Lakeland hires former college coach Brandon Auker to lead girls basketball

Lakeland is betting that a coach with college roots can give its girls basketball program a sharper edge as the offseason churns around Indiana. Brandon Auker brings a résumé built at Bethel University, the University of Indianapolis and Loras College, along with the kind of structure and player development Lakeland appears eager to put at the center of its next chapter.

Lakeland announced Auker as its new girls varsity coach on April 14, pending School Board approval. The school said his mission is to build a culture of excellence, family and long-term student success, a message that fits a program trying to turn a fresh hire into more than a simple replacement. Auker was most recently an assistant coach at Bethel, where he completed three seasons with the Pilots. Bethel’s coaching bio describes him as someone who values selflessness, competitiveness, positivity, accountability and communication, and says he favors a fast-paced style. That blend points toward a program built to play with pace and purpose rather than simply lean on continuity.

Auker’s path gives the move a different feel from a typical in-state promotion. He is from Evansville, played college basketball at Elmhurst, and served as a team captain there. In a statement, Auker said he had wanted to coach since he was “nine or ten years old,” and after a five-year college coaching career and a brief time away to focus on his young family, he said his faith led him back to the gym. Lakeland also said he was drawn to the school not just for basketball but for the community, a detail that fits a hire built around fit as much as strategy.

For Lakeland, the timing matters as much as the name. The new coach steps into a program with recent evidence that postseason success is possible, since the Lakers won their first girls sectional title in 25 years in 2021. That milestone still carries weight in LaGrange, where the expectation now is not just participation, but a return to title contention. With Auker in place, Lakeland is signaling that the next phase should be defined by pace, accountability and a college-level approach to the daily work that turns a roster into a contender.