Warsaw to hire Fairfield's Kyle Hartman as girls basketball coach

Warsaw is turning to Fairfield coach Kyle Hartman to lead its girls basketball program, a move that would make him the seventh coach in Lady Tiger history and hand the state-runner-up standard to a coach with a winning record built in real time. The Warsaw Athletic Department is set to recommend Hartman to the School Board, and the school planned to introduce him Wednesday, May 20, at Warsaw High School. Hartman takes over for Lenny Krebs, who stepped down after nine seasons with a 162-58 record, never had a losing season and guided Warsaw to the 2025 Class 4A state championship game.

Hartman arrives with the kind of résumé that makes sense for a program trying to stay in the title conversation. In three seasons at Fairfield, he went 60-18 and never won fewer than 18 games in a season. Fairfield finished 20-7 this year and reached the 2A North semistate before losing to Connersville in the semifinals, another sign that his success was not a one-year spike. For Warsaw, that matters because the program is not replacing a stopgap. It is replacing a coach who had already pushed the Tigers to the final weekend of the 4A tournament.

That is why the hire reads as more than a standard coaching change. Warsaw is looking for a coach who can bring structure, keep players connected across seasons and preserve the expectation that the Lady Tigers belong among sectional and regional powers. Hartman’s background suggests a program builder, not just a game-night tactician. He previously coached boys basketball as a varsity assistant, handled JV boys at South Bend Riley and freshman boys at St. Joseph before taking the Fairfield job. He graduated from Fort Wayne Dwenger High School and earned a degree in health and physical education from Bethel University in 2020.

Hartman called the move “a tremendous opportunity” for him and his family and “a new professional challenge,” and said he was excited to build on Warsaw’s tradition of success. He informed Fairfield players after school the same day, and Warsaw athletic administrators met with the returning Lady Tigers around the same time. In a state where one postseason run can reset expectations for years, Warsaw is betting that Hartman can keep the program at the top end of the bracket and make the next chapter look a lot like the last one.