((PKG))  FEMALE VARSITY BOYS BASKETBALL COACH 
((TRT:  9:06)) 
((Topic Banner:  Playing True)) 
((Reporter/Camera:  Arturo Martínez)) 
((Map:  Fallon, Nevada)) 
((Main character:  1 male))  
((Sub characters:  4 males;  1 female)) 
((NATS)) 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
Come on.  G up.  Come on, Sam. 
Good, good. 
Nice, nice.  Stay with it. 
Push, push, push, push, push, push. 
Don’t get screened, Matt.  Don’t get screened. 
Board, board, board, board. 
Got it, baby. 
Keith, nice shot. 
((NATS)) 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
My name is Chelle Dalager and I coach the boys varsity 
basketball team at Churchill County High School.  In the state of 
Nevada, I'm the first female coach to coach a boys varsity 
program. 
((NATS)) 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
Back cut, back cut. 
Next pass.  
Look, look. 
Back cut him.  Back cut him. 
Nice.  There you go.  Good rig, Keith.  Nice pass. 
((NATS)) 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach))  
There is really more to basketball than just the game of 
basketball.  It really is about life lessons.  Your life is full of wins 
and losses, you know.  You feel like you've done something great, 
and sure enough somebody will knock you down or you feel like 
you're maybe not so great, and then something picks you up.  It 
teaches kids discipline, teaches them about work ethic and it 
teaches about being able to rely upon somebody and about a 
commitment to a family.  
((NATS)) 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
Here we go.  Rotate. 
First off, you're not always going to reach your goal, right?  You're 
not always going to make it.  That's just part of life and part of 
basketball.  What you should never do is stop or quit playing hard 
or stop trying to at least get the highest number you can get.  We 
made lots of good progress when we were early, right?  So then, 
you all went home and had turkey legs.  And then, I don't know 
what happened, right?  Like our minds aren't focused on 
basketball anymore.  And really this is where we should be the 
most focused we can be.  Understand?  So, talk to your pals and 
get them out.  Okay?  Questions?  Collin?  Guys?  All right.  Let's 
go.  Let's go.  Let's go.  
((NATS)) 
((Keith Smith, Boys Varsity Basketball Player, Churchill 
County High School)) 
I love it.  It's probably like my favorite basketball coach.  I've 
played for a couple of different coaches and she's just 
different.  She pushes us, the intensity, demands a lot out of us.  
((Toby Anderson, Boys Varsity Basketball Player, Churchill 
County High School))   
She really pushes us to our limits and I think that's why we have 
done well the past few years.  We've been just pushing hard in 
practice and getting what we need done.  
((NATS)) 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
Wave on me.  Wave on three.  One, two, three.  
((NATS:  Team)) 
Wave. 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
We've just completed and we've won two state championships 
back to back.  One in 2019 and one in 2020. 
((NATS)) 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
This is the state championship team that won for the first time in 
47 years, and it's pretty exciting.  The last time they won a state 
championship was in 1971, and that was the year I was born.  
You can see my two boys together.  Number 11, that was Avery 
when he was a sophomore, and just behind him with a big curly 
head, that was Hayden when he was a senior.  
This is our basketball trophy case.  Here's our first one and the 
other one is in my office because I'm not ready to give it up 
yet.  So, this is 2020 and this is 2019.  And so, I play those.  If I'm 
in a bad mood, I go back and I watch both of them.  
((NATS:  TV show)) 
State Championship, Churchill County High School taking on Elko 
High School.  Game time.  Less than 10 seconds left in OT 
[overtime].  And that’s Elijah Jackson.  However, not the first time 
it’s happened. 
What?  Flashback in 2019, Nevada 3A Basketball State 
Championship.  Elijah Jackson hit the three against the same 
team.  Boom.  Ridiculous.  No way..…to win the state 
championship.  No way.  
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
Second time.  Second shot.  
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
I'm fortunate to be able to coach really good athletes.  I think that 
when you're successful, that it is a combination of, you know, you 
being able to get the best out of your athletes, but you have to 
have good athletes to work with.  
It's not about gender for me.  It's really about just coaching and 
trusting your players and, you know, making them believe in 
themselves.  
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach))  add chyron 
I really did not expect to get the job.  I wasn't really even going to 
apply for it because I didn't think that I would get it because you 
don't ever see, you know, women getting those types of 
positions.  And so, you've hired a female coach.  Yes, she's 
coach, but now we have two state championships to go with 
that.  And I think that just helps people, maybe, recognize, I hope 
that a lot of female coaches get hired to coach male programs 
because I don't think it's a gender issue, right?  It's you just don't 
see it very often.  Although, you see men coach and women's 
team.  It's just never been done, I guess.  And that's what makes 
it pretty special.  It makes it unique.  
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
Also, a really cool thing for me is that my two sons were on the 
team and we got to share a state championship together.  That's 
a big memory for me.  
So, that was them playing youth basketball for me.  The left one is 
when they were a little bit younger.  The right one is when they 
were a little bit older.  You can tell that they're getting a little bit 
taller than me.  When they were growing up, we played a lot of 
different games outside at home.  When they started beating me, 
I started using my Achilles as a crutch.  
((NATS)) 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
When basketball season happens, that's all that we're doing.  I'm 
at school at 7:00 in the morning and I don't really get home until 
8:30 at night.  
((NATS)) 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
James or Lacey is here.  
Are you sure? 
How was your day? 
((Avery Stresdin, High School Student, Michelle’s Son)) 
Good. 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
Good? 
Where are you going? 
((Avery Stresdin, High School Student, Michelle’s Son)) 
Nowhere.  
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
Nowhere. You are just hanging out? 
((NATS)) 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
Oh, this looks so good.  
My partner at home is very supportive.  Our boys are her 
biological sons and, you know, she's been really supportive 
about, you know, having me coach them and she's a huge part of 
our team as well.  She travels and goes to all the games and 
takes our scorebook.  
((Photo Courtesy: Thomas Ranson / Lahontan Valley News)) 
((Tricia Strasdin, Michelle’s Partner)) 
We love basketball. 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
Yeah. 
((Tricia Strasdin, Michelle’s Partner)) 
We got lucky.  If you get the opportunity to embrace anything that 
is going to bring your family together,  
((Photo Courtesy: Thomas Ranson / Lahontan Valley News)) 
((Tricia Strasdin, Michelle’s Partner)) 
and you get to travel together, and you get to experience success 
together, and you get to fail together, and you get to kind of pick 
yourselves up and try again together, and you get to have some 
early mornings and some late nights and some long weekends 
together, I'm not sure that it matters if it's basketball or what it is.   
((Photo Courtesy: Thomas Ranson / Lahontan Valley News)) 
((Tricia Strasdin, Michelle’s Partner)) 
I think it helped us in lots of different ways.  
((Hayden Stresdin, Former High School Student, Michelle’s 
Son))   
I'll never forget it.  I was glad to have my mom as a coach and my 
brother on the team for my year, and then for him to win a back-
to-back is even cooler.  
((Avery Stresdin, High School Student, Michelle’s Son))  
Yeah, I don't have so many words for it, if I’m being honest.  
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
For me, it's the best memories I will have with basketball will be 
with my family and, you know, what we brought to Fallon, and 
we've been able to travel to all those tournaments together, and 
then I coach them, and then we get back in the car and we talk 
about the games and….. 
((NATS)) 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach)) 
Start close, they say.  
Oh, one for one. 
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach))   
I was a terrible shooter in high school.  And then, when I went to 
community college, it got a little bit better because I was a little bit 
older.  
I'm thankful for Fallon.  They've supported me in coaching  100 
percent.  I just have, we haven't run into issues like that.  My 2019 
team, some kids on other teams were, you know, giving them a 
hard time about me, you know, being gay and about them playing 
for a woman.   
((Michelle Dalager, High School Athletic Training Teacher, 
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach))   
And, you know, I just told my players, I said, “That doesn't hurt my 
feelings.”  And he was like, “Well, what do you mean, coach?  It 
doesn't?”  I said, “No, because it's true.  Yes, I'm in a relationship 
with a woman.  That makes me gay.”  And I said, “I'm sorry you 
have to feel like you have to defend me.  You don't.”  I said, “It 
does not hurt my feelings at all.  Now, if they call me fat, then you 
can get after them, right?  But other than that, just let them say 
whatever they want to say, and you prove your point by just 
playing the best basketball you can play and beating the people 
that are saying those mean things.”  And that’s a life lesson, right? 
((Video courtesy:  Thomas Ranson / Lahontan Valley News)) 
((NATS/MUSIC))