Brian Samples emerged onto the varsity boys basketball scene as a player in 1984 at South Ripley and became a three-year starter for the Raiders while developing a reputation as a tenacious rebounder and scorer.  He averaged a near double-double for his career at 10 points and eight rebounds per game.  That tenacity as a player would translate, years later, into the coaching world as a Hall of Fame career on the sidelines in Ripley County.

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Coaching stints in both basketball and softball at South Ripley started that journey but it's more official start would begin at Jac-Cen-Del where Samples would serve as an assistant coach to Matt Stone and the JCD boys basketball program, helping the Eagles to a Class A Sectional and Regional Championship in route to a Final Four appearance.  Samples would then join up for a season with the Lady Eagle's head coach Scott Smith and win a 2002 Class A Sectional crown. Then he headed up the JCD softball program and lead them to regular and post-season success culminating in a 2007 State Finals appearance.

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Two years later, Samples would return to his alma mater, South Ripley, for his first of two stints as the head coach of the Lady Raiders.  After a much improved 2009 campaign, Samples would lead the program to a three-peat of Class 2A Sectional Championships from 2010 - 2012.  Coach Samples took some time off before joining again with Coach Smith and the Lady Eagles in 2016 and became part of one of the greatest girls basketball teams of the area.  That year the team not only claimed Sectional, Regional, and Semi-State crowns but finally delivered to Osgood the programs' first-ever Class A girls State Championship and the second State title for the school.  

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That success fired up Samples' passion to coach and he returned to head up the Lady Raiders program once again.  This stint led to the Lady Raiders capturing Class 2A Sectional Championships again 3 years in a row from 2017 - 2019.  Samples retired from coaching in 2019 but since then his face and voice have been a familiar one around the area.  Brian has been a broadcaster for WRBI Radio and has served as an announcer for online webcasts of South Ripley basketball promoting the local sports scene and it's student-athletes.

 

Coach Samples finished his coaching career as the all-time winningest coach in SR basketball history with a record of 144-48 for a 75% winning percentage.  His head coachig success brought to Versailles 6 Sectional championships, and 3 ORVC titles.  Those numbers and the many student-athletes he has molded make his career one worthy of Hall of Fame recognition.

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Brain and his wife Kathy have two sons, Keith and Chase and one daughter Stephanie.  They are also blessed with 5 grandchildren.