Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Centennial High School girls’ basketball coach is ‘scary’ but caring

Centennial Girls Basketball Coach Karen Weitz

L.E. Baskow

Centennial High School girls basketball coach Karen Weitz does her best to motivate her players during practice in the first week of their season.

Centennial Girls Basketball Coach Karen Weitz

Centennial High School girls basketball coach Karen Weitz has won a record seven state championships and begins the next season with the first week of practice on Tuesday , November 17, 2015. Launch slideshow »

The rivalry with Bishop Gorman

The Centennial and Bishop Gorman high school girls’ basketball teams have won a combined 11 state championships, and both have multiple Division I players. They’ll likely meet this winter in the Sunset Regional championship game, with the winner in the driver’s seat to win the state championship the following week.

“There have been some good teams in this city that could beat Gorman or beat us, but they want to sit back and let Centennial and Gorman be at the top,” Centennial coach Karen Weitz said. “Why don’t they do something to be up there, too?”

Karen Weitz used to watch teams celebrate championship wins and question why the players and coaches would be brought to tears.

If the Centennial High girls’ basketball coach were fortunate enough to lead her team to the state title, she thought, she would be able to contain herself.

Weitz, who has built Centennial into arguably Nevada’s most dominant dynasty, regardless of sport, is a strict disciplinarian. She is so structured and determined in the way she manages the program, her passion often is misinterpreted by outsiders. They see Weitz barking at players who make mistakes and question why she’s so tense when her team leads by a comfortable margin. Centennial often wins with the mercy rule of a running clock, so some accuse her of unsportsmanlike conduct.

They don’t see Weitz’s soft side. And neither did Weitz.

When Centennial won its first of seven state championships in 2002, beating Reno High in double overtime and becoming the first Southern Nevada school to win the large-school championship in more than 20 years, tears of satisfaction flowed down Weitz’s face.

“When you see people cry after a sporting event, I think ‘Come on now,’ ” Weitz said. “But when we won our first state championship, I lost it. I had been waiting so many years. I wanted to be the first one (from the South) to win it. We were going to be the first to knock down this wall.”

And Weitz, 47, has kept winning. She has more than 500 career victories, an undefeated season and four consecutive state championships from 2002 to 2005, and she has no plans to slow down. A new season starts this week, and the Bulldogs are ranked No. 4 nationally by USA Today and expected to win another state championship.

‘Scary Karen’

Weitz’s humble office, in the back of the Centennial weight room, is decorated with photos of each championship team, news clippings and awards to document the program’s rise. There also are photos of former players in their current lives — family and wedding pictures, and college achievements.

Toward the end of each season, it’s customary for former players to return to give motivational talks in the locker room before the playoffs. The players, maybe not initially but definitely over time, thrive with Weitz’s tough-love coaching philosophy,

“When they first come into the program, it’s kind of like, ‘Whoa,’ ” said Katie Lutman, a longtime Centennial assistant coach. “I always tell her, ‘That’s your alter-ego.’ We call her Scary Karen because it’s all about business. But the more the kids are around her, they get to know her sarcasm, get to know her personality and are comfortable around her.”

There is no gray area with Weitz. And she never plays favorites, even with players such as Italee Lucas, who went on to play at the University of North Carolina. Weitz expects players to work hard in class and on the basketball court, and she doesn’t tolerate tardiness.

“Sick is sick,” Weitz said. “If you are sick, then don’t come to practice. But you won’t play the next game. You see kids being sick one day but coming in the next, ‘Hey, I’m ready to play.’ We teach them to fight through those little things. Our kids will come to practice with a roll of toilet paper and tough it out. Two days later, they are fine.”

Few if any players or parents complain.

“She holds kids accountable,” said Troy Brown Sr., whose daughter, Jada Brown, spent four years with Weitz and now plays for the University of Kansas. “She prepares kids. One of the things my daughter says is, ‘I didn’t respect it when I was there, but she prepared me for college. I was more prepared than the other girls.’ ”

Those family pictures and achievement certificates are evidence that her program, regardless of games won, is a success.

“When my kids graduate, they will be hard workers, they will be on time, they won’t take riff-raff from any man,” Weitz said. “They are good, solid women.”

The Karen Weitz rule

In the 2010-11 season, Centennial won 13 games by more than 50 points, beating teams 75-8 and 81-8. Shortly after, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, which governs high school sports, created a rule requiring a written explanation by the coach of any team winning by more than 50 points.

Other teams also won by more than 50, but many believe the rule was a response to Centennial’s dominance. Now, when her team leads by 49 points, Weitz instructs players to pass the ball but not to shoot. The NIAA also created a mercy rule, in which a 40-point lead triggers a continuous clock.

Weitz says she doesn’t try to run up the score. In fact, on several occasions, she has provided administrators game film to document the actions her team has taken, such as stopping its full-court press, to keep games from getting out of hand.

But Weitz won’t let critics change how she prepares her teams. It’s what makes them championship contenders each season.

“I don’t know how to coach any differently,” she said. “When my team comes out ready to play, it doesn’t matter who our opponent is. We don’t size up our opponent. If it is someone with less talent or the best team in the state, we are going to come out from the tip and play the same.”

Coach by default

Weitz competed in basketball and track in college, was a national champion in the javelin throw at Scottsdale Community College and competed two years on the UNLV track team. She was teaching physical education at Swainston Middle School when the Clark County School District decided to bring back middle-school basketball. She got the job by default.

“Nobody there wanted to do it,” Weitz said. “Because I was a prior basketball player/track athlete, they said, ‘You are doing it.’ That’s when I started learning about the history and when the last time Southern Nevada won a state championship was, and there comes my competitiveness. I have to chance this.”

Weitz later became the coach of Cheyenne High and joined Centennial when the school opened in 1999.

Keeping it simple

For all her wins, Weitz doesn’t crave attention. All she wants to do is coach, which at Centennial includes four practices each week in summer.

Weitz recently traded her flip-phone for an iPhone but doesn’t have Facebook or Twitter accounts. And if she doesn’t return a phone call immediately, it’s not because she’s ignoring it. She’s just not attached to technology.

Her circle of friends is no more than four or five — a former high school classmate from Oregon and others in the Centennial program.

“I come to school, I do my job, I coach and go home,” Weitz said.

She often says she’s married to the Centennial program and proudly sports a silver state championship ring on her finger — and players do, as well. Last year’s ring cost $300, and when the school said it would cover only a third of cost, Weitz made sure the program covered the rest through fundraising contributions.

It was another example of Weitz watching out for her players, who know the other side of “Scary Karen,” the one who cares for them with the same passion she has in building a dynasty.

“She’s fun but strict and straight business,” said Justice Ethridge, a Centennial sophomore guard. “We know she’s going to do everything to help us be better.”

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy