Former Carrollton Coach Lori Blade honored

By Editor | February 9, 2022 |

Lori Blade

By Carmen Ensinger

Former Carrollton High School Girls Head Coach Lori Blade has been gone from the Carrollton School District for 20`years now, but ask anyone who the greatest coach in Carrollton’s basketball history was and the name Lori Blade comes to mind.
Blade was recently named one of the Top 60 Most Influential People of the past 50 years by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA).
The ICBA has been honoring Title IX’s 50th anniversary by having members of the media select 30 of the most impactful people in men’s and women’s basketball in the last 50 years.
Two individuals are selected each week with Blade being selected in the third week of the selection, which is done in alphabetical order. The IBCA said the following about Blade:
“Lori Blade’s name is synonymous with winning. Her career mark of 743 wins and 92 losses is an astonishing winning percentage of 89 percent. Lori coached at Carrollton High School from 1994-2002 and won two Class A State Championships to go along with a second-place finish. Coach Blade then moved to Edwardsville High School, where she guided two teams to the Final Four. Before she retired in 2020, her teams reached the Sweet 16 18 times, the Elite 8 nine times and won 30-plus games in a season 12 times.”
Blade was inducted into the IBCA Hall of Fame in 2016. Listed among her accolades were her accomplishments at Carrollton which included an impressive 223-27 record. This included back-to-back State Titles in 2001 and 2002 and a 1999 runner-up finish for the Lady Hawks.
In 2017, she was also inducted into the Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville Hall of Fame. She was also selected by the National High School Coaches Association as its National Girls Basketball Coach of the Year.
Blade was listed as the 8th most winning coach in girls basketball history when she announced her retirement from coaching basketball in April of 2020.
Blade, who simultaneously coached softball during her tenure at both Carrollton and Edwardsville, continues to coach the sport at Edwardsville. She is the only IHSA coach to have more than 700 wins in two different sports.