Golan Hanging Up the Whistle After 26 Years On the Sidelines Here

his whistle.

Heath Golan, who turned the Lady Leps basketball team into a consistent winner and won a state football title as a young assistant 26 years ago, has informed the school he plans to stop coaching at the end of this school year – though he will continue to teach.

“This isn’t something that happened overnight,” Golan said of the decision. “It’s something I put a lot of thought into.

“This is Year 28 (of coaching, the last 26 at La Grange) and doing three sports takes a toll on you. I’m doing football, basketball and tennis, but I’ve also done baseball and track before.

“I talked to my family about it, talked to friends about it. There’s never a good time. I hate leaving the juniors, sophomores and freshmen, but if you wait another year, there’s another group of kids to leave behind, so it never stops.”

Golan was a star athlete at Bellville and the son of a coach himself. He worked his first two years at LaPorte, before Tony Valastro hired him at La Grange back in 1999.

In the fall of 2000 the Leps won the state football title with Golan coaching the defensive line. “After doing this so long some of the seasons run together but that one, you never forget,” Golan said of that 2000 team. “We played for another state title the next year and lost in the championship (14-11 to Commerce).

“That was two fun years, but two exhausting years. I was young at the time. I didn’t know any better.”

Golan and other young coaches like Rusty Cauthern and David Cooper, learned the ropes together and become friends, all coaching together at La Grange over a two-plus decade span.

“I was young, mid-20s. Even though I grew up a coaches son, I still had a lot of learning to do and those guys took me in and helped me so much – Coach Valastro, Coach Sports, Coach Hickle,” Golan said. “When I got here I didn’t know what a purchase order was or who any of the other coaches in the area were to schedule. They all helped.”

Now Golan is that veteran coach the young guys come to.

“I’ve got guys on staff now that are younger than my son,” said Golan, who will become a grandfather for the first time See this summer. “Those guys come and ask questions and I am more than happy to help.”

Golan’s biggest impact at LGISD was as the basketball coach, where he had two long stints coaching girls basketball (including when his daughter Ashlynn was playing) sandwiched around a stint as boys assistant when his son Corey was in high school.

His wife Jennifer was always a vocal supporter from the stands.

Girls basketball at La Grange had only a few playoff appearances in its history when Golan took over in 1999. His first season the Lady Leps went 5-22.

“I remember my first game was against Moulton and they were coming off the state tournament,” Golan said. “I didn’t know what I was getting into that first game. It was eyeopening. You realize you don’t know as much as you think you do, but we gained ground every year.”

Golan built the Lady Leps into such a powerhouse that over his last 11 seasons leading them they never missed the postseason and won four district titles in that span.

Seven of those seasons the Lady Leps made it to the second round of the playoffs, and twice made it to the third round (tying the longest girls basketball playoff runs in school history).

His Lady Leps went 24-12 this season, beat Sealy in the first round but fell to Salado in the second round.

“Everything started to click and the next group that came in didn’t want to be the ones that reverted back,” Golan said.

Eventually Golan finished with a 322-239 overall girls basketball record at La Grange and a 120-82 district mark, standards that might never be broken.