Story byThe Portsmouth Daily Times, OhioKevin Colley, The Portsmouth Daily Times, OhioSat, January 17, 2026 at 2:21 AM UTC·10 min readIt is true that to win a lot of games in a head coaching career, one must coach a lot of seasons to get to certain milestones. However, it’s still highly impressive when a high school head coach is averaging north of 16 to 17 wins per season in the sport of high school basketball, especially considering the brutal schedule that the SOC III gauntlet tends to produce, more often than not, year after year. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWheelersburg girls basketball head coach Dusty Spradlin has successfully done just that. Now in his 24th season as the head coach of the Lady Pirates’ girls basketball program, Spradlin’s commitment and dedication to making the Wheelersburg community better in his own way has paid off. Spradlin, one of just three girls basketball head coaches in Scioto County to coach in the OHSAA Final Four alongside 2024 OHSAA Division III State Semifinalist and 2025 OHSAA Division V State Championship head coach Amy Hughes at Portsmouth and Terri Boldman at Clay, who helped the Lady Panthers reached a state semi back in 1981, recently earned his 400th career head coaching victory when Wheelersburg defeated Ironton, 51-17, on Saturday, Jan. 3. Now at 403 wins for his head coaching career, the alum-turned-longtime-leader simply swells with pride at not only the memories that he’s been a part of with the girls he’s coached and the individuals that he’s coached alongside, but the different types of talent that he’s had along the way as well en route to the milestone. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I’ve had several people reach out and, to me, it just makes me stop and think back to all of the different kids that we’ve had,” Spradlin said. “It makes you appreciate the time we’ve had together and how lucky we’ve been.
