Hoop Milestone

Zionsville Girls Basketball Coach Andy Maguire Reaches 200 Wins

Photographer / Mariah Krafft

Zionsville Community High School girls basketball head coach Andy Maguire, who recently won his 200th game in charge of the Lady Eagles, has coaching in his blood.

His father was the Zionsville boys basketball head coach from 1970 to 1976.

“Growing up watching him, spending a lot of time in the gym, I knew that coaching was something that I someday I might be interested in,” Maguire says.

A Purdue University graduate, Maguire initially majored in industrial design before deciding to take a different path.

“After a year of trying to figure myself out, I realized that really I needed to be in education,” he says. “My mom was a teacher. She was an elementary school teacher, so I kind of had a history of education in my bloodline. It was an easy transition for me to go into teaching.”

Maguire began his coaching career while he was still at Purdue, coaching seventh grade boys basketball and eighth grade the next year at Tri-County High School and Middle School. After graduation he got a job at Western Boone Junior-Senior High School, where he spent the next 11 years, five of them coaching the girls varsity basketball team.

When a job opened up at Zionsville, Maguire applied, in no small part due to some prodding by his wife, who he says wanted their kids to grow up in the school system. Maguire got the job, and he’s been there ever since.

In addition to being the head coach of the Lady Eagles basketball team, Maguire teaches health and physical education at Zionsville Middle School. Despite being different jobs at different schools, with different age groups, Maguire doesn’t separate the two in terms of his approach. He treats his classroom like his team and vice versa.

“I think I try to be the same kind of person in both those worlds,” he says.

Maguire says he believes strongly in teaching life lessons and qualities that he believes will help people be successful in the future. He stresses being enthusiastic, confident and disciplined.

“One thing I’m always trying to stress is the only way you can really learn is to learn fearlessly and not be afraid to make mistakes,” he says. “I think that carriers over onto the basketball court as well. Teams that are successful are the ones that bounce back quickly from mistakes.”

With 200 wins under his belt, Maguire is quick to give others credit. He cites his father as his biggest influence.

“I got to see him as a coach, and obviously more importantly as a father,” he says. “He was always a really big influence in my life. I think he was always a good role model for me. He taught me a lot about building character, and taught me a lot about how to influence people in a positive way.”

Maguire says he always tells people that a large part of why the Lady Eagles are so successful is because they have the best coaching staff in the state.

“I really enjoy practice with them, probably even more so than games – just planning and thinking of ways to help our kids improve,” he says. “I’m lucky to have a really good group of assistants that are always thinking of really good things, and creative ways to help our kids get better.”

Without the support of his wife Jennie and their daughters Megan, Grace and Emily, Maguire says he would not be a successful coach.

“Coaching requires a lot of time and effort away from your family, and they have always been great and allowed me to follow my passion,” he says.

He heaps praise on his athletes, because for Maguire that’s part of what win number 200 in his eighteenth season was all about.

“It also makes you reflect on all the really good kids that you’ve been able to coach, not just great athletes, but first-class role models and citizens, and just really good kids,” he says. “When you get the 200 you realize that you got there for a reason, and it’s because you had a really good support staff and a good, talented group of players.”

Looking back, Maguire says he can’t pick a favorite win. In fact, he says it’s the losses that he remembers the most. Enjoying positive outcomes is one thing he’s looking to get better at, and something that he wishes he could tell his younger self.

“I even told our kids this after our win the other night – enjoy a victory,” he says. “In reality, I think we should all step back every once in a while and just really kind of celebrate all the good things that you’ve done to get to that point.”