Amstutz daughters focus on hoops endeavors
Written by Scott Calhoun | | news@toledofreepress.com
UT Rockets head football coach Tom Amstutz is not the only Coach Amstutz in Lucas County.
His daughter, Lauren, a junior telecommunications major at UT, is in the midst of her third full season as head basketball coach of the Sylvania Arbor Hills eighth grade girls’ basketball team.
”I played varsity basketball for [Sylvania] Northview for four years and we had successful seasons in all those. Our coach [Jerry Swigler] was a great influence and I learned a lot from him,” said Amstutz, who played point guard.
After high school, she opted for education at UT rather than pursuing a basketball career at a small school. Her hoops roots came full circle in 2003 when an opportunity to participate in Sylvania’s scholastic basketball stream arose.
”I heard they needed a coach at Arbor Hills and called over there. They interviewed me and I’ve been coaching since I’ve been in college. My dad would ‘coach’ me all through high school in every sport, so I guess it just seemed natural,” she said.
Amstutz is juggling what she calls a hobby in coaching with her full-time college career and is pursuing a career in TV sports broadcasting. She spent last Rocket football season traversing the same sidelines as her father, reporting on the games in front of the camera for the school’s Rocket Report.
”I’d like to be a sports reporter. My dream would be to work for ESPN covering football,” she said.
Other members of the Amstutz clan are also involved with basketball. Lauren’s mother and Tom’s wife, Beth, takes care of scorekeeping duties for Arbor Hills girls’ basketball.
Lauren’s younger sister, Brooke, plays a prominent role as a shooting guard for NAIA Division II collegiate women’s powerhouse Indiana Wesleyan. Competing in her sophomore season, Brooke won Mid-Central College Conference Player of the Week honors in the 2005-06 season. The Wildcats were 11-0 and ranked No. 1 in the country and are 25-5 as postseason begins.
The Amstutz sisters played as teammates on Northview’s prolific girls’ basketball teams from 2000-2003. According to Lauren Amstutz, her father was their AAU summer team coach when she was a sophomore and Brooke a freshman in 2000.
”He loves girls’ basketball. I think sometimes he wishes he was a high school girls’ basketball coach,” Lauren said, laughing.
Tom Amstutz said Lauren’s coaching destiny was ”in her blood.”
”She’s a real go-getter, and she’s been around sports all her life. She enjoys working with and teaching the kids,” he said, ”She really enjoys teaching basketball, and her team responds to her enthusiasm.”
