Lake Central High School

Coach Ricky Gard for the girls' basketball team was just announced as the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association's and the Point Guard College's (PGC) 2025 Transformational Coach of the Year. Read the press release from the IBCA below. Coach Gard has been an integral part of our girls' basketball teams' successes and is truly deserving of this award! Full Press Release: https://in.nhsbca.org/news/2023-special-awards-0 Rick Gard, Lake Central girls' assistant To say that Rick Gard is committed to serve the youth in his community would be a large understatement. A girls’ basketball assistant coach at Lake Central High School, Gard has been a part of athletics at the northwest Indiana school for 17 years as a coach or in a support role. Over the past nine years, Gard also has served the community through his work at American Community Bank of Indiana in Saint John, Ind. In recognition of all those efforts, Gard has been selected as a winner of the 2025 IBCA/PGC Transformational Coach Award. “Rick significantly contributes to the development of leadership skills among our players,” Lake Central girls’ varsity coach Joe Huppenthal said in nominating Gard for this award. “By assigning roles, encouraging initiative and promoting accountability, he helps provide players with opportunities to harness and refine their leadership abilities. These leadership experiences prepare them for roles beyond sports, equipping them with the skills necessary for success in various aspects of life. “Coach Gard is responsible for much of the proverbial ‘smaller things’ within our program. He is instrumental in being a liaison between the head coach and players. He is a tireless worker and responsible for all gear orders, fund-raising efforts and game video breakdown as well as recording. Rick also contributes to practice planning and game preparation. He creates scouting reports with elite detail.” Huppenthal noted that Gard is vital in community relations, program promotion and alumna networking for the Lake Central program. As part of those duties, he created and designed a 40-page record book, oversees the program’s social media accounts and organized a 30-year celebration of the 1994 state championship team – including a catered dinner, T-shirts for each alumna and a video board montage to honor them. He also helps organize the program’s annual golf outing, which provides funds for the entire season. “His networking ability accrues tremendous sponsorship and participation, which leads to financial support from our community,” Huppenthal said. Gard is a 2012 graduate of Lake Central, where he was a four-year boys’ basketball manager for teams that won the 2012 Duneland Conference and 2012 sectional titles for coach Dave Milausnic. Gard matriculated to Indiana University Northwest, earning bachelor’s degrees in finance and business in 2016. While in college, Gard continued to contribute to Lake Central athletics and its feeder schools. He was a Lake Central girls’ basketball volunteer assistant coach for Marc Urban from 2012-14, an eighth-grade boys’ assistant at Grimmer Middle School in 2014 and 2015, a seventh-grade boys’ assistant at Clark Middle School in 2016 and an eighth-grade girls’ assistant at Clark Middle School in 2016 and 2017. Gard rejoined the high school staff as a girls’ freshman assistant from 2017-19, was the girls’ freshman head coach in 2019-20, the girls’ JV head coach from 2020-24 and served as the girls’ varsity assistant in 2024-25. While a part of the high school girls’ program, he has helped Lake Central capture three Duneland Conference championships (2018, 2023, 2024), five sectional titles (2013, 2018, 2022, 2023, 2024), two regional titles (2023, 2024), one semi-state crown (2024) and a 2024 Class 4A state runner-up finish. Most importantly, Gard always is there for the players when they need him. “Coaches are mentors and confidants, and Rick is just that,” Huppenthal said. “He provides encouragement, guidance and emotional support, which helps our players navigate not only basketball but also life. Rick has an instinct for recognizing talents and strengths. This allows him to create strong bonds with our players and staff. This significantly boosts confidence in everyone and drives our girls to excel. Coach Gard invests in our players year round, it does not matter the time or place. He is there for our girls.” This past season, the roles were reversed when the players and other coaches were there for Gard when he and his wife, Anna, needed them. During the season, with Anna pregnant with twins, complications developed with the pregnancy and the couple learned that one of the babies was not doing well. They had to travel twice each week more than an hour each way to Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago for screenings and doctor visits. Then in January, Anna’s health was endangered and she was forced into premature labor. “One of their newborns (Cohen) was deceased at birth and the other was alive and struggling,” Huppenthal said. “Just hours later, the second baby (Garrett) passed and Anna was fighting for her life. I share this because Coach Gard lost two children, nearly lost his wife and went through mental and physical exhaustion and stressors every day for several weeks. This did not stop him from being the best coach, mentor, leader and friend he can be. Our program preaches leadership and support, and Ricky modeled this greatly – albeit, for an awful situation.” Gard has worked for American Community Bank since 2016, the past four years as a vice president in commercial lending. In his free time, he enjoys traveling and hiking with Anna as well as watching the Chicago Cubs, Notre Dame football, Indiana University basketball, the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Blackhawks. “The impact a coach has on his players extends far beyond the confines of the sport itself,” Huppenthal said. “It influences their personal development, teamwork and overall character. Rick’s ability to promote resiliency within our girls and focus on discipline will lead them righteously in life. They have learned so much about goal setting and achievement and to believe that anything is achievable with attention to detail and pride.”