By John RittenhouseA 42-year coaching career came to an end when the Ellsworth girls basketball team bowed out of the South Section 3A Tournament in February.Dean Schnaible, the EHS head coach for the past five seasons, has decided to retire from the coaching ranks.His decision to step down from the EHS post marks the end of a four-plus decade career that featured stops in Hills, Hartington, Neb., Adrian and Ellsworth.Schnaible, a native of Java, S.D., coached elementary school, junior high and B teams at Hills and Hills-Beaver Creek schools from 1960-1972.He coached one year in Hartington in 1973 before moving to Adrian in 1974, where he coached elementary and varsity basketball until 1992.Schnaible served as an assistant coach in Adrian’s girls’ program in the 1990s before taking over the EHS girls’ program in 2000. He was named the South Section 3A and Section 3A Assistant Coach of the Year while working with the AHS girls’ program."The past 42 years of coaching the game of basketball has been very enjoyable for me," he said."I was very fortunate to be able to do something I love every day. It’s fun to work at a job you know and love."Schnaible says his initial coaching experiences at Hills and H-BC were rewarding.Working for then head coach Hugo Goehle, a coaching legend in Southwest Minnesota, was what Schnaible described as a tremendous opportunity.Schnaible said he absorbed a lot of Goehle’s coaching philosophies while at H-BC and used them during his years as an elementary school and varsity coach in Adrian.Adrian experienced some of its most memorable basketball seasons under the guidance of Schnaible.The Dragons won three Tri-County Conference titles during his watch and advanced to the District 8 title games three times. The 1985 AHS team captured the school’s lone District 8 basketball championship. Schnaible was named the District 8 Coach of the Year three times while running the boys’ program at AHS."It’s too bad Minnesota didn’t have four (basketball) classes during my tenure at AHS," Schnaible offered. "We had an abundance of talent during my 18 seasons at AHS. I felt we had some teams that would have qualified for the state tournament under the current format, but the much larger schools stood in our way back then."Schnaible also will have fond memories of his five years at Ellsworth, which featured him winning 70 games and earning the South Section 3A Coach of the Year award twice."I was blessed to have some good student-athletes at Ellsworth. I wish the Lady Panther basketball teams much success in the future," he said.During his 42 years as a coach, Schnaible compiled a 910-250 record at the elementary, junior high, B team and varsity levels of competition.