DAYNA REED WESTBROOK is shown after the Douglass Indians won the Class 1A Division II Region IV basketball championship in New Braunfels. In the photo (from left) are Bryce Westbrook, Dayna Westbrook, Dr. Steve Westbrook and Reed Westbrook. The Indians placed second in the state. Both Reed, a 6-1 senior guard, and Bryce, a 6-3 junior guard/forward, made all-tournament. Dayna Westbrook, a former Robert E. Lee High School, and Stephen F. Austin State University standout, will be coaching by the boys and girls basketball teams at Douglass High School next season. Courtesy Photo

 

Douglass High School boys basketball has a new coach and one player in particular is very familiar with the hire.

She’s his mother.

Dayna Reed Westbrook recently accepted the job as head boys coach for the Indians, a team coming off a 30-7 season in which they reached the Class 1A Division II state title game.

Her son, Bryce Westbrook, scored 20 points in the state semifinals and delivered 23 more in the state final, a 60-54 loss to Roxton. He is one four returning seniors on the Indians.

Not that Bryce is alone in being familiar with Westbrook. His teammates know her also — as girls head basketball coach at Douglass.

But circumstances have provided an opportunity for Westbrook to coach both the boys and girls, and the former Robert E. Lee High School standout has accepted the challenge.

“I’ve had some people call and tell me congratulations and condolences at the same time,” Westbrook said to the Tyler Paper. “I told them I would take both. Everything has been positive to this point.”

Dayna Reed was the leader of arguably Lee’s best basketball team with the Lady Raiders advancing all the way to the Class 5A championship game in 1986.

“It was wonderful,” Westbrook said of her time with the Lady Raiders. “Marianne Jones was my high school coach and we got to play in the state championship game my junior year and lost to Victoria. I have a lot of good friends who I still keep in touch with from those days.

“That time period allowed me to know then that I wanted to be a coach.”

She went on to play basketball for four years at Stephen F. Austin State University and later be an assistant coach for the Lady ‘Jacks. Then in 2001, Westbrook captured the elusive state title that had evaded her as a player, leading Nacogdoches Central Heights past Boyd, 57-56, in the 2A girls championship.

She left Central Heights following the championship to take on a new challenge with Douglass where she has led the Indians into the playoffs in seven of her 12 years. Douglass is currently enjoying a three-year playoff streak and reached the area round last year.

Mark Leuschner was head coach of the Douglass boys last year and recently accepted an administrative job for Slocum ISD. Westbrook said a few candidates were offered the job, but turned it down for different reasons, leading finally to someone accepting the job and signing the paperwork, only to back out because their fiancée received an internship in Dallas that as Westbrook puts it, “they couldn’t pass up.”

“The administration got together (after that) and visited with me and asked if I would consider taking on both for one year and we’d reevaluate (after that),” Westbrook said. “We thought about it for a day or two and decided we’d make it work.”

Starting in November, all eyes will be on her for both teams, and she knows what it will take for Douglass to be successful and challenge again for a state title.

“It takes a lot of group dedication as a whole and as individuals; and it starts with the coach,” Westbrook said. “In 2001 when my girls at Central Heights won state, a huge part of that was because of the commitment they made outside of the season.

“We are going to have many challenges ahead of us. (On the boys side) a former classmate of mine (at REL), Hosea Lee, is the head coach at Laneville and they return everyone from their squad and they are in our district.”

Douglass competes in District 25-1A Division II, along with perennial power Laneville while fellow league member Oakwood faced Douglass in last year’s regional final with Douglass winning 69-58.

“We return a lot of kids, but we lost some big pieces off the team from last year, so we are going to have to work even harder to try and make that happen,” Westbrook said. “Colleagues have said that if anyone can do it, I can do it.

“It’s been done before in the area, it’s just different because I am female. There hasn’t been a female coach to coach guys, but basketball is basketball and I think I have the respect from my peers in that regard.”