Former Karns City girls basketball standout Ally Kepple has been named head girls hoop coach at Union High School. She is a teacher in the district.

RIMERSBURG — Ally Kepple remembers well the heyday of the Union girls basketball program.

She was often on the other side of it as a guard for Karns City.

“They had our number,” Kepple said of her time playing against the Damsels. “We didn't win very many against them.”

Now the 2008 Karns City graduate, who scored nearly 1,200 points for the Gremlins in her career, is trying to bring those glory days back to Union as the head girls basketball coach.

Kepple served as an assistant under Lacey Maganotti for the past three years. The Damsels made the District 9 playoffs in 2014-15 and narrowly missed qualifying last season.

Maganotti resigned to spend more time with her young family.

Kepple's hiring will be a seamless transition.

“Lacey and I were always on the same page,” Kepple said. “She told me she didn't consider me an assistant coach. She considered us co-head coaches.”

Kepple, who teaches sixth-grade English language arts in the Union school district, doesn't plan to change much.

The Damsels will have to overcome the loss of leading scorer Lexey Shick, who averaged 15.9 points per game.

But the cupboard is far from empty with seniors Frankee Remmick and Hannah Atzeni.

Kepple said she wants the Damsels to play like those dominating teams she squared off against in high school.

“I want to get back to that,” Kepple said. “I want to get back to when people would say, 'Oh, wow, look at Union. They've won a bunch of games in a row.'”

To do that, Kepple wants to break out old film of those glory days under coach Josh Meeker when Union was a perennial threat to challenge for Class A state titles with Andrea Mortimer and Bethany Koch.

“I want our players to see how they played,” Kepple said.

She also wants her players to be floor generals.

Shick took it upon herself at times last season to diagnose what the defense was playing and called out plays. Kepple wants her current players to do that as well.

She's using the summer leagues to get them accustomed to that practice.

“We were at a summer league game and our point guard looked to me,” Kepple said. “I told her, 'What do you see? Call a play.' I want them to feel comfortable doing that. I want to play up-tempo and really put pressure on a defense.”

Kepple is also adjusting to her new role as head coach; Kepple never planned on being one.

When Maganotti left, Kepple admitted she was nervous about pursuing the head coaching job.

“I'm not really the yelling type,” Kepple said. “When I thought more about it, though, I thought, 'Why not?' Every head coach has a different style. I just won't be the yelling type of coach.”

Kepple will settle for being the winning kind of coach.

“That's the goal,” Kepple said. “We have some good, young players now and some coming up who have played AAU. We want us to be in that mix every year.”