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| Posted on Saturday, January 10 @ 00:00:49 PST |
WILCOX — Some coaches have a right-hand man.
For Wilcox-Hildreth boys basketball coach Matt Hinrichs, its a right-hand woman.
Thats because his wife, Allie, is a Falcons assistant.
The couple, who married in 2023 and farm near Hildreth, are in their first season leading Matts alma mater. He was hired last spring to resurrect the program he played for during its most successful stretch to date.
I actually have a lot of fun with it, said Allie. I always just think of it as basketball is basketball. It doesnt matter if its boys or girls. Its just been fun coaching together.
We give each other and sometimes the kids give us a hard time and say funny stuff to us about being married, but were having a whole bunch of fun.
Its been more so recently, since the Falcons achieved their first win of their new era.
They cruised to a 74-36 win over Arapahoe Dec. 18 in Wilcox, which has helped increase the buy-in to the culture the husband-wife duo are trying to establish.
They won a second, more competitive game against Giltner/Harvard in their first contest back from moratorium.
Now, they are playing more freely, without the pressure of shaking the monkey off their backs.
Now, theres hope and more desire to practice harder to yield more winning results.
Now, theres belief in the process Matt and Allie are trying to instill in their takeover of the program.
It takes a lot of time and effort and were just trying to instill that things dont happen overnight, Matt said. You gotta learn and grow. A lot of that comes during the offseason. But its just continual work and willingness to get better, even when the result maybe doesnt say what you want it to say.
There should be plenty of faith that the couple can turn the program around.
Both Allie and Matt bring extensive basketball experience and knowledge to Wilcox.
Matt was a junior at Wil-Hil when the consolidated program earned its first-ever berth to the state tournament. The Falcons were 24-3 during that 2014-15 run — their best season to date.
Allie, whose maiden name is Bauer, was on a state tournament team at Elm Creek as a sophomore in 2017. She then went on to a successful career at Hastings College, first as a bench contributor and later earning a full-time starting role during the latter half of her senior year.
While at HC, the Broncos experienced some turbulence after Allies first season, which had promising national title hopes before being cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shes using those trials and tribulations to inspire the Falcons.
One quote Ive said a lot this year with the guys is Temporary inconvenience, permanent improvement, Allie said. Were just trying to break some old habits and instill some really good, new ones. With that, theres a lot of inconvenience. Youre uncomfortable. They have to overcome that in order for things to change.
The Falcons notched just five wins last season. They had three the year before that, then two and just one in 2021-22.
Entering Friday, Wilcox-Hildreth was 2-8. But neither of the coaches are discouraged.
Weve already seen great growth from our team and I think were a better team than our record shows and just trying to get better each day, Matt said.
Allie and Matt officially began dating in 2020, but their history dates back further than that.
Though three grades apart, they both played for schools in the Fort Kearny Conference and occasionally crossed paths. Both are also coaches kids.
Allies first impression of Matt as a hooper was Hes OK, I guess.
Matt has always been impressed by Allies skillset.
Ive always thought shes the best shooter Ive ever been around, so I wanted to have somebody like that on my coaching staff, Matt said.
Their styles and philosophies might be opposites, but perhaps thats why they work so well together.
Im more of the defense, Matt said. Shes more the high-powered offense.
The stats from their playing days reflect that.
Matt finished his career with 96 blocks, including tallying 67 as a senior in 2015-16, and 586 rebounds. Never the scorer his wife was, Matt did average 13.1 points in his final competitive season.
In all but her freshman season at Elm Creek, Allie averaged double digits, reaching a high of 19.3 points per outing as a senior in 2018-19. She was a career 33% shooter from beyond the arc — her specialty as she advanced to Hastings College.
With the Broncos, Allie canned 37% of her 3-pointers, including a whopping 39% as a senior.
While they cant lace up for the Falcons, they can do plenty else to put them in a position to be successful.
That includes rigorous film study — often done apart from each other first, then convening later — as well as practice planning.
The spirit of competition drives them both. Though thats something theyve always known, in their short time on the sideline together, it has been underscored.
When we were first going out, we were a little more competitive with each other, Allie said.
I think now were kind of putting that together so were more competitive in how can we make ourselves better and how can we channel that for the betterment of the program.
The Hinrichses appear to be the perfect collaborative pair.
Allie always envisioned herself doing some coaching, just not as the head of a program.
Luckily, Matt plans to be at Wilcox-Hildreth as long as theyll have him, which means Allies seat on the bench is secure, so long as they want to work together.
As of now, they dont see that changing. They do, however, see the program evolving.
Maybe were not getting the wins right now, Allie said. But hopefully with just overall improvement, then we can make a permanent change in our program and then well start to see just some positive outcome.
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