Columbia City names Kyle Fillman girls basketball coach, pending approval
Columbia City stayed in-house with Kyle Fillman, a Norwell and Grace College product who already knows the Eagles’ girls program and its expectations.
Columbia City kept its girls basketball hire close to home, tabbing Kyle Fillman to lead the program pending school board approval and signaling that the Eagles value continuity as much as change. Fillman most recently served as an assistant with the Columbia City boys program, and school staff listings already identify him as the CCHS girls varsity basketball coach.
That detail matters in a program that is not rebuilding from scratch. Fillman becomes just the fourth head coach in Columbia City girls basketball history, inheriting a seat that Amy Shearer held for 16 seasons while turning the Eagles into one of northeast Indiana’s steadier programs. Shearer finished 237-150, won five 20-win seasons and guided Columbia City to Northeast 8 Conference titles in 2020, 2022 and 2023.
The job comes with real expectations, not ceremonial ones. Columbia City went 16-8 in the 2025-26 season and closed Shearer’s run with sectional and regional championships in 2024-25, evidence that the standard in Whitley County is not simply to compete, but to stay in the postseason conversation deep into March. Shearer also stepped away after being named an assistant coach for the 2026 Indiana Girls All-Stars, another reminder of how respected that era became statewide.
Fillman’s background fits the kind of hire a school makes when it wants steadiness without staleness. A Norwell graduate who played at Grace College, he brings both local roots and college experience, the kind of résumé that can resonate in the gym and in the locker room. For Columbia City, that mix could matter as much as any playbook tweak. A coach who already understands the school’s athletic culture, the expectations around the building and the rhythms of the program has a better chance of keeping players invested and the roster intact.
The challenge now is defining whether this becomes a seamless continuation or a quiet reset. Columbia City has recent tournament success, star power in Indiana All-Star Addison Baxter and a history that proves the program can win. Fillman’s first test will be simple to state and hard to pull off: preserve what Shearer built, make the role his own and keep the Eagles right where they’ve been for most of the last two decades, near the top of the Northeast 8 conversation.
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