A few months away from the game was all Gary Lemle could take.

Last March, Lemle turned in his resignation after coaching Cardinal Stritch's girls’ basketball team to an 89-63 record and three Toledo Area Athletic Conference titles in seven years.

In 2004, Lemle's first season, Stritch reached the Division III regional finals and Lemle was named the Associated Press Co-Coach of the Year.

But after coaching for 14 years, including three as the freshman girls coach at Central Catholic and three as an assistant at Notre Dame Academy, Lemle needed a break. His plan was to “sit back a little bit and recharge the batteries.”

Gary Lemle with his Cardinal Stritch players

“It's one of those things where you don't realize how much you miss something until you don't have it,” Lemle said Tuesday. “In my mind, I knew I would get back in. It was just a matter of the right opportunity.”

Last Thursday, the Eastwood Board of Education approved Lemle to become the Eagles' new varsity girls basketball coach.

Lemle, 49, replaces Shawn Briggs, who coached Eastwood for two seasons. Lemle coached the Eagles' junior varsity girls’ team for one season under former head coach Jim Gracyk, and he was one of more than 10 applicants for the vacant coaching position, according to Eastwood Athletic Director Chris Fahim.

“Gary brings a lot of experience and enthusiasm to the game,” Fahim said. “He has worked with some top-notch programs through the years. He was the jayvee coach here during the 2002-03 season, so he does have that familiarity with the school and the tradition of the girls' basketball program. We're excited to have him on board. I think he'll be a great fit for the program.”

Lemle, a two-time TAAC Coach of the Year, said he also applied for the varsity girls coaching position at Clay. That spot was eventually filled by Kevin Crosson in mid-April.

“I applied at Clay and didn't get an interview,” Lemle said. “They stayed in-house with Kevin. Right before I went on vacation, I sent my resume (to Eastwood) around the first of May. I was leaving for vacation on May 7, so we had to push my interview back a week. The day they wanted to interview me, I was in Mexico.”

Lemle said one thing that makes the Eastwood head coaching job so appealing is its “great tradition.”

“I was only there a year,” he said, “but I was welcomed in pretty good by all the parents. It was a very enjoyable experience. After my one season with Jim, I caught wind that the Stritch job was open and I talked with Jim. I told him I had an opportunity to work at Stritch and have my own program, and it was an ideal situation for me. I always wanted my own program.”

Lemle won't have an opportunity to coach in the Suburban Lakes League, which is folding at the end of this school year. Eastwood is joining the Northern Buckeye Conference next season.

“You hate to see an established league go down,” Lemle said. “It's a new league and a new opportunity. Eastwood only graduated two seniors, so we have a lot of returning players coming back and some other schools graduated some of their best players. My timing looks like it could be pretty good and we could be poised to do some good things. I'm looking forward to this great opportunity and looking forward to getting started.”

Lemle said he was set to meet the Eastwood players and their parents Wednesday night.

“I have a tentative summer schedule I put together that we're going to go over, to work around volleyball and soccer and other things on the schedule,” he said. “We are going to play in an Otsego summer league and squeeze in a shootout so we can get the learning curve started prior to tryouts in the fall.”

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