By Ryan Atkinson

ratkinson@joplinglobe.com

It doesn’t take Stephanie Heman long to name the toughest part of coaching high school girls basketball.

“It’s teaching them the ball game, teaching them to understand what to do in certain situations,” the Aurora coach said. “I think we’ve been in situations where we’ve lost a game by one point because we don’t understand why you don’t do certain things. Trying to teach them to understand the game as a whole and the strategy behind it has been the most difficult.”

As difficult as it may be, it seems that Heman may have it figured out.

After leading Aurora to an 18-12 record, district and sectional titles and taking the Lady Houns painfully close to the state tournament semifinals, Heman is the Joplin Globe’s girls basketball coach of the year.

Heman, a 1987 graduate of Joplin High School, is in her 17th year at Aurora and her seventh year as the head girls basketball coach. She has also coached volleyball for 16 years.

She went to Pittsburg State on volleyball and basketball scholarships, playing hoops under Barb Crill and Steve High.

Those years of coaching and playing experience taught Heman the importance of observing the players and finding out how to make them click as a team.

“You have different personalities and you have to figure out how to make those personalities work together as a unit,” she said. “We did that this year. When the girls finally realized that we had a common goal and that was to be successful, it really made a difference ... they started realizing that we’re out here as a team, not as an individual.”

Heman is undoubtedly a defense-preaching leader, according to Aurora junior point guard Jamie Nash.

“I love how she pushes defense so hard because defense wins games,” Nash said. “She has always said that if you can’t play defense, you’re not going to play on our team”

Heman said she grew that love of defense while playing in high school — two seasons at Parkwood before the consolidation with Memorial to form Joplin High — and at Pittsburg State.

“I loved playing defense and defense wins ball games,” Heman said. “That’s one thing I drive into my kids — you’ve got to play defense. The scoring will come, but your defense is going to create more offense.”

Heman, who acknowledged that her teams usually get off to somewhat slow starts, stresses the importance of season-long improvement and the ability to peak at the end of the year.