DCHS Lady Tiger Basketball coach Danny Fish was tossed into the job when newly-hired Coach Nathaniel Kennard tendered his resignation and returned home to Livingston Academy just after the beginning of the school year, leaving the team in the lurch.
Kennard, a replacement for Joe Pat Cope, had only been on the job for a few weeks when he left abruptly, and Fish, who had recently been named Tigerette softball coach as well, was tapped to take the helm.
“With everything that shook down here in the last couple of months it’s been fun and new, Fish told the Review. “I’ve only been on the floor with the team about ten days. We got kind of stuck behind the eight ball with Kennard taking them to camp. He had them running a lot of set plays, and I’m a motion guy, so there’s been a lot of adjustment. Teaching these kids how to play without the ball in their hand is going to be the biggest challenge. I’m excited about it, though. The girls have been really receptive to things that we’re doing.”
While the team is painfully young, Fish said that even the underclassmen have a lot of experience.
“We have a lot good players, but they are very young,” he said. “We have 13 underclassmen out of 15 players. Hanah Panter, our only senior, has had a good fall. She has logged a lot of minutes during her basketball career. We expect her to be our go-to person this year, but we have some other players who go hard. We’re returning Macy Hedge, a sophomore, who played a lot as a freshman. Maddison Parsley and Joni Robinson got a lot of time in as freshmen last year, so we have a pretty good nucleus of young players with a kid who’s been around a while and can help show them the way.”
He said the team’s incoming freshmen are capable as well.
“We not only have a good sophomore class, our freshman class is also solid,” Fish shared. “We call the five freshmen that we kept the fab five. They were all significant in the Middle School state championship last year, so they know how to win.”
On the competition in Region 4-AA this year, the coach said it’s business as usual.
“It’s probably going to be just as tough as it always is,” said the coach. “Our district has always been one of the top districts for girls’ basketball in the state, and I don’t think it’s going to miss it much this year. We have the runner-up coming back and pretty much returning all their players, and Upperman will be very good. I watched Livingston play last week and they’re still Livingston. Smith County is going to be a lot better this year. I think they have five seniors and four of those are starters. I think York and Central Magnet will be tough, and Macon will be better this year. They’ve got Paige Clark back from a torn ACL. Our district will be our district, very competitive and very difficult, as it always is.”
A DeKalb County native, Fish graduated from DCHS in 1996.
He played both basketball and baseball at DCHS, receiving a baseball scholarship at Motlow State Community College. He was then awarded a scholarship to play baseball at Tennessee Wesleyan College from 1998-2000. He earned “All Conference” and “All Region” honors both years. He got his first taste of coaching at Tennessee Wesleyan in 2001.
He moved on to coach at Maryville College in 2002, where he compiled a record of 159-115 and 80-30 in GSAC play. He was three-time GSAC Coach of the Year in 2004, 2007, and 2009, with five regular season titles at Maryville.
Fish left Maryville for Union College in 2009, to take the job of head softball coach. The team at Union won the 2010 Appalachian Athletic Conference Tournament and made it to the 2010 NAIA World Series. He coached two Conference Players of the Year, nine All Conference Players, eight All-Academic Team members and was awarded the 2012 Champions of Character for the most service work in the conference while at Union.
The coach returned to DeKalb County in 2012 and was first hired as a substitute teacher, and became assistant softball coach at DCHS. He was hired as a physical education teacher at Northside Elementary School the next year.
The Lady Tiger basketball season opens Friday night, with DeKalb facing the Chattanooga Patriots in Smithville at 5 p.m. The Hall of Fame game in Watertown will be held on Saturday, and DeKalb will travel to Trousdale County on Monday, and will play in the Cannon County Thanksgiving Classic on Nov. 25-26 in Woodbury.
