IBCA E-Newsletter

NFHS Coach of the Year nominees

Al Gooden of Lawrence Central and Donna Cheatham of Scottsburg have been chosen as Indiana’s nominees for the National Federation of State High School Associations national basketball coaches of the year.

Gooden guided the Bears to a 22-3 record last season that included the championship of the Raymond James Hall of Fame Classic and a co-championship of the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference. He has compiled a 100-45 ledger in six seasons with the Bears, including a sectional crown in 2019. In 32 seasons as a varsity coach, he is 492-273.

His varsity resume includes a 17-24 record in two years at Heritage (1987-89), a 321-206 mark in 21 seasons at Fort Wayne Harding (1989-2011) and a 54-14 slate in three seasons at New Haven (2011-14). In his time at Harding, his teams won 10 sectionals, six regionals, five semi-states and the Class 2A state championship in 2001. In addition, one of his New Haven squads claimed a sectional trophy.

Gooden is a 1977 graduate of Fort Wayne Wayne, where he competed in both basketball and football for four years. He went on to Ball State, where he played basketball for four years and earned his bachelor’s degree in 1981. He was a part of the Cardinals’ 1980-81 squad that competed in the 1981 NCAA Tournament, falling to Boston College 93-90 in the first round.

He began his coaching career as an assistant coach for three seasons at Fort Wayne Elmhurst prior to becoming head coach at Heritage.

Gooden was an Indiana All-Star assistant coach in 2005, an IBCA District 1 Coach of the Year in 2012 and an IBCA District 2 Coach of the Year in 2020. He was Marion County Coach of the Year in 2019. He served on the IBCA Board of Directors in the 1995-96 season.

Gooden and his wife, Felicia, have three children and six grandchildren.

Cheatham directed Scottsburg to a 14-10 ledger last season and completed a 45-year career as a girls’ varsity coach with a 730-274 slate. That included a 379-80 mark in 22 seasons at Scottsburg from 1972-94, a 198-92 record at Southwestern (Hanover) from 1997-2009 and a 153-102 mark from 2009-2020 in a second tenure at Scottsburg.

During her time, Cheatham’s teams won 21 sectionals, 11 regionals, five semi-states and two state championships – 1989 with Scottsburg and 2002 in Class 2A with Southwestern. The 2003 Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame inductee was Indiana’s first girls basketball coach two guide teams to state championships at two schools, and her 1988 and 1989 Scottsburg squads both were ranked 13th nationally by USA Today. In addition, her teams twice were state runners-up – 1986 with Scottsburg and 2003 in Class 2A with Southwestern. Scottsburg also qualified for the four-team IHSAA State Finals in 1988.

Cheatham’s teams posted 40 winning seasons during her career, and she has been recognized with various “Coach of the Year” accolades on 39 occasions. Among those are the 1988 Scholastic Coach Franklin Select Circle National High School Coaching Award, the 1989 Wilson National Region 4 Coach of the Year, the 1989 National High School Athletic Coaches Association Region 4 Coach of the Year, the 2002 National Federation of High School Coaches Central Sectional Coach of the Year and the 2003 National Federation of High School Coaches Central Sectional Coach of the Year. Other state-level honors include IBCA District 5 Coach of the Year in 1988, IBCA District 4 Coach of the Year in 2002 and ICGSA Class 2A State Coach of the Year in 2002.

Such success meant that Cheatham guided numerous outstanding players. Among the standouts were:

• Eight players who were chosen to the Indiana All-Stars headlined by 1989 Indiana Miss Basketball Renee Westmoreland. Cheatham’s other All-Star players were Pam Jones (1976), Cindy Piet (1977), Roxanne Cox (1983), Sheryl Bonsett (1985), Leslie Ferrell (1986), Cara Gullion (1988) and Brianna Howard (2002).
• Two IHSAA Mental Attitude Award winners – Tadgi DeBerg (1986) and Brianna Howard (2002).
• Five players who have joined Cheatham as Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame inductees – Cindy Piet-Cruz (2004), Melinda Sparkman (2010), Renee Westmoreland (2017), Cara Gullion Alfele (2018) and Sheryl Bonsett (2019).
• Twelve players who were selected to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame’s Silver Anniversary Team, an honor group chosen 25 years following high school graduation – Pam Jones Suter (2001), Cindy Piet-Cruz (2002), Melinda Sparkman (2004), Roxanne Cox Norton (2008), Sheryl Bonsett (2010), Leslie Ferrell Flechler (2011), Cara Gullion Alfele (2013), Renee Westmoreland 2014), Carla Westmoreland Zellers (2015), Christy Robison Carter (2016), Carrie Thompson Daniels (2016) and Patty Hutchinson Clancy (2019).
• Seventy-plus players who went on to play basketball in college, including 30 who went on to play at the NCAA Division I level.

Cheatham also twice served as head coach of the prestigious Indiana Girls All-Stars in the annual home-and-home series with Kentucky. In 1986, Indiana split with Kentucky, winning the opener 67-63 in Indianapolis’ Market Square Arena and falling 71-67 in Louisville’s Freedom Hall. In 2002, the teams split again, Kentucky prevailing 79-77 in Owensboro and Indiana winning 72-65 in Conseco Fieldhouse. Cheatham is one of only two people to lead the Indiana Girls All-Stars twice. In addition, Cheatham coached in the 1989 HBCA All-Star Classic, the 1990 East/West Indiana All-Star Classic and the 2002 North/South Indiana All-Star Classic.

A 1963 graduate of Dupont High School in Jefferson County, Cheatham went on to Georgetown College in Kentucky where she played basketball, volleyball and softball. She earned a degree in biology from Georgetown in 1967, then began her career in education as a middle school science teacher in Scottsburg in the fall of 1967.

In the early 1970s, Cheatham and her friend, Jeanie Phillips, started girls’ sports programs at Scottsburg – Cheatham coaching basketball, Phillips coaching softball and each one assisting the other. Cheatham coached the Warriorettes until 1994 when she stepped down, in part to care for her elderly mother. Three years later, she came out of retirement to take over the Southwestern program, guiding the Rebels for 12 seasons before returning to Scottsburg in 2009.

Cheatham was named Scott County Woman of the Year in 1986, served as a counselor or speaker at numerous camps and clinics, coached in the African nation of Cameroon in the summer of 1987, was inducted into the Georgetown College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002 and was inducted into the Southwestern High School Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018. Also, the basketball floor at Scottsburg’s Charles Meyer Gymnasium was named “Donna Cheatham Court” on Nov. 27, 2013.

Cheatham collected win No. 500 on Jan. 31, 2005 (52-46 at Switzerland County), win No. 600 on Jan. 29, 2011 (75-56 vs. Silver Creek) and win No. 700 on Nov. 6, 2018 (64-60 in overtime at New Washington). She was feted at an Indiana Pacers’ “Hickory Night” game as one of the state’s all-time winningest coaches on Feb. 7, 2019. Cheatham’s final victory, No. 730, came Jan. 30, 2020 (45-41 vs. Lanesville).