Father, daughter duo leading the Montezuma Junior High Girls’ basketball teams to a higher level

​     Shelby (Helm) Teumer, middle, coaches a team of seventh graders during halftime of the B team game. Shelby, who graduated from Montezuma in 2018 and played basketball for her father, Doug, pictured behind her, joined him this year on the bench as a coach. “It’s really special and fun to work with Shelby,” noted Doug. “The girls really respect and respond to her well.”

By J.O. Parker
 
       You’ve heard the old saying, “Like father, like son.”
      Well, in this case, it is “Like father, like daughter,” when speaking of the Montezuma coaching duo of Doug Helm and daughter, Shelby Teumer.
    Doug, who has been coaching the junior high girls’ teams at Montezuma since the 2012-2013 season, is joined this year on the sidelines by his daughter, Shelby, a 2018 Montezuma graduate and former basketball standout.
      Doug coaches the eighth grade (A team) while Shelby focuses on the seventh grade (B team).
Doug said it was Montezuma’s Varsity Girls’ Coach Janel Burgess who suggested Shelby join the coaching ranks at Montezuma.
     “That is when I said, I would like to have her help at the junior high girls’ level,” said Doug.
Shelby, who attended Ohio State ATI to study floral design, graduating in 2020, had just returned to Montezuma in September. She and her husband, Jude, had spent a year in North Carolina before returning to Iowa.
     She landed a part-time job at a floral shop in Williamsburg, so being a former player who played basketball for her dad, the thought of coaching with him sounded interesting.
     “I’m able to see how he coaches and learning from that,” said Shelby of her first year on the bench. “I’ve seen it as a player, but now it’s better because I’m able to see it from the coach’s perspective.”
     “I am so thankful Shelby is helping in our junior high program,” said Burgess. “As a former Bravette, I was so eager to have her start to impact our young ladies. Shelby played for me a year and truly embraced the Bravette way, just like the rest of her classmates in 2017-18. Now she is giving back. I want to get as many alumni involved as possible and Shelby is doing such a great job.”
     “It’s really special and fun to work with Shelby,” noted Doug. “The girls really respect and respond to her well.”
     “She is a young coach and to have her working with her dad is pretty special, too,” added Burgess.         “We are thankful for the Helm family in all they do and very eager to watch Coach Teumer grow into her own coaching role as time progresses.”

     Montezuma Junior High Girls’ Coach Doug Helm gives coaching advice and direction to a player during a home game on Thursday, Jan. 13 against Baxter. The Montezuma junior high teams won both games.