(LAGRANGE) – The Lakeland School Corporation has five new coaches for the 2020-21 school year.

Monday night the Lakeland Board of Education approved the hiring of Chris Keil, Dale Gearheart, Kristina Fry, Michael Rasbaugh and Lincoln McDonald. The candidates were presented by Lakeland Athletic Director Kyle Grossman.

Keil will be the Varsity boys basketball coach for Lakeland. For the last ten years he has coached the Lakeland AAU and youth teams. Keil is a graduate of East Noble High School where he was a ten time First Team All Conference athlete across three sports for the Knights. He is the
former owner of Heron Creek Golf Club.

Gearheart was hired to be the new Lakeland girls Varsity basketball coach and as a health and physical education teach for Lakeland Junior and Senior High School. Gearheart has been both a basketball and volleyball coach as well as an Athletic Director at Blackford Community Schools. Gearheart was a staff member with the Marion boys basketball team during their state championship run in 2016.

McDonald will serve as the Lakeland Varsity boys soccer coach. He is a 2016 graduate of Westview High School. He returned to Westview in 2017 to be the JV soccer coach, where he has served for the last three years. He has also been a Varsity assistant coach.

Fry will be the Lakeland Cheer Coach. She is a Lakeland graduate and a former cheerleader. She has been the Lakeland Middle School cheer coach for the last year and a half and is excited to be taking over the Varsity squad.

Rasbaugh will take over as the Lakeland Boys and Girls Varsity tennis coach. He served as the Assistant Tennis coach when Grossman was the Head Coach, so he is familiar with the program.

Grossman says during their interviews, all of the new coaches all talked about their plans to build on the existing programs and help them to grow and be competitive.