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— Mike Renning Laurel Advocate
LAUREL — Quin Conner has been assigned the boys’ basketball head coaching duties for next season, replacing Todd Erwin, who had been the Bears coach for the past decade.
Erwin put up some great numbers at LCC, including winning a state title in 2020.
Conner came to Laurel-Concord-Coleridge at the beginning of this school year and has been the activities director at the school, along with his teaching duties.
He comes with head coaching experience after leading the Maxwell basketball fortunes for three years.
He graduated from Valentine High School in 2014 and went to Doane University in Crete where he was a three-year starter on the Tigers’ men’s basketball team.
From Doane, Conner traveled to Conestoga High School where he was an assistant coach under Jason Ahrens for two years before heading west to Maxwell to become the head coach and athletic director.
In his three years at Maxwell, he led the Wildcats to a district title game where his team fell to eventual state champion, Humphrey/ Lindsay Holy Family.
He calls his coaching philosophy one of intensity.
“I want my team to be intense, pressuring the ball and remaining active all the time, I’ll be the loudest guy on the court,” Conner said. “At the same time, it’s high school kids, so it has to be fun. I feel I have a good balance.”
He also has enough experience that a coach needs to adjust to the talent and players available.
“Looking at next season, it appears we won’t have a lot of size, we’ll be kind of guard-heavy,” the coach said. “So we will want to try to pressure all over the court and get out in transition.” According to Conner, Alan Gottula will return as an assistant for next season and he is waiting to hear from another candidate for a second assistant coach.
“I am looking forward to the challenges ahead,” he said. “It will be a lot of fun.”
