CHERRY TWP — When Moniteau junior point guard Ashley Brehm found out the only basketball coach she had ever known, Mark Yeager, was resigning, she couldn't keep her emotions in check.

“I cried — a lot,” Brehm said. “Then once he stopped talking, I had to walk out of the gym and let it all soak in for a while. I couldn't even look at him.”

But once Brehm had come to grips with the fact that Yeager, who had won 129 games in his 11 years as the Warriors girls basketball coach, was indeed leaving, she gave him a send-off he deserved.

“I thought of all the good times,” Brehm said. “I gave him a big hug. There's not another coach like him.”

The decision was a tough one for Yeager, too. Carving out time for the girls basketball program, though, was becoming increasingly more difficult for him.

Yeager, 54, works long hours for a construction company in the summer. As high school basketball became an increasingly year-round sport, Yeager found his offseason work-and-basketball schedule nearly impossible to reconcile.

“My summers were brutal,” Yeager said. “I get laid off in the winter, so the season wasn't the problem. It was being there for open gyms and summer leagues. I'd get up at 3:30 a.m., go to work — sometimes south of Pittsburgh — drive like a crazy man to Clarion and get home at 11 p.m.

“I love the kids,” Yeager added. “I love the game. But it's become too much.”

Under Yeager, Moniteau reached the District 9 Class AA title game twice, including this season, but lost both times.

The Warriors nearly pulled off a huge upset in the first round of the PIAA Class AA playoffs earlier this month, but lost to Keystone Oaks by one point in overtime.

“This year, we didn't win anything,” Yeager said. “We were second in the KSAC South. We were second in the district. No one will remember that. It'll just be a 14-11 season. But I will remember. I'll always look back on it with fond memories.”

In fact, Yeager's favorite team was one that went 7-17.

It's never been about wins and losses for Yeager, he said.

“That was just a fun group (in the 2007-08 season),” Yeager said. “They just busted their butts the whole year.”

It paid off the next season when the Warriors went 17-7. Yeager was named Butler Eagle Girls Basketball Coach of the Year after the turnaround campaign.

Yeager is in consideration for the award again this season.

The team should be strong again in 2012-13, which made the decision to leave all the more difficult for Yeager.

“I always said when I left, I didn't want to leave the cupboard bare,” Yeager said. “There should be some good senior leadership next season.”

And that starts with Brehm, who was an extension of Yeager's coaching staff on the court as a junior.

“Next year, Ashley is going to be coaching,” Yeager said.

Yeager began his basketball coaching career at Moniteau in 1992 as the junior high boys coach. In 1994, he joined the girls basketball staff at the school as the junior varsity coach and took over the program in 2001 from Dee Arblaster.

His coaching style slowly changed over the years.

“I used to be a wild man,” Yeager said. “As the years went by, I became more laid back. Some of my former players came to games recently and asked me, ‘What happened to you?'”

Yeager's teams were shaped by hustle and strong defense.

“I always wanted us to be the hardest-working team in the league,” Yeager said. “I think we did that.”

After 11 seasons as the head girls basketball coach at Moniteau, Mark Yeager resigned. Following is his year-by-year record at the school.<B>Year Record - 2001-02 7-16</B>02-03 10-1403-04 10-1404-05 16-805-06 16-1006-07 7-1607-08 7-1708-09 17-709-10 14-1010-11 11-1111-12 14-11<B>Overall 129-134</B>