BERLIN — As a post player on two of Hiland's girls basketball state championship teams, Krista Beechy was a notorious hard worker on the boards, whose dirty work underneath often went unnoticed in the stat book, back-tapping balls, fighting for loose balls, setting screens and taking charges.

Beechy, 26, went on to letter four years at Grove City College where she was a two-year captain.

A few weeks ago, Beechy was hired as the director of basketball operations for Kent State University's women's basketball program.

"My job is very similar to playing the post," Beechy said. "If I'm doing it well, nobody should even notice me. That's kind of what we're going for. It's doing a lot of the things behind the scenes that no one sees, so all everyone has to do here is worry about playing basketball."

Operations is very business oriented, and Beechy's Master's Degree in business administration from Winthrop, where she worked as a graduate assistant coach last year, will come in handy. Her duties include team organization, scheduling, booking gym times, busses, hotels, and that kind of stuff.

"It's basically a foot in the door job as far as coaching at the collegiate level goes," Beechy said. "Because of NCAA regulations, director of operations are not allowed to do workouts and those types of things, but I am in the meetings with all the coaches, and involved with all the things behind the scenes. As far as on-court, that's still hopefully down the road for me.

"It's not like I'll be giving a lot of direction, but the coaches I'm with here are awesome, and it's a really good spot for me to learn at," she added. "Helping to organize things at the Classic in the Country, making sure all the teams had all the perks, all the games and things that go into it, are not so different from doing things here at the collegiate level. So it's not like I'm getting here going, 'wow, where did this come from? This is completely different.' It's a lot of scheduling, a lot of communicating back and forth with different parties, making sure everyone gets what they want, or close to it."

Beechy got her start in coaching, working with Dave Schlabach at Hiland, where she graduated from in 2006. She coached the JV team and served as a varsity assistant from 2010-12 before going to pursue her Master's in South Carolina (at Winthrop). She is a member of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and has her NCAA-approved coaches certification. She has also coached for the Georgia Metros, NEO Swish Basketball Club and Jim Clayton's Sports City U Basketball Academy. She also worked for Tom Jenkins' Ohio Girls Basketball Report (OGBR).

"I've been exposed to a lot of things, but at the same time, I'm very fortunate to be in a place where they have other experts in these areas," Beechy said. "I can learn even more than the limited amount I knew before I came here because of all the awesome people they have on staff.

"It's exciting to be here at Kent State," she added. "They have such great support staff, really solid people here. They have the same strength and conditioning coach (Bob Lemieux) they had when Jena Stutzman was here. You'll hear nothing but good things about Bob and what a good trainer he is and how much he cares about these kids."

Entering her third year as coach of the Golden Flashes, Danielle O'Banion is excited to have Beechy join her staff.

"We are excited to add this Northeast Ohio native to our staff," O'Banion said. "She is a proven winner with strong relationships throughout the state of Ohio. Krista's work ethic and basketball pedigree will positively impact our program."

Beechy credits her connection with Hiland for helping her get her foot in the door at Kent State.

"Dave(Schlabach) and Cousy (assistant coach Dave Borter) told me how excited they were about this coach at Kent," Beechy said. "Before I even met her, I knew she was highly regarded by people I have a lot of respect for. At the Final Four this year I met coach O'Banion briefly, and she said they had a solid staff and wasn't looking to move anybody. About a month or so later, her old director of operations got an opportunity to coach at Appalachian State, and she let me know so I could get in on the interview process."

From her first day on the job, Beechy has been going strong. She started out running team camps, little kids camps at Kent State.

"This was a great example of where working at Dave Schlabach's Biddy Ball camp since I was in eighth and ninth grade really helped," Beechy said.

Another Hiland connection was Jenkins, who has followed O'Banion's career closely. He says Beechy is a good fit to work with her at KSU.

"Krista's attention to detail and her passion for detail are two very important assets she brings to the job," Jenkins said. "When she worked for OGBR, she expressed an interest in coaching at the college level and we worked out a plan. This is a natural progression job for her.