Centerville Athletics Names Katie Ziegert Head Coach of Girls Varsity Basketball

CENTERVILLE, Ohio — Centerville High School Athletics is proud to announce the appointment of Katie Ziegert as the next Head Coach of Girls Varsity Basketball. The selection reflects a deliberate and forward-thinking approach to leadership: Centerville sought not simply a basketball coach, but a transformational figure — someone with the rare combination of competitive pedigree, proven program-building ability, and a deeply personal commitment to developing young women who win in life as well as on the scoreboard.

Basketball has long been central to Katie Ziegert’s competitive identity. A graduate of Our Lady of Mercy School for Young Women in Rochester, New York, she developed her game under Kathleen Boughton — a Section V Hall of Fame coach whose Mercy teams were known for defensive intensity, disciplined structure, and an uncompromising team-first standard. The values embedded in that program — toughness, accountability, unselfishness, defensive pride — are the same values Ziegert now demands of every athlete she coaches. Though her collegiate path ultimately took her to the lacrosse field — where she competed at the Division I level for Penn State University — that competitive foundation has never left her.

That foundation, combined with what she has built at Centerville over the past four seasons, is precisely why she was the right choice.

Since taking over a Centerville girls lacrosse program with modest expectations, Ziegert has engineered one of the most compelling turnarounds in recent school history — guiding the Lady Elks to their first-ever regional semifinal appearance in just four seasons and earning GWOC Coach of the Year honors twice in that span. A decorated collegiate lacrosse player and certified National Elite Collegiate official, she brought instant credibility to the program, but it was her ability to instill a culture of high expectations, personal accountability, and deep trust that elevated the program beyond what wins and losses alone can capture.

What her lacrosse players — and their parents — will tell you is not primarily about schemes or statistics. They speak about what she built in the locker room: the belief, the toughness, the loyalty, and the standard of effort that became non-negotiable. That is the coach who is walking into the Centerville basketball program.

Ziegert brings the same level of commitment and intentionality to both programs she leads at Centerville. Basketball will serve as her primary focus from June through mid-March. The Lady Elks lacrosse program, which competes on a condensed spring calendar, has a well-established staff infrastructure in place to support athlete development during the brief overlap period — one in which the majority of basketball players are already engaged in club and AAU competition. The two programs are designed to complement, not compete with, each other.

Ziegert speaks from experience on that front. A three-sport athlete in Rochester — soccer, basketball, and lacrosse — she was part of a team that made a run at the NYPHSAA State Championship in soccer while her basketball season had already begun, handling two practices a day without hesitation. She knows firsthand what it means to compete at the highest level across multiple sports simultaneously, and she brings that understanding directly to her student-athletes at Centerville.

Centerville Athletics believes the strongest head coaches combine deep sport knowledge with the ability to build relationships, develop talent, align staff, and lead a complete program. The most transformational coaches in the history of this sport — and this school — have been defined by their ability to connect with young people, hold them to the highest standards, and create something bigger than any individual. The search was guided by that conviction. In Katie Ziegert, Centerville has found exactly that coach.