New WPS girls hoops coach hopes to establish program

WINDERMERE  Thanks to the network of basketball coaches in this country, Windermere Preparatory School has a new girls basketball head coach with impressive credentials.

“Moving to Florida from Kentucky, it was not on my radar by any means,” coach Rebecca Dyer said. “I was informed of the position from a friend of mine, who is currently the head coach at Hargreaves Military Academy in Virginia. … It was about a week turnaround from hearing about the position to taking the position, and it’s really hard to turn down Florida when your average temperature is 75 degrees and sunny.”

Dyer called this a huge opportunity for her and her family, but for the program she inherits — which has struggled to get off the ground — it means a great deal more to have her next-level experience to draw from. As a player, she reached the Elite Eight with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and then did the same at the University of Kentucky.

Reaching new heights seems to be a theme for Dyer, and that was what made this position so attractive to her.

“I had understood they had not established a (girls) basketball program here,” she said. “And for me, that was intriguing, because I could come in and make an immediate impact, changing the culture that did not exactly exist just yet. So coming in, I knew I could make it my own and see if we could lay the foundation brick-by-brick to grow for the future.”

And that is what Dyer tells her team every day: Lay the foundation brick-by-brick. This is one of her principles, which include effort, the team’s greater good and the best players playing — even if that means starting her seventh-graders.

“We can't come in and expect immediate change,” she said. “It's a daily grind, and they have really bought all-in into that concept, and they've worked so hard each day with the intricate details that I'm asking them to do. The overall basketball IQ that needed to be learned this year, it's hard. But they've absolutely been so good in that aspect of being coachable and responsive to what I'm asking.”

With an exceptionally young nucleus of just seventh-graders and sophomores, the Lakers’ only other player is senior Kelly Rowswell, who is playing soccer at the same time and regularly scores in double digits. That includes 43 points in Windermere Prep’s 55-51 win against Legacy Charter Dec. 11.

“She's an outstanding athlete for us, and we're fortunate to have her,” Dyer said of Rowswell. “But moving forward, we're young, and I'm excited to see where we can go.”

That entails a plan of three to five years, but with the December portion of their schedule complete, the Lakers have a winning record at 5-4, which is a relative success Dyer said her team comprehends.

“That's why we're working hard on a daily basis,” she said. “We'll see where we are at the end of the year, and maybe we'll be competing for a district title.”

Contact Zak Kerr at [email protected].

(Correction: A previous version of this story had said the Lakers lost to Legacy Charter, but a second check with sources indicated the Lakers had won.)