Butler grad named West Shamokin hoop coach
RURAL VALLEY — West Shamokin’s girls have had plenty of success on the basketball court as a team.
Butler graduate Mackenzie O’Donnell had plenty of success as a player herself.
Now the two hope to enjoy plenty of success together. The 27-year-old O’Donnell Sabula — who got married over the summer — recently accepted the Wolves’ girls basketball coaching position. It marks her first head coaching job.
She served as an assistant basketball coach at Butler for two years and worked with the Golden Tornado softball program at the junior high level for three seasons. She has not coached since 2019 as she spent the past two years completing her masters program in social work at Edinboro University.
“I’ve really missed being on the court, as a coach and as a player,” Sabula said. “I heard about the West Shamokin opening through the grapevine and threw my name in.
“Driving home after the interview, I remember getting a phone call asking me if I was interested in taking the job. I talked it over with my husband. He was very supportive of it, as have been my family and his family. I’m excited about this.”
Sabula’s husband, Andrew, is a West Shamokin graduate.
Phil Parks, the school’s athletic director, served as interim girls basketball coach last season. The Wolves finished 6-13, but only had one senior on the roster.
Prior to last season, West Shamokin had winning records in five of six years, including a 16-5 mark in 2020-21 and a PIAA Class 2A semifinal appearance in 2016-17, when the Wolves finished 27-3.
“It’s a very healthy program,” Parks said. “We had a long-term coach leave after that 2021 season and I just filled in for a year. We had a number of quality applicants come in and apply for the position.
“We were impressed that Mackenzie had coached at a big school like Butler and she has a lot of basketball knowledge. She was quite a player herself.”
Sabula scored more than 800 points as a post player at Butler. She is second on the all-time women’s basketball scoring list at LaRoche University, scoring 1,581 points.
She has been employed by the Butler V.A. hospital for the past five years.
“I was working full-time while getting my masters degree, doing an internship ... I was gone from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day,” Sabula said. “I had to give up coaching during that time. Now I’m able to get back into it.”
Her varsity assistant will be Alexis Adams, who is an assistant softball coach at West Shamokin. Jill Glover will be a volunteer assistant and has been involved with volleyball.
“I’m not a teacher at the school, so I will be a totally new face to the girls,” Sabula said. “It’s good to have assistants who know some of the girls to help in the transition.
“My goal is to build a program there, have each season better than the one before. There’s some fundamental things I want to teach. Part of building a team is building relationships. I want to get to know the girls, teach them life lessons, not just basketball.”
And she’s in it for the long haul.
“I’m not just doing this for one or two years,” Sabula said. “That wouldn’t be fair to the girls. I want to get into it and stay with it.”
“We’re excited to have her,” Parks said. “Mackenzie is exactly the type of person we want in place for this program moving forward.”
