To Joe Kilbride, there was never a good time to step away from coaching the Benet girls basketball program.

Now, though, was as good as any.

The 68-year-old Downers Grove resident, who led Benet to two state championships in a sterling 12-year run as head coach, announced he is retiring.

Kelsey Coulter, Kilbride’s first hire as head coach and a varsity assistant the last six seasons, has been named the next head coach.

“The best way I can describe it is I felt like it was time,” Kilbride said. “Mixed emotions because there are kids coming up who I absolutely love and I feel horrible leaving before they’re done. But it just made sense for my wife and I. We felt like it was time.”

Kilbride was promoted to head coach in 2014 after serving for 10 seasons as varsity assistant under longtime Benet coach Peter Paul. He had immediate success.

Kilbride’s first two seasons Benet, led by 2016 Illinois Ms. Basketball Kathleen Doyle, won back-to-back Class 4A state championships – the first state titles for the Redwings’ program.

It was the start of 12 years of excellence.

Kilbride compiled a 325-55 record, and his Benet teams reached the sectional final in all 11 postseasons.

Benet won six sectional championships and made five state tournament appearances under Kilbride. The Redwings took fourth in 2019 and 2022 and second in Class 4A in 2023, led by two-time Suburban Life Player of the Year Lenee Beaumont, now at Indiana.

Benet went 27-5 in Kilbride’s final season, losing to Waubonsie Valley in a sectional final.

“We were in 11 sectional finals and I’m very proud of that,” Kilbride said. “Especially doing it in 4A, that’s not an easy thing. A lot of programs haven’t been to a sectional final. And I’m proud we did it the right way.”

Kilbride, a co-captain of the Benedictine team that reached the second round of the NAIA national tournament, first came to Benet as boys sophomore coach after graduating from Benedictine in 1980. He taught biology, chemistry and English for three years.

Kilbride assisted with Benet boys varsity teams that twice reached the Elite Eight under head coach Bill Geist. He was the lead assistant at Benedictine for three seasons, then left coaching, but returned a decade later to coach his daughter’s travel teams.

She stopped playing basketball to do dance, but Kilbride stayed on coaching AAU and junior high teams before joining Paul’s staff in 2005.

“When I was the boys sophomore coach, he was the girls sophomore coach, so we knew each other,” Kilbride said. “We got to talking, I came to some of their games and he said why don’t you come help me. After a couple conversations I decided to do it, and stuck with him.”

Spending parts of over four decades at Benet, Kilbride takes pride in what the program has come to represent, on and off the court.

“I feel that we have been successful and done it with integrity,” Kilbride said. “I think Benet is a great school for kids that want to be challenged academically and challenged athletically. Top tier in the classroom, we are playing one of the best if not the best schedule every year. That is what kids want.”

Kilbride likewise feels good about leaving the program in the hands of Coulter, a Batavia High School and North Central College alum.

“She is like a younger blonde mini-me,” Kilbride said. “We are very aligned, I feel very good about the continuity in the program. She will be able to manage and lead a culture where kids pursue excellence and take care of one another.”