Stephanie (Rich) Dacey will return to Iowa, coach girls’ basketball at Williamsburg

WILLIAMSBURG — This isn’t a short-term deal. This isn’t about coaching her niece.

This is about community. This is about home.

“I felt that there have been all of these signs, pointing me toward this,” Stephanie (Rich) Dacey said Tuesday upon the news that she will be the next girls’ basketball coach at Williamsburg High School.

The Raiders are getting a winner; Dacey was the key figure in a three-year Class 3A state-championship run by Washington (Iowa) High School from 1999 through 2001.

She was Miss Iowa Basketball and The Gazette’s Female Athlete of the Year in 2001 after scoring 2,205 career points, then played at the University of Wisconsin.

“Any time you get somebody at the caliber that Steph was at as a player, and add to that the many different levels at which she has coached, and you can’t help but be excited about the possibilities,” Williamsburg AD Nathan King said.

“She has small-town roots, and she’s looking for the same things that we’re looking for ... sharing kids, working together with other coaches.”

Dacey, 39, will succeed Austin Mullikin — a former Washington schoolmate — at Williamsburg.

Mullikin has been hired as boys’ basketball coach at Vinton-Shellsburg.

After her high-school career, Dacey played at the University of Wisconsin, then got into coaching. Her most recent high-level job was as an assistant at Saint Louis University (2007-12). After that, she got her real-estate license and got into business with her husband, Tony, in the St. Louis area.

It was a recent trip home to the Rich family farm near Crawfordsville in which Stephanie and Tony began to consider a move back to Iowa.

“Tony has lived in St. Louis all of his life, but he mentioned that Iowa would be a nice place to raise our (2-year-old) son (James),” Dacey said.

Dacey’s niece, Carly Rich, is a freshman at Williamsburg. And Dacey is a high-school friend of Mullikin — “Heck, he’s probably a distant cousin of some sort,” she said — so that put the wheels in motion.

Then Mullikin announced his move to Vinton.

“Darcy (Rich, Carly’s mother and Stephanie’s sister-in-law) texted and said that Austin had resigned,” Dacey said. “I thought, how awful for Carly, and she said, ‘Why don’t you apply (for the head-coaching position)?’”

Mullikin’s resignation, Tony’s desire to move, Darcy’s encouragement ... Dacey called all of those “signs” that she should take the Williamsburg job.

Another was the sudden death of her father, Phillip Rich, to a heart attack May 22.

“That’s another part of this plan that I’m supposed to be here,” Dacey said. “I probably had 10 high school teammates that came to Dad’s visitation.

“People are there for you when you’re down, when you have a tragedy like this. That’s what home is.”

Williamsburg was 13-10 last season. A sophomore in 2022-23, Carly Rich was the leading scorer last year at 10.6 points per game, but will be the Raiders’ lone returning starter.

“This team ... we’re going to love each other, we’re going to work really hard and we’re going to sacrifice for the betterment of the team,” Dacey said.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com