Former PCW coach Tim Stogsdill expected to be hired at Del City

BY RYAN ABER
raber@opubco.com

It didn’t take Tim Stogsdill long to land on his feet.

Stogsdill, who was fired earlier this month as the boys basketball coach at Putnam West, is expected to be named Del City’s boys basketball coach Monday.

Stogsdill met with the team Friday at the school.

Stogsdill met with the team Friday at the school.

“He seems like he knows how to win and he’s willing to put in the work to be successful,” Eagles junior Drew Smith said. “But at the same time, he’s not all about winning. He knows that there are other important things.”

Stogsdill replaces Allen Dukes, who was fired last month after 27 years as the Eagles’ coach.

Del City looks like a team that could be primed for a breakthrough year soon.

The Eagles went 13-11 last season with a team made up entirely of underclassmen. Del City beat state tournament qualifier Norman North twice.

“We can be very good,” Smith said. “We’ve got great chemistry now and looking for big things.”

Stogsdill was not retained as the Patriots coach despite taking Putnam West to the state tournament for the first time since 1977 and just the second time in the school’s history.

A pair of players from that team have signed to play Division I basketball next year–Tyler Neal with Oklahoma and Amric Fields with TCU.

But the Patriots’ 22-win season was marred by a pair of eligibility issues during the season.

First, West was forced to forfeit five games from December for the use of an ineligible player during the 2008-09 season after the school did not file the proper paperwork on the player.

Then last month, Stogsdill was suspended for the first game of the state tournament after an academically ineligible player suited up for the Patriots first playoff game.