, and No. 21 (tied) Andy Copley, Follett boys aide. Chuck Darden, Shallowater girls, celebrated his 1,000th career victory, all at Shallowater, last year, and his team posted a 27-1 record. Darden still is No. 2 with 1,022 wins. Danny Wrenn, the longtime Plainview coach now at Lubbock Kingdom Prep Academy, is No. 3 at 781 wins. Johnson is fourth followed by Randall’s Leslie Broadhurst. Broadhurst is the top boys winner with 618 victories. The list is arranged in order of total combined wins. (Story and chart by Dave Wohlfarth and Cathy Martindale)
2021-2022 Panhandle-Plains Basketball
