A North Texas coach has been awarded the biggest honor a high school coach can receive.
Irving MacArthur girl's basketball coach Suzie Oelschlegel has been named the 2011 Coach of the Year by The National Federation of State High School Associations.
"It's huge. One coach in the whole nation. And it's ours," said associate principal Dionn Dahl.
For 32 years, Oelschlegel has considered her students as family.
On Friday, she invited NBC 5 exclusively to cover the big announcement.
"Just to watch these kids grow, it's just an amazing thing to experience," said Oelschlegel, who added that she's been doing everything she could to help her students get as far as they can.
"When I got out of college, I couldn't play basketball anymore, because there was no WNBA. The next best thing was coaching," she said.
As a coach, she has helped numerous students to pick up where she left off. WNBA, the Olympics, the list goes on. Last school year, Oelschlegel's team became the state champions. This year, two of her best players, seniors Ayriel Anderson and Alexis Jones, got a rare opportunity to play for McDonald's All-American High School Basketball Team.
"She is always pushing for us to get better. I don't think there's no other coach that will push a girl so hard," said Anderson.
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Anderson also said her coach has helped her to snag a full scholarship to Texas State University in San Marcos.
"She influenced us a lot because she wanted us to get there just as bad as we do," said Jones.
Jones, too, scored a full scholarship. She has chosen to attend Duke and she credits her coach for making it happen.
"She's always encouraging. Just keep sayin, 'Keep playing through it, they'll fall. Just keep playin,'" she said.
Oelschlegel will be presented with a commemorative plaque later this school year which will probably accompany the state championship trophy from last year. The coach also said that her team has a very good chance of making it to the state finals in February.
