Brian Samples Named 2025 IBCA Assistant Coach of the Year

Samples coaches at Oldenburg Academy.

INDIANAPOLIS - The Indiana Basketball Coaches Association has selected two individuals as the 2025 Assistant Coaches of the Year. 

One of those individuals is Oldenburg Academy girls varsity basketball assistant coach Brian Samples. 

Samples has served as an assistant coach at OA since the fall of 2023. Alongside head coach David Disbro, they have guided the Twisters to a 40-10 record over the past two seasons with a 2025 Class A sectional title - which was the program's first since 2006. 

“Brian’s impact on our players has been indescribable,” Disbro said in nominating Samples for the award. “He is an outstanding shooting coach. I've never seen anyone in 34 years of coaching who can help a player with technique, confidence and their mind as well as he does it comes to shooting. He is a great coach whom his players trust, listen to and care about. He is known for sending us all inspirational texts and words of wisdom in our group chats with the team.”

Samples and Disbro go way back to the mid-1980s when they were rivals competing for South Ripley and South Dearborn high schools, respectively. After both graduating in 1986, they each went to Marian College in Indianapolis. There, they became baseball teammates, roommates and friends for life.

Over the years, both men have had excellent success as coaches. That included Disbro going 332-220 in 24 seasons from 1999 to 2023 as boys’ basketball head coach at East Central. Over the same span, Samples was a boys’ basketball assistant at Jac-Cen-Del, a girls’ basketball assistant at Jac-Cen-Del, a varsity softball coach at Jac-Cen-Del, a girls’ basketball head coach at South Ripley, a varsity softball coach at South Ripley, a girls’ basketball assistant at Jac-Cen-Del again and a girls’ basketball head coach at South Ripley again.

Samples began his coaching career as a junior high basketball coach at South Ripley, coaching boys’ basketball and girls’ basketball for four seasons each from 1991 to 1998. He followed as a boys’ basketball assistant at Jac-Cen-Del from 1998-2001, a girls’ basketball assistant at Jac-Cen-Del in 2001-02 and the South Ripley girls’ head coach from 2008-13. He was a Jac-Cen-Del girls’ basketball assistant for a Class A state championship team in 2015-16, then South Ripley girls’ head coach again from 2016-19. Samples’ coaching odyssey also includes varsity softball at South Ripley in 1996 and 1997, at Jac-Cen-Del from 1999 to 2003 and from 2005-08, and at South Ripley again in 2011 and 2012.

“Brian is a dedicated coach, and I never have seen anyone watch more video, make himself available to our players more and be there when he is needed,” Disbro said. “He is a ‘straight shooter’ with our players but does it in a very positive way. Our girls love him for many reasons, but his positive approach and help for them are chief among them. I have seen him leave work early to get to practice or a game. He is also the first to invite the team to his house after games, show up at the girls' other sporting events, music concerts, graduation parties and other special events.”

Samples’ wife, Kathy, was diagnosed with cancer last fall, so Disbro was concerned that Samples might not be available to assist this past season. Fortunately, Samples was able to continue in his coaching role. During the season, the Oldenburg Academy program raised more than $4,000 to help defray family medical expenses in a benefit game.

“Brian and his wife almost always drive together to our games,” Disbro said. “The first question I always get is on game-day from our players is, ‘When will Coach Samp be here?’ I owe a great deal of gratitude to Coach Samples for helping me with the OA girls. When I was considering this job, Brian was the first person I called. He has been a girls’ coach and I had not. I needed to know if I could do this. Brian told me exactly what I needed to know and then asked if I needed help. It was the best phone call I ever made, and no one more deserving of this award than Brian Samples.”