Kristy Zajac, Ashley Joughin share county coach of the year honor
MORENCI — Two Lenawee County girls basketball teams reached the quarterfinals this season — and both have aspirations of getting that far and beyond next year.
“I was ready to get started the day after our quarterfinal loss,” Tecumseh coach Kristy Zajac said. “I have a great group of girls and they all work so hard.”
Ashley Joughin, Morenci’s third-year head coach, had a similar statement.
“I think any time girls can get exposure and be in a place to gain some confidence and know that they can play with the best teams in the state its great,” she said. “Going into another season when so many of them will return is even better. We are bringing back four starters and our sixth man next year, so hopefully we will have another great year ahead and get the opportunity to go a little further.”
Zajac was the Division 2 statewide coach of the year by the Associated Press, while Joughin was runner-up in the statewide voting in Division 4.
For leading their respective teams to league, district and regional titles, Zajac and Joughin today share Lenawee County Girls Basketball Coach of the Year award.
Zajac is a Britton native who was Britton’s all-time leading scorer while in high school, scoring more than 1,800 career points. She played for Bart Bartels when he coached the Tories. He’s now an assistant for Zajac at Tecumseh. She went on to a successful basketball career at Eastern Michigan University.
She coached youth basketball several years then was hired as the interim varsity coach when the previous coach went on maternity leave. After a successful first season, she got the permanent job. In her seven seasons as head coach, Tecumseh is 109-43, including 42-10 over the past two seasons.
This summer, Zajac already has about 25 games on the schedule for Tecumseh to play.
“We will play against some of the top teams in the state,” she said. “All of our girls are playing travel right now, so that helps a lot as well.”
Beating Chelsea and sharing the SEC-White Division was a major breakthrough for Tecumseh this season. The Bulldogs have been Tecumseh’s nemesis for several years.
“We wanted to win a league championship and districts,” she said. “The rest was icing on the cake. To have 60 percent of our team as freshman and sophomores and to win our first regional title in 49 years, they definitely exceeded my expectations. This is a special group and so excited to have them all back.”
Joughin is a Morenci graduate who played multiple sports for the Bulldogs. She went on to play softball at Siena Heights University.
She came to the Morenci program that had struggled for a couple of seasons and turned things around almost immediately. The Bulldogs have now won back-to-back Tri-County Conference titles and went to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2011.
Joughin said things clicked with this year’s team as leaders emerged.
“At the beginning of the season, we had some issues with replacing a little bit of the vocal leadership that we've had the last couple of seasons,” she said. “While these girls are all great athletes, they sometimes don't want to be the ones to correct their teammates. Most of them lead by example rather than by using their voices. Sometimes we just needed that on the floor, and I think they all took ownership in that and got a lot better throughout the season.”
Another important piece this season was a defensive change.
“We played almost every game after Christmas break in a half court man-to-man,” she said. “I felt like this year we needed to focus more on the defensive end of the floor.”
The switch paid off as Morenci allowed just 27 points a game and went 21-4.
“The team has certainly made great improvements in the last three seasons from the few years prior,” she said. “I think that's in huge part due to player buy-in, off-season commitment, and the same girls having the opportunity to play together the last few seasons.”
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Kristy Zajac, Ashley Joughin share Lenawee coach of the year honor
