Isaac Loechle picks up reigns at Legacy Courts left behind by late friend Dustin Harvey

LAFAYETTE — The passion for coaching and training basketball players caught Isaac Loechle long before taking a youth athletics leadership role in Lafayette.

Loechle was introduced as the Legacy Courts director of player development and youth basketball last Monday after carving a path through the amateur and collegiate coaching and training ranks. Loechle's most notable stint was becoming an assistant coach at IUPUI from 2018-21.

"The reason why I coach and train is because I love impacting kids' lives," Loechle said. "I don't have to do it through training. I can do it through coaching. My purpose of coaching was to help kids. I still get to do the same thing through training and I think I get to touch more kids lives."

More: Legacy Courts co-owner and Indiana Ice founder dies

Loechle had been a guard at Trine and Anderson University before setting upon his own journey into the world of AAU, youth and collegiate athletics.

Along the path to collegiate coaching, Loechle struck a friendship with Indiana Ice founder and eventual Legacy Courts co-owner Dustin Harvey while coaching AAU basketball against each other in 2012.

Decades-long partnership between Harvey and Loechle

Harvey's fame as a basketball training savant began to make its way around the state while Loechle was running his own club team Indiana Legends.

Competition between the two young coaches would evolve into a friendship that would last over a decade before Harvey passed away in February.

"There's been some tough times, especially the first month," Loechle said. 'During the first month of tryouts, I kept looking up and wondering where Dustin was. I want to talk to him about my team and at one point I had to almost swallow hard, hold back some tears and fight through it."

More: Carson Barrett, Rob Phinisee reflect on the legacy left by the late Dustin Harvey

Loechle's plan to join Legacy Courts was a move he said was "years in the making" with Harvey wanting to implement the techniques employed by his colleague who was the head JV coach and assistant varsity coach at Cathedral in 2015.

"I was here at Legacy when the dirt was where the courts were at back in 2015," Loechle said. "With my knowledge as a Division I assistant, Dustin would always ask where should we put our teams. We were working on a national schedule together. I'm not replacing Dustin. His legacy will live on forever and I was coming up here to implement a training program and do new basketball stuff."

The "stuff" Loechle speaks of is creating training programs that he said are being used by top programs like Ben Davis, Carmel and Fishers in Hamilton County. Six of the last seven IHSAA Class 4A State Champions have come from schools either in Indianapolis or in an Indianapolis suburb.

More: Harrison junior Malachi King named J&C Big Schools Boys Basketball Player of the Year

Loechle said he'll be creating training programs that focus on individual skill development, in addition to the dense AAU schedule offered by AAU teams who play out of Legacy Courts. His training programs will be open to boys and girls basketball players ranging from 3rd - 12th grade.

"There are good trainers (in Lafayette) but there's never been a true training program where it's a three-month commitment that gets kids early from the second and third grade all the way through high school," Loechle said. "I'm looking forward to getting as many kids who are looking to improve their game, become an elite player and be the best player so they can go onto college."

Ethan Hanson is the sports reporter for the Journal & Courier in Lafayette. He can be reached at ehanson@gannett.com, on Twitter at EthanAHansonand Instagram at ethan_a_hanson.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Legacy Courts' Isaac Loechle ready to implement youth strategies