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  • Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza They know their Xs and Os: Terre Haute North assistant basketball coaches Nate Blank, Aaron Carter, Matt Renn and Michael Menser bring years of collegiate and high school experience to Coach Todd Woelfle's Patriot squad.

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January 10, 2012

Coaches with credentials: As a unit, Terre Haute North’s staff 2nd to none

Dennis Clark The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Surrounding yourself with excellence.

Some high school basketball head coaches might be intimidated or insecure having talented assistants on their staff. That is certainly not the case for Terre Haute North’s Todd Woelfle.

Woelfle has the vast resources of four — count ‘em — former NCAA Division I college players on his staff this season.

Former Indiana State University standouts Michael Menser and Matt Renn are reunited as varsity assistant coaches.

Coaching newcomers are former North, Gardner-Webb and University of Indianapolis player Nate Blank and former ISU player Aaron Carter. Blank is the junior varsity coach, while Carter is a volunteer assistant.

Menser and Renn, both 32, played together at ISU from 1997-98 to 2000-01, their careers concluding with a pair of NCAA tournament appearances. Renn scored 1,347 points in his career, Menser close behind at 1,301 points.

Carter and Blank, both 23, played collegiately from 2007-08 to 2010-11. Carter played for the Sycamores in the NCAA tournament last season. Blank enjoyed high-scoring outings in road wins over big-time programs Kentucky and UConn while at Gardner-Webb.

Oh yes, Woelfle was no slouch as a Division II college player himself. All he did was lead the country in 3-point percentage (53.7 percent) as a senior at Oakland City University.

“We feel very fortunate these quality people are in our program now,” Woelfle said. “They have excellent basketball knowledge … and they’re all good people. Personally, I feel having them in the building, the [players] are lucky.”



Menser and Renn

Menser has served on Woelfle’s staff the past three years. His two years of prior head coaching experience at Riverton Parke paid huge dividends too when he filled in for the suspended Woelfle the first seven games this season.

Renn is in his second stint as a North assistant, previously working three years with Woelfle on former coach Jim Jones’ staff. He’s returned this year following a three-year hiatus after his first child was born.

“Any job, you want to work with people you like,” Menser noted. “It’s always good to go to practice because we have fun as a coaching staff … and that’s carried over in how the kids have played this year.”

North is 10-2 this season, fresh off its second consecutive Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic championship.

“We all share responsibilities,” Menser continued. “This year, with coach Renn joining the staff, I’ve moved more from the defensive side to the offensive side. Last year I did a lot of the defensive stuff.”

Menser and Renn communicated well on the court at ISU, so it’s not surprising that trait has carried over in their coaching too. “It’s like their old playing days,” Woelfle stated.

“Mike and I have been great friends since we came into Indiana State together,” Renn said. “We roomed together. We’re obviously close. Michael and Todd are probably my closest friends here in town.

“We’re similar on the basketball court, off the court. Probably it’s scary how much alike we are. Our philosophies in life or basketball, they are the same. We were coached in the same way, we know what it takes to put a team together, know what against certain opponents you need to do to be successful.

“When [Menser] says something, it’s like I was thinking the same thing a lot of the time. It makes it nice, because you don’t have those ‘Sure you want to do that?’ moments, feuds. Michael says something, then I trust what he wants to do and I think he feels the same way going the other way.”

Off the court, Menser is a dean of students and Renn is a mathematics teacher, both at North.



Blank and Carter

Renn coached Blank, a former Indiana All-Star, for three years when he was a player at North; now they work side by side.

“Matt was an assistant when I [played], so was Coach Woelfle too,” Blank said. “I saw how they liked to coach and I idolized them as players growing up. The respect for them has even grown after working underneath them to see how they work, work together as a group. It’s how I envisioned coaching basketball.

“We’ve all played in college, which is the goal of our kids,” Blank added. “We’ve been where they want to go. They see how we have to work, how to go about it in a businesslike fashion, but still have fun together. I think we’ve instilled that in our kids and it’s shown so far.”

An exercise science major in college, Blank is a substitute teacher at North this year and plans to pursue a master’s degree. Blank aspires to a career in coaching too, possibly at the college level.

Carter admitted he wasn’t considering a career in coaching. He was pursuing a master’s degree in communications when this opportunity arose.

“It’s been fun so far,” Carter said. “[The players] kind of look up to us because we’ve been college players. I think they can learn a lot from our staff because [the coaches] have a lot of knowledge about the game. It’s made me at least think about coaching in the future.”



Five on the floor

While three of the coaches are a “wee bit” older now, they can still make a point about basketball to their players on the court.

“Our entire staff, it seems we have someone that fits [each position],” Menser reflected. “You see Coach Renn talking to Calvin [Blank] in how to guard in certain positions, Coach Carter does a nice job working with the wings.

“I’ve kind of grabbed hold of [point guard] Nate Jahn and try to implement some of the stuff that I’ve seen from my past experience. He’s taken hold of that and done a great job for us this year. One thing we tell him is that he’s got to be an extension of us on the floor.”

Any time limits on the basketball court?

“Michael stays in great shape, Aaron still plays, … Nate, he’s an old man like me, he tries,” Renn joked. “We’re not in shape like we used to be. But we’ve talked about it. We thought about putting the challenge out there. A 5-on-5 challenge. One thing, we have all the positions covered. Now if we can just make it past the first TV timeout without having to go into cardiac arrest. At least for me, these guys are in great shape.”

“It seems year by year, our playing time goes down minute by minute,” Menser smiled. “But when we start preparing for our bigger opponents, the coaching staff will get in there and play the leading scorer role, or if it’s a post, coach Renn will get in there and play some.

“Coach Carter will probably use that role mostly this year when we get in the [Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference] as far as scorers who we need to shut down. Give our kids a really good look at, obviously, a very good basketball player.”

“Sometimes we have to get out there and play 3-on-3 to show [the players] we can still work ‘em out on the basketball court too,” Blank added.

Renn is enjoying showing the ropes, if you will, to the younger coaches Blank and Carter.

“With Coach Blank and Coach Carter, they’re younger and just getting into [coaching],” Renn said. “Fun sharing things with them. Setting up a team, putting a scout together, our philosophies on this, that or the other, Xs and Os. Talking to those guys about it, they’re like sponges. You can tell they want to learn, they want to be good at this and it’s something they want in their future. So it’s fun for us.”

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