JEFF REINHART | Sports WriterThe Lancaster-Lebanon League’s third and final girls basketball coaching vacancy was filled this week, when Tyrell Keyes gained school board approval at Columbia.
He’s a familiar face around the league; Keyes played basketball during his high school days at Manheim Township, and he’s spent the last four seasons as an assistant coach in Solanco’s boys program — including the last two as the Golden Mules’ JV head coach.
Keyes succeeds Karl Kreiser, who retired after this past season after two stints and 284 victories as Columbia’s girls coach. He guided the Crimson Tide to three straight section titles and to four straight district championship games to cap his coaching career.
Keyes will inherit a team that will lose three starters to graduation — including high-scoring twins Brie Droege, a 2,000-point scorer, and Brooke Droege, a 1,500-point scorer — but is set to return starters Delaney Burke and Sehrena Finks-Garcia, plus incoming freshman Lexi Droege, next season.
Keyes will join Alex (Stam) Long and Erica Lausch as new coaches in L-L League girls basketball circles. Long took over the duties at Donegal and Lausch is the new skipper at Warwick.
Long, a standout player at Cardinal O’Hara and then at Millersville University, coached Octorara’s girls team in the 2020-21 season before moving on to be an assistant at Donegal, which went 11-70 over the last five seasons under Matthew Werner.
Lausch, a former multi-sport athlete at Ephrata, most recently served as Bill Moore’s assistant for Conestoga Valley’s girls program, and she also coached the Lancaster Splash AAU squad. Warwick went 55-71 over the last six seasons under Danny Cieniewicz.
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