It can take a lot to pull a person out of their comfort zone. Spending 10 years in one place can give one a sense of familiarity, can tend to firmly implant roots. Being successful there certainly doesn’t hurt, either.
But sometimes, all it takes is family. That pull can be enough to drag someone away from everything they’ve built.
For Greenfield-Central’s new girls basketball coach Bradley Key, it was that family draw that pulled him away from a successful tenure at Greencastle. Key spent the past 10 years at Greencastle, teaching multiple subjects and coaching their girls basketball team for the past nine seasons.
He was successful. So successful, in fact, his team never had a losing season. Key’s teams compiled a 128-76 record while he was in Greencastle, winning the last five Putnam County championships and seven overall, with one sectional title in there as well.
For Key, having that kind of run at one school — a school he started at immediately upon graduating from college a decade ago — made the choice of leaving a tough one.
“It wasn’t an easy decision at all, but after 10 years of being here I felt comfortable,” Key said. “I like comfort, but I’m just ready for a new challenge and I wanted to see if I could coach at the 4A level. I know I can coach the 3A level here in Putnam County. We’ve had success and I’ve enjoyed that. It’s hard to walk away from that.”
Family ties
Living two hours away from his family was enough to draw Key away from his team and his school.
Growing up in Alexandria, Key was familiar with Greenfield. Highway 9 runs through both, and when his family would go on trips, he identified the courthouse in Greenfield as a marker signifying that he was close to home.
Now, it is home. And it’s a home that puts the 32-year-old within 20 minutes of his brother, and nearly as close to several other members of his immediate family.
That’s not the only family he’ll have nearby upon arriving in Greenfield.
“I think it’s a huge thing,” Greenfield-Central Athletics Director Jared Manning said when asked about Key’s family ties to the area. “Obviously, we want to build a sense of community and build our community to something that people want to be a part of. For him to want to move here and immerse himself into what we’re all about at Greenfield-Central, I think that’s a huge piece. We’re excited to have him join our family here.”
One of the youngest of 12 grandkids, most of who lives in the Madison County area, Key said he is looking forward to being a bigger part of his family’s lives.
“I’ve been on an island here,” Key said. “I was starting to miss things — birthday parties, holidays — I’d like to be a part of. At Greencastle, I’m two hours away. I can’t just pick up and go and see them on a spring afternoon.
“I’m really looking forward to being closer to my brother and sister and my mom. A 15-minute drive is a lot better than a 2-hour drive after holidays.”
Recipe for success
Key found success at Greencastle running mostly an aggressive 2-3 zone defense and a variation of the Princeton offense.
He doesn’t plan on changing who he is or how he coaches despite the new opportunity.
“I’m expecting to get them to work hard and try to get them to buy into what we’re doing early on,” Key said. “I’ve been running the same offense for nine years in Greencastle. It’s going to take some time to get my philosophy put in place. It takes a couple of years for people to understand your offense.”
Key credits having players willing to put in the work and truly buying in to his coaching as important factors in the success he experienced in Class 3A.
While he’s not overly familiar with his new team — he’s still teaching in Greencastle while looking for a place to live in Greenfield — he has met with some of his players and expects the same of them as he did in Greencastle. The school is planning a Meet the Coach night sometime in the next few weeks, an opportunity for parents and the community to meet Key.
The Cougars new coach expects hard work both on the court and in the classroom. He said he believes his team’s GPA never dropped below a 3.5 while at Greencastle. That comes from buy-in. That comes from putting in the work.
“You’re going to have to be a hard worker or you’re not going to be a part of our team,” Key said. “Once you buy into it, success starts breeding success.”
The work ethic he instills in his team and his students is something that drew the school to hiring him.
“The things we kept coming back to with Bradley were his sense of enthusiasm, his drive, his experience, his longevity and consistency,” Manning said. “Overall, he’s going to come in and make an impact on our kids not only on the basketball floor, but the fact that he’s going to be in our building … That’s going to be a huge bonus to us having a teacher in our building helping our girls there, too.
“He really impressed everybody that was on both of our committees throughout the entire (hiring) process.”
Looking ahead
Key inherits a Cougars team that returns its top two scorers from a team that went 10-13 last year and earned a share of the conference title. Key said he knows he will be taking the reins of a team that likely has more talent than he had in Putnam County, and he expects the competition to be likewise raised.
He said he hopes to field a team that is competitive, that is willing to learn, and that’s going to get better by the end of the year and continue to work to improve.
Having athletes playing to their potential and getting everything he can out of his team are important goals for the new Greenfield-Central coach. He put in the time and the work as coach of the Tiger Cubs and developed what he considered to be a well-oiled machine.
“My biggest strength at Greencastle was the kids that played for me for a couple of years knew I cared. I put a lot of time into it,” Key said. “I think (Greenfield-Central) are getting someone who is going to give everything they’ve got to the team to try to get them better. I think there’s a comfort for the team in knowing that a coach has your back, even if he may be a jerk sometimes. He’s got your back.”
After nearly a decade of winning, Key said he is looking forward to being a coach somewhere that his family can make it to games easier.
He’s looking forward to taking on a new challenge, seeing if he can replicate the same level of success at the 4A level in the Hoosier Heritage Conference as he had in Greencastle.
He’s had nine years to develop an offensive and defensive style of basketball. He found a home shortly after college, and he created a culture of success and winning in Greencastle.
Soon, he’ll call Greenfield home. Soon, he hopes to bring the same level of success to the Cougars.
“Now, I’d like to see if I can take that (success) to the next level,” Key said. “It’s a challenge, but all you can do is do your best.”
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New Greenfield-Central coach Bradley Key led Greencastle to nine straight winning seasons as their head coach, compiling a 128-76 record along the way.
Year;record
*2010;13-8
*2011;12-8
2012;13-10
**2013;15-10
*2014;13-8
*2015;15-8
*2016;18-5
*2017;13-10
*2018;16-9
*Won Putnam County championship
**Won sectional
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