Fowlerville hires 'basketball junkie' as new girls coach
It was a bit of a backhanded compliment when someone first recognized Levi Conley had the potential to be a future basketball coach.
Admittedly not the most gifted athlete, Conley was riding the bench on the Stockbridge freshman team when an assistant coach noticed him giving advice to players on the court.
“He says, ‘It’s a shame you don’t have athletic ability, because you do know the game,’” Conley recalls. “I’ve always gone back to that and thought about that. I do have a good understanding. I was physically limited, but I could have done more.”
Conley stopped playing basketball after his sophomore season, which he regrets.
But that wasn’t the end of Conley’s association with high school basketball. He’s spent the last four years coaching boys basketball at Fowlerville and will continue his affiliation with the school as its next varsity girls basketball head coach.
“I’m a big basketball junkie, in general,” Conley said. “I would go to a lot of games. There’s a lot of promising talent in place, but also a lot of room for growth in the program.”
Conley got his start in coaching while living in Naperville, Ill., his wife Cassandra’s hometown. He coached middle school boys and high school girls for the Illinois Basketball Academy, which was run by former Central Michigan University quarterback Dan LeFevour. Conley attended CMU at the same time as LeFevour.
“I went in and met with him, because I was looking to get involved with coaching,” Conley said. “He gave me my first opportunity. I really dove in. That’s where the passion took off for coaching.”
Conley took time off and started looking for somewhere else to live when he and his wife began a family. They wound up in Fowlerville, about 20 miles from where he grew up. Conley sells insurance and his wife is an administrative assistant in the high school.
“I have found that the community has been very opening and welcoming to myself and my wife,” he said.
Conley originally applied to coach freshman girls basketball at Fowlerville, but the school didn’t have enough players to form a team. He became the freshman boys basketball coach for two years, then the junior varsity coach the last two seasons. He also worked as an assistant coach with the varsity while coaching JV.
He takes over from Lisa Cox, who coached the Gladiators the last two seasons. Fowlerville is coming off a 4-19 season after 13-9 with a senior-led lineup the previous season.
Fowlerville returns two of its top players in senior Tori Briggs and junior Tommi Kleinschmidt, as well as three players who saw action in a district loss to Pinckney as freshmen last season.
“We have a tremendous amount of talent coming back, going all the way back to last year’s freshman class, which is extremely strong,” Conley said. “Tori Briggs still has a lot of untapped potential, and I’ve had those conversations. Tommi Kleinschimdt, that’s a person any coach would want to coach in any type of sport. She has a strong work ethic.”
Conley is one of three new girls basketball coaches at the seven schools in Livingston County, all of whom are getting late starts getting to know their teams.
Mike McKay was hired at Hartland on June 5 and Jason Piepho at Howell on June 7. In a county which once had stability in the girls basketball coaching ranks, no school has a coach who has led its program more than two years.
“June is a really important month, from my experience,” Conley said. “That’s when you get a lot of the high school competition in, but we still have another month before fall sports really kick in. I’m planning on meeting them on the 10th (of July), as soon as I can start working with them, and getting to know them.
“Basketball wise, I feel pretty confident in knowing each player’s strength and skill, but it’s really going to be about building that personal relationship. That’s big in my program, having strong relationships where they can come to me and we can work together. I like to have player-driven practices and games. I like them to make decisions as much as they can.”
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Fowlerville hires 'basketball junkie' as new girls coach
