Owles to replace Connell at Waubonsie

Waubonsie Valley did not need to look far to find its new girls basketball coach.

David Owles, a member of the Warriors boys basketball coaching staff for the last 12 years — the past three as varsity assistant — was offered on Wednesday and accepted the position of head girls coach.

Owles replaces Kim Connell, whose teaching position was not renewed for the 2012-13 school year as part of staff reductions in District 204. Connell posted a 75-11 record and won three straight regional championships since she came to the school in 2009 after 12 seasons at Rockford Boylan.

“The opportunity to run a varsity program is something I've always wanted to do,” Owles said. “After a lot of thought, I decided that it was an opportunity I did not want to pass up.”

Owles, a 1989 graduate of Normal Community High School, worked in the business world for the National Safety Council for seven years after earning his marketing degree from the University of Illinois. He returned to school to earn his teaching certificate and is a business teacher at Waubonsie Valley as well as boys golf coach.

Dave Saurbaugh, the head boys coach for eight years while Owles was on staff and girls assistant for the last three years, will remain on staff. That relationship does offer a sense of security for Owles.

“He will be a huge resource,” Owles said. “The transition is much easier, being in the same school. It will be tough to step away from the boys program because we do have a lot of good boys coming back, but it's a new challenge and a new opportunity.”

The new-look Warriors next fall won't just be on the sidelines.

Waubonsie is graduating four senior starters off last year's Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division co-champs; a youthful Warriors bench played sparingly behind that veteran group. Waubonsie will return All-Area guard/forward Gratia Brooks.

“I'm not going in trying to reinvent the wheel,” Owles said. “It's a huge transition for me, and it's a huge transition for them as well. Part of my job is to make it as seamless as possible for them. I expect us to be a very good defensive team and a very unselfish team.”