Lori Blade, Former C-W Standout, Retires

Blade, now 54 years old, has had a stellar season during her high school coaching tenure at Carrollton High School and then Edwardsville.

She was the Carrollton High School coach for eight years where she finished with a coaching record of 233 wins and 27 losses. The Hawks won back-to-back state championships for her during the 2001-02 seasons. They claimed 13 regionals, 11 sectionals and went to the Elite Eight 10 times.

Then she headed to Edwardsville High School where she has coached both basketball and softball and is retiring from basketball. She will continue as the softball coach and teaching physical education.

After Blade graduated from Casey-Westfield, she went to Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville where she played basketball and softball and is a member of the Hall of Fame. She finished scoring 1,144 points in basketball and was, at that time, the third player in school history to pass the 1,000-point plateau. She  led the softball team twice in hits and runs batted in.

She graduated in 1988 with a bachelor's degree in physical education and in 1994 with a master's degree in physical education.

After her college playing days, she was an assistant coach for the SIUE women's basketball team before moving on to coach at Carrollton High School.

Blade was named to the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2016.

She finished her basketball coaching career with 743 wins and 92 losses and is eighth on the all-time IHSA list. Over her 18 years at Edwardsville, she finished with a 510-65 record and three state appearances taking second in 2011-12 and 2017-18 and fourth in 2016-17.

She is still going in softball and is the only coach in IHSA history to win 700 games in two different sports, basketball and softball. She is now 729-118 in softball.

A search will begin for her successor in basketball and applications are being accepted.