Legendary Texas high school girls basketball coach retires after 42 seasons
When you think of Texas high school girls basketball, two names quickly come to mind.
Leta Andrews and Joe Lombard.
They’re on the Mount Rushmore of the sport.
Andrews, who last coached Granbury before retiring in 2014, won the most games all-time, in any state, in both boys and girls basketball with 1,416.
Lombard is second and was 38 wins from the record, but after 42 years he announced his retirement on Tuesday. He finished with 1,379 wins and maybe more impressive - just 133 losses which comes out to 4.3 per season.
His teams made the playoffs in all 42 seasons.
But his rèsumè is far from over at just wins and losses.
While Andrews owns the record for most wins, some may consider Lombard the greatest of all-time once you bring in state championships. Not only did Lombard win 1,379 games in 10 fewer seasons than Andrews, he’s won 19 - NINETEEN - girls basketball UIL state titles (13 at Canyon, 6 at Nazareth).
And it doesn’t end at basketball. He’s won seven state titles in cross country (5 at Canyon, 2 at Nazareth).
So that’s 26 state championships, most in UIL history. And he’s won one in five different decades.
A career that began in 1977, Lombard led the Nazareth Swiftettes to their third consecutive Class B state championship during the 1977-78 season, and stretched the streak to seven in row (1981 and 1982 were Class 1A titles).
Lombard won another in 1984 before moving to Canyon in ‘85.
Under Lombard, the Canyon Lady Eagles reached the state tournament 16 times. Canyon won four straight titles from 2014 until its last in 2017, when it beat Mansfield Timberview in the 5A final, 47-45.
Lombard’s first trip to state with Canyon came in 1989, but the Lady Eagles lost in the 3A final to Hardin-Jefferson, 46-44 in double overtime. Their first title came in 1992 when they beat Winnsboro by 20.
During the turn of the century, Canyon went to state 11 times and was a perfect 44-0.
Lombard is a six-time Hall of Fame inductee including the National Women’s Basketball, Texas and Texas Girls Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He’s a multiple USA Today National Coach of the Year winner and the gym at Canyon was renamed Joe Lombard Gymnasium in 2018.
His daughter Lindy and son Tate both played at Canyon, and went on to become girls basketball coaches.
Lindy was the head coach at Grapevine for three seasons before moving into an assistant role at Argyle, winning a state title in 2018. Tate won two state titles at Wall before taking an assistant role with his father at Canyon in 2019.
