The Dowagiac Board of Education named former Dowagiac standout and current athletic director Brent Nate the new Chieftain girls basketball coach Monday night.

Nate replaces Floyd Foston, who resigned after four years of coaching Dowagiac. The Chieftains were 8-76 over the last four years, including 1-20 in 2015-16.

Nate, who is a 1997 Union High School graduate, played basketball at Kalamazoo Community College. He graduated from Western Michigan University.

His previous coaching experience includes coaching at sub-varsity levels for boys, assistant varsity coach for both boys and girls at Dowagiac and St. Joseph and he eventually became the boys varsity coach at Coloma, where he was named 2008 Lakeland Coach of the Year.

Nate returned to Dowagiac to become its athletic director in 2011, a position he retains.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to coach and develop the girls basketball program,” Nate said. “We want to strive to have a competitive program that’s based around the principales of hard work, commitment and enthusiasm.”

Dowagiac Superintendent Paul Hartsig also wants to see the program built from the ground up.

“One of our goals it to build our program from seventh grade to varsity,” he said Tuesday. “It was important to find someone on our staff who can interact with our student-athletes. We want to develop our program and get it back to where it used to be.”

Where it used to be is a conference and district champion.

The Chieftains won the Wolverine Conference and the Class B district title in 2008 under coach Greg Blomgren, who was also the Dowagiac boys basketball coach at the same time.

Dowagiac has not had a winning season since Blomgren stepped down and eventually went to St. Joseph, where he remains the boys basketball coach.

Dowagiac was 34-12 under Blomgren.

“I was here when the program was conference champs and I understand the hard work that those girls put in and I understand where we are now as a program,” Nate said. “We have to make basketball exciting again for the girls and our community. You have to start with the foundation. We need to get the youth program up and rolling and also build up the numbers at the high school so that we can get three levels back.

“That’s the way we are going to have to do it. It is not going to be an overnight fix.”

Nate said that not only are the players going to have to buy-in to what he and his staff are trying to get accomplished, but the parents and the community as well.

“It is our community’s girls basketball team,” he said. “It going to take a community to build it back up, just like we have with the football program, the wrestling program, the boys basketball program, the girls softball and volleyball. We have to do it as a group. One person alone cannot fix this.”

Nate inherits a group of players that ranges from experienced upper classmen to talented sophomores.

“We have a mix of athletes, but we have to improve our basketball skill level,” Nate said. “We have athletes, that is for sure. But they have to commit to becoming better basketball players. They have to pick up a ball in the offseason. We have play and we have to get stronger. We have to improve our basketball IQ.

“Athletically, there has never been an issue with our overall raw athleticism. It is just that our concept and skill level of basketball needs to improve.”

Nate has already started working with a group of 10 to 13 players, who are competing in a summer league.

He has tried to instill in those players the level of work and commitment it is going to take to make the program better and more competitive than it has been in recent years.

“With our group, I think we are going to have to play fast,” Nate said. “They are going to have to learn how fast is fast. What they think is hard is not hard enough. They are going to have to work harder. They do not know their abilities yet and how fast I want us to play. I keep saying fast because we are going to have to play fast on offense and on defense. I’m just trying to get them to understand the work they have to buy into. They have been great and we have improved every day this summer league.”

Nate said he is still in the process of putting together a staff for the season, which begins with preseason practices
Nov. 7.