Midgett-Haertling to take reins of Jackson program

After serving as a Jackson girls basketball assistant coach for the past five years, Shelia Midgett-Haertling has been promoted to head coach.

She replaces Sam Sides, who recently retired from the position.

Midgett-Haertling, who coached the girls varsity program at Central High School for the two years before being hired as Sides' assistant, said one of the terms of her hiring at Jackson was that she would become the varsity coach when Sides retired.

She added that was the only way she would agree to come.

"I'm extremely excited," she said. "[Head coaching was] my intention in the beginning, but it was good to be under coach Sides for a little bit to see how all the things ran here at Jackson. But I'm extremely excited. I see a bright future for the girls for the simple fact that they're young. And I had most of them as JV players, and so they'll move up with me. That I think, too, coaching them fundamentally as a JV and then moving up and advancing with them, I think that will help in the long run."

Midgett-Haertling, who teaches junior high school physical education, led the Indians girls junior varsity team to a 74-20 record in five seasons.

Before her time at Jackson and Central, she spent two years as the varsity basketball coach at Branson High School. Before that she spent nine years as an assistant at Nixa High School and two years as a varsity basketball coach at Sparta High School.

"We should be quick," she said of her team. "We're going to get after it defensively. That's just my style: to get after it and push the ball up and down the floor. We're not going to be very big. So we'll have to do a good job of defending the guards to prevent the ball from getting to the post players. But we'll play up-tempo. We'll push the ball up the floor and I'm more defensively focused, so we'll spend a lot of time working on defense."

Jackson athletic director John Martin said: "What I like about her the most is that she's passionate about basketball. She's done a good job in the five years she's been here. She works hard at it. ... I really haven't gotten a chance to visit with her. I will tell you she's excited to take over the program."