By Jim Henry

jhenry@joplinglobe.com

After 11 years, Walter Resa has stepped down as girls basketball head coach at Webb City High School.

And, the Cardinals didn’t have to look far to find a replacement.

Brad Shorter, the head coach at Carl Junction the last three seasons, has been hired as the Cardinals’ new head coach, and Resa will serve as his assistant.

“Realistically it’s a great situation because Walter didn’t have to give it up,” Shorter said. “It’s a situation where him being my assistant, I feel like is going to be a great asset. To have a head coach’s mind right beside me is going to be something special. It was his job to give to me basically.”

Shorter won 48 games and one district championship the last three years with the Bulldogs.

“I was not looking to leave. It was an opportunity for me,” Shorter said. “I’m happy with the way things were going. I felt like we’d turned around the girls basketball program there. This opportunity came up, and I couldn’t pass it up.

“It’s going to be tough to leave the kids in the classroom and on the court. The community and the administration, all my colleagues, it was a wonderful experience. It’s tough to leave, but Webb City is going to be a great place as well.

“Leaving my hometown (Lockwood) for Carl Junction was tough, and this is tough. When you’re in this business for the kids and you learn to love them and care for them like many of us do, it’s tough to leave them.”

Under Resa’s direction, the Cardinals won three district championships, including this year’s team that lost in the quarterfinals to eventual Class 4 champion Bolivar.

By becoming an assistant, Resa hopes to be able to spend more time with his family.

“Head coaching takes a lot of family time,” Resa said. “It’s year round, through the summer. I also coached both my daughter’s and son’s basketball teams, and between the two of them, they played about 80-85 games on top of my high school games.

“There’s still going to be time (involved) but not all the headaches that a head coach has. I’m not going to desert Brad. I’m going to be there. A lot of the paper work that the head coach has to do, I won’t have to mess with now. I can do a lot of Xs and Ox. I told Brad this (assistant’s role) gets me a seat closer to the girls, which is what I’m going to like.”

Resa will remain the Cardinals’ head coach in softball.