March 29, 2024

Mills moves Cardinal girls into 5-on-5 basketball era

(Editor's Note: This is the second of a two-part story on former Newton High girls' basketball head coach Randy Mills.)

A state basketball tournament appearance under their team’s belt Newton High girls’ head coach Randy Mills and assistant coach Lowell Zimmerman went to work in 1991.

The Cardinals shifted to 5-on-5 for the 1991-92 season. Iowa girls basketball was played in a 6-on-6 format until 1994, when all school districts switched to 5-on-5. The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union also made the move to a multi-classification format.

“It wasn’t hard from the standpoint of what you needed to do but the girls had only played 6-on-6. We had to teach how all five players were involved in the game all the time,” Mills said.

“Lowell was my assistant coach throughout the time I coached here. He did an excellent job and was a key part to our success.”

Mills said Zimmerman was a middle school science teacher and the NHS head softball coach.

Mills finished up his 22nd year as a 6-on-6 girls’ basketball coach with Newton qualifying for the Iowa 1991 state tournament. It was the Cardinals’ first-ever state appearance and Mills’ fifth time to the event after leading Ackley-Geneva’s girls four times.

After two years at Newton, Mills ushered in the 5-on-5 era for the Cardinal girls’ program. He played the 5-on-5 game for Newton as a member of the 1964 state championship Cardinal team. He had adapted what he knew of the game to fit the 6-on-6 game when he began coaching.

“We had to involve players differently. Guards couldn’t shoot but did other things well in 6-on-6 and now they could shoot the ball and be involved with the offense,” Mills said. “We had a period of adjustment learning the full-court play.”

Mills said he thought the biggest challenge was the ball handling skill. He pointed out in 6-on-6 there were the dribble limitations and players couldn’t tie-up the ball. There was work to be done in learning all the changes in rules and how it fit together on the court, Mills said

Defensive philosophy didn’t change for Mills’ teams.

“I always felt more comfortable with defenses then designing whole offenses. I like defense,” Mills said. “I believe it is the big key to success. It didn’t matter if it was 6-on-6 or 5-on-5 we played man-to-man defense. Oh, we played some zone but man-to-man was our stock and trade defensively.”

In the first year of 5-on-5 for the Cardinal girls, they didn’t have a winning mark — 10-13 — but did win a district championship. The next season went 12-10 then came the 1993-94 season as the Cardinals rolled to a 16-9 mark.

“It is always an exciting time when you have success and qualify for the state tournament,” Mills said. “As a coach there’s a lot of work surrounding travel arrangements like I had to do at Ackley-Geneva because we had to stay in a hotel, arranging for the reserve tickets and other busy work.”

The state basketball tournaments were held in Veterans Memorial Auditorium at the time. Tickets were limited. Mills said the IGHSAU held a breakfast for all the teams before the tournament games began at the Yonkers Tea Room.

“Plus you had to fit practice in there and exchange film with coaches to scout opponents. It wasn’t like it is today where you can go on the Internet and find film on Hudl,” he said. “I just told the girls as we headed into state tournaments that they would be busy and organize their time but also to enjoy the experience.”

The Cardinals’ only 5-on-5 state tournament appearance ended in a 52-21 opening-round loss to Waterloo West. Under Mills, Newton had four district championships — 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996 — in six years.

“We had success and had a great group of players come through at that time,” Mills said. “My last year dropped off (1-19) but it was a great experience coaching the girls here and throughout my career.”

Mills, who was born in Des Moines, moved to Newton with his parents in 1959. He said his father and uncle opened up the bowling alley in the basement of the shopping center in Newton. He attended Newton schools from ninth grade to graduation in 1964.

Mills went to Central College and met his wife Elaine, who is from New Jersey, at college. Their two children Scott and Shannon were born when Mills was teaching and coaching in Durant.

Mills and his son and daughter have a lot in common — all three are Newton High graduates and all three have played for Newton in state basketball tournaments. Mills in 1964 when the Cardinals won it all. Scott played on the Newton boys’ team which went in 1992 and Shannon played for her father on the 1994 team.

Mills was awarded the IGHSAU Golden Plaque of Distinction for Basketball in 1997. He was inducted into the Iowa Girls Coaches Association basketball hall of fame in 2006. Mills was 61-73 at NHS which is the most wins in the program’s history.

“When I started and didn’t know much about 6-on-6, I began going to clinics to learn the game,” Mills said. “Over the years, I’ve worked a lot of clinics and camps locally and at colleges. I helped with camps offered by the WBCA, Blue Star and Blue Chip organizations where kids come from all over.”

Mills has helped coach all-star basketball teams which traveled internationally. He said he really enjoyed learning the international style of play.

“I was around a lot of really talented coaches and kids over the years. Those players probably taught me more than I taught them,” he said.

Fast forward to 2019-20 — Mills came aboard Newton High head coach Eric Vander Velden’s coaching staff for the Cardinal girls. Mills brought experience to assist Vander Velden in his first year at the helm of the Cardinal girls’ program.

“Eric is doing the right thing as he tries to change the culture for the girls’ team. Our kids need to learn how to win and to expect to win,” Mills said. “We made some big improvements this season.”

Mills said Vander Velden moved the program into investing in the young kids from fifth grade and middle school ages. He said it was important to raise the level of fundamentals and pride of playing Cardinal girls’ basketball from the younger players on up.

Mills said the coaches introduced a lot of new man-to-man defenses to the Newton players this past season. Following a basketball game this season, Vander Velden said Mills was the “defensive guru” helping make in-game adjustments.

“They (the players) thought they were playing man-to-man pressure defensively but I had to get across to them there’s a whole step or two above what they were doing,” Mills said. “I believe this year’s team made it’s biggest improvement in defense.

“We even exceeded our expectations on the offensive end — scoring a lot of points in some games and raising the team’s season average. We all know we still have work to do at both ends.”

Mills said offensively, he has most experience in working with post players after having a string of really good post players over the years at all three schools in his coaching career.

“We have good kids coming back for next year. We didn’t really have a summer program last year because of timing of the job opening and Eric getting the job,” Mills said. “I’m looking forward to this summer and see us develop our potential as a team.”

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com