Lakewood Ranch girls basketball coach Tina Hadley steps down after 10 years

After turning Lakewood Ranch High School into a girls basketball power in Florida, head coach Tina Hadley is moving on.

Hadley, who completed her 10th season at the helm for the Mustangs, has submitted her resignation and is taking a job as a coach at McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Ga., a northwestern suburb of Atlanta.

“More money,” Hadley said of her primary driving factors for the move. “We have family there, so we decided to make the move.”

Hadley will also take a teaching job at the Georgia high school. Carlton Hadley, Tina’s husband, is also stepping down as the defensive coordinator of Lakewood Ranch’s football team and is seeking a coaching job in the Atlanta area.

The timing of Hadley’s decision is one she and her husband had thought about for some time. Chris Hadley, the couple’s youngest son, graduated from Lakewood Ranch High School in May, and the Hadleys had long considered moving elsewhere once they became empty-nesters.

Hadley’s departure also comes after the best two-year stretch in Mustangs girls basketball program history. Hadley coached Lakewood Ranch to the Class 7A championship game in 2016 and followed it with the school’s best regular season in 2017. The Mustangs spent most of the season as the No. 1 team in 7A before an injury to guard Shauntavia Green, a first-team All-Area selection by the Herald, derailed Lakewood Ranch’s season in the Class 7A-Region 3 championship. The 2017 season also saw the Mustangs win their first district championship.

“The final four is a big memory, but the biggest memory is I just built so many relationships with so many families and these kids,” Hadley said. “Wins kind of come. Relationships are just invaluable.”

One of the most notable relationships Hadley established was with LaDazhia Williams, a three-time All-Area Player of the Year and the most highly touted girls basketball prospect in the history of Manatee County. Williams, a small forward and center for the Mustangs, is at South Carolina after finishing her high school career as a five-star prospect and the No. 48 player in the Class of 2017, according to ESPN.

The Hadleys plan to make the move July 14. Before then Hadley will try to help find a replacement. No one on the current staff plans to apply for the opening, Hadley said.

“We’re leaving it in pretty good shape,” Hadley said. “Hopefully, whoever comes in behind me will continue the tradition of girls working hard, making it better.”

Hadley’s roots in the county’s basketball scene extend beyond just her career as the head coach at Lakewood Ranch. Hadley was also a member of Southeast’s Class 3A championship team in 1985.

“I’m very proud that as a Lady Seminole she progressed into the coaching ranks and did as well as she did with her basketball teams. I sure don’t take any credit,” said Seminoles head coach John Harder, who coached Hadley when she was in high school. “To go to see Tina coach in the Lakeland Civic Center ... it always made me feel good that they had some background in our program at Southeast.”

This story was originally published June 29, 2017 at 2:56 PM with the headline "Lakewood Ranch girls basketball coach Tina Hadley steps down after 10 years."