Andy Stover
Andy Stover was recently appointed as the new girls basketball coach at Daleville. For Stover, a Winchester graduate, this is his first varsity head coaching position. But his athletic director has had an inside look at how Stover runs a squad.
Stover has spent the past two seasons as the junior varsity coach in Daleville’s boys basketball program, working with Daniel Hanson, the Broncos’ varsity coach who was also recently named the school’s athletic director.
“Through those two years, Andy has showed the knowledge and the ability to be a head coach,” Hanson said. “He has strived to learn every day and with the mindset of wanting to become a head coach.”
Stover is taking over a team that went 5-17 in its one season under Dameon Wyatt, who resigned to spend more time with his family. Stover, who is entering his fourth year as a teacher at Daleville, said he saw positive signs as he observed the team last season. One of his major goals is to enhance the feeder program to build on that momentum.
“They’ve definitely taken some steps in the right direction,” Stover said. “Ultimately, they only won five games last year, but they’re in a very good position based on the young talent that we have coming in the program. I’m obtaining a program that has a lot of the starters coming back, the vast majority of my points are coming back. So it’s really exciting to actually take over a program that’s already on a steady up, steady incline.”
In each of his first three years as a teacher at Daleville, Stover has worked in some capacity with the boys basketball program. He said he will make some adjustments in moving over to the girls team, but sees plenty of parallels as well.
“Obviously basketball is basketball no matter how you slice it,” Stover said. “My approach might be slightly different with the girls. Obviously with the boys, I was really in a position where you can really pick and prod at them a little bit more.
“As I approach the girls program, it’s something where I really need to work on the fundamentals. There’s a lot of areas that I’ve seen over the course of the last three weeks since I’ve taken over the program, that we really need to finely tune. I just want to make sure that as we gear up for the season that we’re fundamentally sound, and that’s my ultimate goal.”
Contact prep sports reporter Sam Wilson at (765) 213-5807. Follow him on Twitter @SamWilsonTSP.