ND's Wittenborn awarded coaching honor

~ NSCAA picks the coach of the two-time defending state soccer champions as a coach of the year.

Brad Wittenborn quickly credited his team for his latest honor.

"I view that as a very nice award for the team, but coach of the year awards really are team awards," he said.

Notre Dame's boys soccer coach was named the National Soccer Coaches Association of America's coach of the year for the Division I boys private/parochial Midwest division. Wittenborn led the Bulldogs to their second straight Class 2 state championship this year.

"This is a very talented group of kids," Wittenborn said of his latest team. "Following last year's team, I think they put a lot of pressure on themselves to have everything go perfect.

"We lost a couple games earlier in the year, and to a 17-year-old kid, that's the end of the world. The biggest thing, as far as the coaching staff, would be to try to help them believe in themselves and just keep working to get a little better every day. I think that finally came together at the end of the year."

It was Wittenborn's third state title in boys soccer. He said he doesn't approach his job like others, instead finding his own approach that works well.

"I don't scream and yell at players or referees," he said. "You'd say I'm not very typical in coaching style, but it seems to work for me. We just go along and keep working to get better each day."

Swimming honors

The Central boys swimming team honored some of its members at its team banquet recently.

Peyton Waggener was named the most valuable swimmer, the most valuable teammate and captured the Tiger spirit award. Sam Gramling was honored as the most dedicated swimmer, Matt Leimer was the most improved swimmer, Austin Mehner had the highest grade-point average and Caleb Coots was the rookie of the year.