By EDDIE DANIELS
The Tampa Tribune

LAND O’ LAKES - You could say Wesley Chapel lucked into this one.

When Warren Jones resigned his position as the Wesley Chapel girls basketball coach, they lost someone who injected success into the program.

Jones led the team to an 85-24 ledger in five seasons. During that span, the Wildcats were built into one of the top program’s in the county, earning five playoff appearances with two district titles. Last season, the team advanced to the regional finals for the first time in school history.

Karim Nohra found out about the Wesley Chapel girls basketball job opening through former player Caitlin DeBoer, who played for Nohra at Cambridge from seventh grade until her junior year. She then moved on to Wesley Chapel for her senior season.

“She basically said, ‘Hey Coach, I know you’re not coaching right now, but I know my coach Warren Jones is going to quit. Why don’t you apply for the Wesley Chapel job.’ That’s how I knew it was open,” Nohra said of DeBoer, now on a basketball scholarship at North Carolina’s Montreat College. “I was not really looking into the Wesley Chapel job or any Pasco County schools.”

After finding out the particulars, Nohra, who coached at Tampa Catholic (1991-00 to 2000-01) and Cambridge (2001-02 to 2005-06), then dug deeper. He wanted to make sure it was a good fit, even watching a couple of the team’s summer league games.

“[Caitlin] knows my conditions for girls,” said Nohra, an engineering professor at the University of South Florida. “She knows how I coach and she felt the girls would work hard and try to meet my standards. That was one of the first things I said to Caitlin.

“I said, ‘Will the girls work hard enough? If they don’t, then I don’t want the job.’ And she said, ‘They are hard working kids, they love basketball and I think you’d be a great fit for them.’ If it wasn’t for her saying that, I probably would not have applied to Wesley Chapel.”

In his seasons at Tampa Catholic, Nohra compiled a 200-113 record, which was a huge turnaround from his first season with the Crusaders. In that inaugural year, the team collected a 2-22 record.

During his five seasons at Cambridge, he led the Lancers to a 140-18 record, in which his team never lost a district championship game in its five appearances.

He spent the 2005-06 season as the Carrollwood Day School’s middle school coach.

“Karim Nohra comes in with some good credentials and we think he’s going to do some good things,” said Steve Mumaw, Wesley Chapel’s athletic director.

As for the change in scenery, Nohra’s looking forward to the challenge.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “As long as the kids are working hard, I’m good to go. I’m looking forward to the challenges of Pasco County. There’s some solid teams there that I know of. Gulf has been pretty darn good, Land O’ Lakes has been pretty darn good…”

Reporter Eddie Daniels can be reached at (813) 948-4214 or edaniels@tampatrib.com.