"Behind every great man is a great woman," is a saying that most people are familiar with.

In the sports world, that statement could be changed around to ... "Behind every great head coach are great assistant coaches."It's not something that sports fans often think about, especially at the high school level. But head coaches and players will be the first to tell you how important the role of an assistant coach is to the success of a program.During the course of a basketball game there is a lot going on and it's best to have as many eyes on the action as possible in order to make adjustments. That's an area where an assistant coach can certainly come in handy. An assistant might see something that a head coach does not.Frank McCarroll, who is currently an assistant boys basketball coach with Tamaqua has over 13 years experience as an assistant coach at the varsity level. He agrees that a head coach can't see everything and an assistant must be able to offer suggestions on what the opposition is doing."Head coaches have a lot on their plate during the game, so as an assistant you have to be ready to give them information," said McCarroll. "Whether it's a set play you think would work or a matchup that you like, it's just always good to give the head coach options."Marian's Jeff Onushco has been an assistant with the Fillies for the last 19 seasons. He and head coach Paul Brutto have such a great rapport that Brutto gives Onushco the task of sometimes calling out sets during the course of a game."Myself and coach Brutto have been doing this together for a long time and he gives me a lot of freedoms that most assistants don't have," said Onuscho. "I'm able to call out sets and I always have been able to have a lot of input on what's going on. It's just the chemistry and trust we've built over all these years and it works."Maybe the most important part of an assistant's job is to talk to players before they enter or when they exit the game. Sometimes when a player is coming off the floor it's because they made a mistake or they are having a hard time putting the ball in the basket. That's when an assistant has to be a little bit of a psychologist as well in order to keep the player in a positive mind set.John Koehler has been an assistant for the Jim Thorpe Lady Olympians for the last eight seasons and agreed that keeping a player from getting down during a game is one of the most important duties of an assistant coach."Whatever went wrong on the floor I try to tell them what they could've don't better or what they can do better to prevent it from happening again," said Koehler. "I also try to teach them how to have a short memory. A player always has the opportunity to make up for a mistake they made with another play when they get back in the game and that's the message I try to convey and they can't do that with a negative attitude."Practice is where the real work gets done in the game of basketball. In most cases, a head coach is the organizer and oversees all the drills and skills that occur at practice on a daily basis. That's once again where an assistant coach comes in. Assistants works with specific position groups on specific skills. For example, one assistant will be tasked with working with guards, while another assistant will work with post players."Coach Brutto focuses a lot on defense, which is why we've had such a successful program over the years. I lean a little more towards the offensive side at practice," said Onushco. "I've always worked with the post players and their skills. We don't do anything fancy. We just work hard, and that's the type of mentality we try to instill in our kids. I love doing what I do, especially here at a great school like Marian."After all the hours put in, wins and losses, championships and sometimes rough seasons it's fair to say that these coaches don't do this for a paycheck."I love coaching, and for me, the best thing is just to see a kid get better," said McCarroll. "To watch a kid develop and gain confidence and learn the game is just a great thing to watch. That's why most of us coaches put so much time in."**********THE BRADY BUNCH ... On Feb. 3, Northwestern's Brady Mengel set a new school record for three-pointers in a game with eight long balls in a 67-39 victory over Catasauqua. Aside from being a Northwestern single-game record, the eight treys are also the most by a Times News player this season (the previous high was seven, set by Jim Thorpe's Brendan Carroll and Weatherly's Zach Moon). The previous Northwestern record was seven three-pointers set by Kevin Oxley in 2010 and Jason Beani in 2000. The last Times News boy with at least eight three-pointers in a game was Lehighton's Jordan Knappenberger last season. He had 10 against Pen Argyl on Dec. 13, 2014 and finished that game with 40 points. Knappenberger is one of only four players in the Times News area to have 10 or more three-pointers in a game (Jim Thorpe's Brian Balliet had 12 on Feb. 2, 1995; Weatherly's Jeff Furmanchin had 11 on Feb. 4, 2006; and Marian's Eddie McLaughlin had 10 on Dec. 15, 2000).Aside from Mengel's eight three-pointers, he also finished that game with a career-high 30 points. According to Times News records, the last Northwestern boys player to score at least 30 points in a game was Ryan Oxley when he had 35 points against Pocono Mountain West on Dec. 29, 2004.**********DIALING LONG DISTANCE ... In addition to Mengel, Marian's John Woitko and Weatherly's Shelby Berger each buried six three-pointers in a game this week. Woitko drained six treys in Thursday's 59-55 loss to Williams Valley. It marked the second time this season that Woitko connected for six long balls in a game (the other coming against Tri-Valley on Jan. 12). Berger, who had five three-pointers against Schuylkill Haven on Jan. 19, bettered her career-high with six treys in Monday's playoff-clinching 63-40 victory over Meadowbrook Christian School.**********GOING HAYWIRE ... On Feb. 3, Palmerton's Spencer Hay buried a jumper from the left side of the foul circle with five minutes left in the first quarter to put the Bomber senior over 1,000 points for his career. Hay netted 11 points (1,010 career points) in the final game of his high school career to help Palmerton to a 63-45 victory over Northern Lehigh. Hay entered the game needing just one point to achieve the milestone. The last Palmerton boy to reach 1,000 points was Craig Steigerwalt. He hit his 1,000th point on Jan. 18, 2002 in a loss against Salisbury and finished his Bombers career with 1,142 points.**********FREE FALLING ... The Jim Thorpe boys used the foul line to help gain a win over Marian on Saturday. The Olympians shot 19-of-31 from the charity stripe to help close regular season play with a 54-49 victory. The 19 made free throws are the most by the Jim Thorpe boys since Jan. 9, 2009 when they went 21-of-27 during a 72-60 win over Pottsville. Leading the way for the Olympians in that game was Corey Cinicola, who was a perfect 9-of-9 from the stripe.**********WRECKERS RIDE INTO PLAYOFFS ... On Monday night, the Weatherly girls (11-11) defeated Meadowbrook Christian School 63-40 to earn their 11th win of the season, thus clinching a spot in the District 11 Class A Tournament. The last time the Lady Wreckers advanced to the district playoffs was 2005 (with a 16-7 record), which was 1,000-point scorer Lauren Kelshaw's senior season. The win marked the seventh district playoff appearance in the last 30 years for Weatherly, who has had just two winning seasons in the past 20 years. The last time the Lady Wreckers won a playoff game was 1996.**********RECORD BREAKER ... When Jim Thorpe sophomore Kayley Kovac scored her 1,000th career point on Feb. 2 in her 41st game, she broke a Carbon County record by reaching the 1,000-point plateau 10 games quicker than former Palmerton standout Nicole Levandusky (51 games). Levandusky graduated in 1997 with a county record of 2,662 career points. She continued her basketball career at Xavier University, followed by a stint in the WNBA. Kovac also surpassed the Lehigh County record held by Allentown Central Catholic's Michelle Marciniak (50 games), the Monroe County record held by East Stroudburg South's Carly Gallagher (62 games), and the Northampton County record held by Pius X's Stephanie Merlo (46 games). .Every Thursday during the winter sports season, The Times News will publish its weekly basketball notebook reflecting back on the week that was, and highlighting both individual and team accomplishments, as well as interesting information that may have occurred in games from the previous seven days. Today's notebook will be the final one of the season and will look back on all the happenings from last Wednesday up through this past Tuesday. This week's notes were compiled by Jason Boris and Rod Heckman.