Criss Beyers steps down again at Warren Central, opening another Indiana job

Criss Beyers stepped down at Warren Central, and the opening lands as more than a routine coaching change. It strips one of Marion County’s most visible boys basketball jobs of the man who built its standard, and it gives the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township another high-pressure hire after a 6-16 season ended with a 58-50 sectional semifinal loss to Lawrence Central on March 6.

The school posted the head boys varsity basketball opening on March 11, one day after the resignation became public. That timing matters because Warren Central is not a program that resets quietly. The Warriors are still measured against Beyers’ first run, when he guided them to a 32-0 season and the 2018 Indiana High School Athletic Association Class 4A state championship, the first boys basketball state title in school history. That team also made Warren Central only the second school, after Oregon-Davis in 2007, to win girls and boys state titles in the same school year.

Beyers returned in 2023 for a second stint and steadied the program for a stretch, going 14-11 in 2023-24 and 13-9 in 2024-25. This winter told a different story. Warren Central stumbled to 6-16, and the sectional loss to Lawrence Central ended the season without a late push that could have softened the optics. At a school with this much history, a record like that does not just close a season. It sharpens the questions about depth, player development and whether the roster is ready to contend in the Metropolitan Conference again.

The next coach inherits a job shaped by Beyers’ resume and the expectations that came with it. Beyers previously left Warren Central in 2019 and later coached Franklin Central after also spending time at Martinsville, where he went 13-10 in 2012-13. When he departed for Franklin Central, his Warren Central record stood at 86-18, proof of how high the ceiling had already been set.

That is the real weight of this opening. Warren Central does not need a caretaker, and it does not need a rebuild sold as patience. It needs a coach who can stabilize offseason continuity, keep the returning players moving in the same direction, and bring a title-level program back to the level where one bad year looks like the exception, not the beginning.