Noblesville hires veteran Justin Bennett to lead girls basketball team

Noblesville did not wait long to reset its girls basketball direction. After Donna Buckley stepped down on March 16 following 18 seasons, the Millers moved to veteran coach Justin Bennett, a hire approved at Tuesday night’s school board meeting and aimed squarely at restoring stability to a program that still expects to contend.

That expectation matters. Buckley left behind one of the most successful runs in school history, going 275-148 at Noblesville and 371-222 overall, so Bennett is not walking into a rebuild from scratch. He is taking over a program with standards, a deep memory of winning and a roster base that needs to be reconnected quickly as summer workouts approach. Noblesville finished 9-12 last season, went 2-5 in Hoosier Crossroads Conference play and placed sixth in the league, a snapshot that makes the timing of the hire just as important as the name on it.

Bennett brings the kind of resume that suggests he was chosen for the long view. He has 14 total years of head coaching experience, including nine seasons on the girls side, and most recently coached at Tri-West in 2023-24. A recent record source also listed him at Indianapolis Riverside in 2024-25 and 2025-26, where he finished 21-2 in 2025-26. That matters for Noblesville because the program is looking for a coach who can manage roster turnover, establish structure and keep the Millers competitive in one of Indiana’s toughest conferences.

His background points to a clear program identity. In a 2018 profile, Bennett said he has always emphasized defense and wants to create offense through defense, a philosophy that fits a team trying to tighten its margin in league play. That same profile noted coaching stops at Indianapolis Marshall from 2012-14 and Cascade from 2014-15, after three seasons coaching boys at Indianapolis International, while also working as a corrections case manager for the Indiana Department of Corrections. The path says something about why Noblesville wanted him: Bennett has built teams in different settings and has seen enough of the high school game to know that culture, structure and daily habits often decide whether a program rises or stalls.

For Noblesville, the hire is about more than replacing Buckley. It is about getting a veteran voice in place now, before summer development shapes the next season and before the Millers’ identity is set for 2026-27. In a program that just spent nearly two decades under one coach, Bennett’s first task will be making the transition feel immediate, and making the next step look familiar: winning basketball.