Bill Lane
Bill Lane has spent the past 27 years as both a boys and a girls basketball assistant coach at Jennings County.
Last week, the 1993 Jennings graduate was honored with a major award. He was named the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year for girls basketball.
“Bill impacts those around him with his selflessness and his drive to succeed,” Jennings girls head coach Kristi Sigler said in a news release. “He leads by example as a tireless worker, and his players know that he always will be there for them. This has been most recently evident as players from a group that he coached from third grade through their senior year continues to come back and visit with him each time any one of them has an opportunity.”
After helping lead coach Kendall Wildey’s Panther team to a sectional title as a senior in 1993, Lane attended Ball State University and earned a bachelor’s degree in education. He returned to Jennings County in 1997 and has been there ever since.
Lane was a boys basketball assistant coach from 1997-2001, then was a girls assistant for seven of the next eight seasons. He came back to the boys program from 2009-15, then was a middle school girls head coach for two years before moving back to the girls program.
Now in his 27th year as a social studies teacher, Lane also spent 11 years as head girls soccer coach, and two years as head boys soccer coach. He is an assistant baseball coach this spring for Sigler’s husband BJ.
“Bill unselfishly has given 27 years back to our school and community as he has coached multiple sports throughout his time at Jennings County,” Kristi Sigler said. “Bill is a person of character and is committed to doing things correctly. His work ethic and loyalty are unmatched, and he has played a vital role in the success of our program.”
