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Wednesday, June 18th, 2014

Guggenbiller returns home to take over Fort Recovery boys basketball team

By Gary R. Rasberry
Fort Recovery tabbed a familar name to take over its boys basketball program.
Chris Guggenbiller, a 1999 graduate of Fort Recovery, was formally approved as head coach at the district's board of education meeting on Tuesday. Guggenbiller takes over for Brian Patch, who stepped down to take over the Fort Recovery girls basketball program.
A graduate of the University of Dayton, Guggenbiller has spent the last 11 years teaching and coaching at Vandalia-Butler High School in both basketball and football.
"I always kept my eye on the happenings here at the Fort," said Guggenbiller, who will teach fifth grade social studies and science. "I always kept up to date on the basketball program and football program with coach (Brent) Niekamp (with whom Guggenbiller was a teammate in football and basketball). I was an hour away in Vandalia, but my eyes were here in Fort Recovery."
Guggenbiller was a key contributor for Joe Bruns' Indians in the late 1990s. Guggenbiller's big season came in the 1998-99 season as the Indians went 25-2 and advanced to the state final four for the first time since the state title team of 1970-71. Fort Recovery finished as Division IV state runner-up, losing to Worthington Christian 95-90 in triple overtime.
"I don't come into a program that's broke by any means," Guggenbiller said. "I would like to continue that success and looking at what I can do to improve it. I think I have some things to offer here. Hopefully it gets us over that next hump. All the credit to coach Patch, who was successful (with the boys team). I'd put a five-dollar bill on him being successful with the girls' program, too."
While the tempo of play will be based on the personnel, Guggenbiller has some plans for the offense.
"You'll see a lot of ball screens. We'll attack the hoop that way," Guggenbiller said. "Defensively, you're going to see some intense players. We're going to get right into (the opponents') faces. We'll look to pressure (the ball), cause some turnovers and get some easy baskets off our defensive pressure."
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