Another season, another new head coach for the Barton women’s basketball team.

For the seventh time in 12 seasons a new face will be in charge of the program next season after Trevor Rolfs stepped aside Wednesday afternoon after one season as the coach.

Rolfs was pulling double duty as athletic director and women’s coach. He will now focus all his attention as the athletic director at the school. He is currently in his fifth year as the AD at Barton.

“I didn’t really know if it was going to be a short-term thing or a long-term things when I took on the added responsibilities,” Rolfs said. “There were a lot of unknowns at the time as far as how to handle the responsibilities of being AD, being coach and being a family man as well.

“In addition I didn’t know if my daughter was going to play college volleyball or college basketball. She chose basketball. That factors in as well.”

Rolfs said his goal when he took over was to get the program on high ground. It wasn’t on shaky ground by any means. But it wasn’t at the level Barton basketball was used to.

“It is one of those things were you want to finish what you start,” Rolfs said. “I don’t know that we did that. After the injuries and close loses from last year it kind of leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. You coach to win.” 

This past season injuries beset the Cougars before the season ever started and hit again during the year as the Cougars finished his only season at the helm with a 14-17 record.

Barton lost freshman Oreona Brown before the season started. Rolfs thought she might lead the team in scoring. Then Barton lost Katrina Roenfeldt, the leading returning scorer and another player Rolfs thought might lead the team in scoring.

But now Brown is rehabbing nicely and Roenfeldt received a medical redshirt and will return as well. That, coupled with a good core coming back and another strong recruiting class, allowed Rolfs to step away feeling good about the program.

“I really didn’t know until a couple of weeks ago what I was going to do,” Rolfs said. “When the season is over you are focused on recruiting and getting ready for next year. I never really took time to sit down and think about it.

“Coach (Alan) Clark has done a good job helping on the basketball side and Todd (Moore) on the AD side. But the more the gaps opened between the two jobs, the more I realized doing both wasn’t allowing me to do an excellent job on the AD side. That is my main focus, to be an excellent athletic director.” 

Since the departure of Lane Lord following the 2006-07 season no coach has lasted more than three seasons. Four of them, now, have been at the helm for just one season before moving on for one reason or another.

So finding some stability in the program will be key moving forward.

“Our focus now is to find some continuity now,” Rolfs said. “That will be a big thing as we move forward in the process.”

As far as a replacement, he said there is no timetable.

“The sooner the better,” Rolfs said. “But you can’t rush it. Having a lot of the recruiting done, some good kids back and the schedule done, we are not in as a big a rush as if we didn’t have any of those things done.

“The main thing is we want to get the right fit.”