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A coach and a father figure: YCS girls team feels blessed
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Bill Hoelzel, girls basketball coach at Youngstown Christian School, talks with his players
By Elise Franco
Youngstown
Bill Hoelzel is many things — father, husband, police officer — and for the Youngstown Christian School girls basketball team, a constant in their lives.
On Thursday, Hoelzel and a handful of his players spent time shooting around in the school gym after a scrimmage. He huddled the group of mostly underclassmen together to discuss their performance from that morning.
Unlike many coaches — high school, college or professional alike — not one profanity escaped his lips. Hoelzel spoke with passion, honesty and inspiration as he addressed his team. And they listened.
Hoelzel, a police sergeant who has been with the Austintown Police Department since 1998, said he gives those types of speeches daily.
“I’m speaking into these young people, into their lives,” he said. “I’ve been a constant in their lives, for some of them since grade school.”
Hoelzel joined the girls basketball program at YCS about six years ago and was named varsity coach two years ago.
He remains modest about how much of the girls’ personal success has had to do with himself, but his players don’t dispute it.
“I would never take the credit and say it was all me,” he said. “A lot of these girls come from good families and good shared values.”
Allie Klumpp, 16, of Youngstown said everyone on the team thinks of him not only as her coach but as a father figure. Klumpp said she wouldn’t be where she is today without Hoelzel’s constant guidance.
“He’s so much like a father, especially because I don’t have one,” she said. “He’s always been there, and if I can’t go to my mom to talk about something, I know I can go to him.”
Klumpp said just knowing she has someone like Hoelzel in her life makes her feel like a better person.
Toi Brown, 16, of Youngstown said Hoelzel treats his team like he treats his family.
“He’s brought us all closer to God,” she said. “He treats us like his daughters, and we think of him like a father.”
Hoelzel, a father of three daughters, grew up with his brother and sister.
He said his parents divorced with he was 5, and he visited his father every other weekend.
He said it was a combination of these factors and a renewed relationship with his father later in his life that led him down the path he’s on.
“As a young man, I remember a moment when I forgave him and loved him all over again,” he said, “The last 15 or 20 years of his life we had a phenomenal relationship.”
Hoelzel said he understands and embraces the role he plays in the lives of these young women.
“I believe it’s my expressed purpose to speak life into young women,” he said. “I’m sure a lot of it comes from being a father myself.
“How can you not be energized when you see these girls succeed, when so many of them are up against it?”