Former Lexington High School girls basketball coach Randy Carpenter, right. (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
LEXINGTON — Former Lexington High School girls basketball coach Randy Carpenter was presented with the John Wooden Legacy Award after the LHS and Northwest girls basketball game on Friday, Dec. 12.
“The John Wooden family collaborated with the National High School Basketball Coaches Association to create a national award for high school basketball coaches who excelled not only as a basketball coach but also as an educator in the classroom,” Lexington High School Athletic Director Phil Truax said.
Each participating state is now provided the opportunity to select two Wooden Legacy award winners each year, a boys coach and a girls coach.
“Earlier this year, the Nebraska Basketball Coaches Association members were asked to nominate past and present coaches to be considered for the Wooden Legacy award. A selection committee made up of Nebraska high school basketball coaches reviewed the nomination list and selected the 2023 award recipients,” Truax said
Carpenter was inducted into the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame on Oct. 2, 2016.
“After two years as an assistant boys’ basketball coach at Elm Creek, Randy Carpenter started the girls’ basketball program at Lexington in 1974, creating an after-school program that would feed his varsity. The early success of his teams helped steer Nebraska into the modern era of girls’ basketball,” per the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame Foundation.
“Throughout his career, the passionate and colorful Carpenter earned a reputation for producing teams that played solid player-to-player defense and were well-prepared. In a coaching tenure that lasted 37 years, he led the Minutemaids to state championships in 1978 and 1987, two runner-up trophies in 1977 and 1991, 13 district championships and 12 Southwest Conference titles. He retired in 2011 with a 492-276 record. His last team set a school record with 23 victories,” the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame Foundation stated.
Carpenter thanked those who had supported him over his many years of coaching, including his wife Peg, who kept the official book for 768 consecutive games.
Carpenter also noted all the young women who he had a chance to coach.
“I can’t say enough about them…the memories they created for me will last forever,” Carpenter said, “I just hope I had as much impact on them, as they have had on me.”
The National High School Basketball Coaches Association has teamed with the Wooden family to present an annual John Wooden Legacy Award to a boys and girls coach in each state.
The recognition seeks to honor scholastic basketball coaches around the country who are educators and have achieved excellence on the floor, in the classroom and in the community that further embody the characteristics and legacy of Coach John Wooden.
The criteria for this award are rooted in the ideals of Education, Longevity, Character, Service and Excellence.