BUTLER, Ind. - Eastside High School has found a new girls basketball coach.
Longtime Blazers boys basketball assistant Mike Lortie will take over girls program, ParkviewSportsMedicine.com has learned.
“There’s an excellent opportunity for the girls that are coming up and the current juniors and seniors,” Lortie says. “There’s really good talent, and I’m excited about leading them.”
This is Lortie’s first head coaching job. He spent the last 7 seasons on the staff of Ryan Abbott, whom Lortie knew when he was a Woodlan assistant and Abbott played with Lortie’s son on the Warriors basketball team.
“He’s like a son to me,” Lortie says of Abbott. “To have his support means a lot. To have been a part of the boys program and the success there has been awesome.”
“I’m thrilled for our district to have such a great coach for our girls,” Abbott tells ParkviewSportsMedicine.com. “His expectation for success is going to be something that they’ll relish on. They will take advantage of his knowledge and standard of work.”
The switch from the boys game to the girls game is an intriguing one, Lortie adds. He feels many of the concepts are universal. He hopes eventually the Lady Blazers can be in the conversation for a league championship in a Northeast Corner Conference that yielded four sectional champions—Angola, West Noble, Central Noble and Fremont—this past season.
Eastside is one of 26 high schools that partners with Parkview Sports Medicine for athletic training, sports performance, nutrition, athletic rehabilitation and orthopedic services for student-athletes. Learn more at ParkviewSportsMedicine.com.