Today was the first official practice of the season for our Saber girls basketball team which begins the first season under the direction of Head Coach Ron O'Brien. The team has already spent time getting to know their new coach, but we'd like to introduce him to the rest of our Saber family. Please help us welcome Coach Ron O'Brien to Central DeWitt! Coach O'Brien is originally from Moline, IL and is proud to be a Quad Citian born and raised. He graduated from Moline High School and attended Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. He has lived in northwest Davenport for 23 years with his wife, Kim where they raised three kids Mckenzie, Conner and Logan, as well as their dog, Bently. In his free time, he enjoys playing golf with his wife and traveling. Most recently, he was the head girls coach at Davenport North High School (2012-2017) where they were MAC champs during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons, and took a trip to state in the 2015-16 season. Previous to that he spent two years as head coach of the boys at Davenport North, four years as the men's head coach at Marycrest International University, one year at Black Hawk College, and one season with the Quad City Thunder. He even spent a summer coaching basketball for a club team in South America. What O'Brien enjoys most about coaching is the interaction with student athletes and seeing the players develop, build team chemistry, and form friendships through the program. His coaching philosophy is to focus on teaching good fundamentals. He also encourages his players to play with confidence and have fun. Good things will happen when you play the right way, play together with a lot of energy, he said. I'm excited to see what this group can do. They are very sound basketball players. I think we're going to be able to put up some points. It's obvious they've been well coached through the years so it should be an exciting and fun season. Best of luck to Coach O'Brien and the Saber girls basketball team!'
