H-L names Eric Brickman head girls basketball coach

Hopewell-Loudon football and boys basketball assistant coach Eric Brickman will be taking the leap over into girls sports this winter as he was named the new head girls basketball coach at the board meeting Monday.Even though Brickman was coaching boys sports, the idea of taking over the girls team wasn't exactly a foreign one – at least to previous coach Steve Suter.Suter took over the program from Bob Gase, who departed after leading H-L to a few of the most successful seasons it's had in quite some time. Those teams included MaKayla Elmore, Kaia Woods and Olivia Zender to name a few. Now, it's Brickman's chance to leave a mark."I have the upmost respect for Steve and we had talked a few years ago and he asked me whenever he was done, if I would take over the program," Brickman said. "He knew my daughter was coming up, and I had told him that was something that did interest me, but it's been a while since I was a head coach – granted that was in football – but I'd like to give it another shot. "When this opportunity came up, I asked Steve if he wanted me to apply for it because his friendship means a lot to me. I actually wanted to be his assistant, possibly for like a year beforehand, so I could see the girls game, but I know things didn't quite work out the way we had anticipated, so it's been put in motion a few years ago and we had some conversations."While switching over to girls basketball from boys basketball is certainly not unheard of – Calvert's Aaron Sheets being a prime example of that working out – it still is a bit of an adjustment. But it's a challenge Brickman will embrace."My dad used to scout for girls basketball, and I used to go to games. I read a book in college about a guy who coached a ton of football and then switched to girls basketball, and was a good basketball coach, so it's always been in the back of my mind," he said. "So one day when an opportunity was right, it would be something I would be interested in doing. "Coach (Roger) Jury has been awesome too, I've learned a lot from him. It's hard because I do have a junior (boy), another boy coming yet and then a girl in sixth grade, so we had a family meeting about it. They knew I liked coaching so they told me to go do it."The Chieftains were 9-14 overall and 7-11 in the SBC River last season. Even though Brickman will inherit a team with a little bit of experience, it will be tough to replace some of the seniors from last year's team, including Sidney Brickner and All-Ohioan Olivia Bishop."We're going to be young. Right now, we have four seniors, three juniors... I mean I got hired on Monday and we had an open gym on Tuesday, so it was a quick turnaround, but the girls were awesome," Brickman said. "I told them no matter what this season, we're going to have fun because in high school sports, you're supposed to have fun. Every time we walk out on the court, give your best effort and then just be the best teammate you can be. If we follow those three things, everything else will take care of itself.