Behind every great team is a great coach and the Lady Eagles basketball team definitely has that in one of the legends in coaching, Skip Townsend. The Lady Eagles head coach has accomplished a lot in his storied career: 1,000 wins, 9 state titles, a Texas High school basketball hall of fame inductee last year, and two turn arounds in both the Brock and Argyle programs that turned the schools into perennial state title contenders. Earlier this year, he was awarded coach of the year by the Texas High school Coaches association. Townsend has lead the Lady Eagles to four straight state title appearances and back to back to back state titles.

“That award was given to me by my peers,”Coach Townsend said. “That’s people who coach and know what coaching is and so it’s a real honor when your peers give you an honor.” Coach Townsend said.

Even before his great run at Argyle, Townsend was a coaching legend, leading Brock to 6 titles in ten years before leaving for Argyle. The departure of the Eagles’ previous coach left the team with a big void to fill, and athletic director, Todd Rodgers, wanted a big name head coach. The move was made to go with Townsend. The move to Argyle had to be tough after such a storied run of success with Brock. Townsend left Brock in a good place; they won two state titles in the years after his departure.

“It was hard because my kids had graduated from there,” Townsend said, “and after I left they won two more state titles after I worked hard to build that program, so it was very hard.”

For the Eagles, Townsend amassed a record of 176-29 with three state titles and one runner up finish. The meteoric rise for Argyle began in 2012 when the team went 25-7 and in the following year, made a run to the regional quarter finals before making it to state in his third year behind the Freshman trio of Vivian Gray, Madison Ralston, and Jocelyn Pierce. However, the season ended with narrow loss to La Vega in the UIL State Tournament. The next year, the Eagles came for revenge, beating La Vega in the State semifinals and Wylie in the finals. Two years and two state titles later, the Eagles finished another strong season with a record of 37-2 and their third straight state title.