In sports, the old saying is, “Be ready when your number is called.” And that could not have been truer for John McNabb in 1988. He had spent the decade as a football assistant coach at Camdenton High School, as part of staffs that helped the Lakers win a pair of state championships. He had… Read more »
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Category: Coaches
Maureen McVey
Of all the female soccer coaches in the state, Maureen McVey has carded more wins in girls soccer than anyone else. She reached the 500-win plateau in May when her St. Joseph’s Academy Angels topped Incarnate Word in overtime of the Missouri Class 3 quarterfinals. Her teams have won five state titles, reached 12 final… Read more »
Fred Merrell
Fred Merrell coached 46 years at various stops throughout the state, including Blue Springs and West Plains high schools. As a head coach for 41 of those years, he compiled a 216-177-12 record, including 28 winning seasons. Merrell explained the origins of his journey this way: “From a boy, by third grade, who had a… Read more »
Terry Michler
He laughs about it now, but there was a time when Terry Michler said no to his dream job as the head soccer coach at his alma mater, Christian Brothers College High School. That was in February 1969 and he had just signed a contract with a pro soccer team, the Kansas City Spurs of… Read more »
Jim Middleton
By the time he interviewed for the job that would define his career, he had been given quite the education in basketball: A starter on Nixa’s late 1970s Final Four teams, and then tours as a high school coach and as an assistant under Cheryl Burnett (MSHOF Legend 2015) with the Missouri State Lady Bears.… Read more »
Denver Miller
Denver P. Miller is synonymous with Kirkwood High School varsity boy’s basketball. He coached basketball for 43 seasons, all at Kirkwood High School, and amassed 790 wins and five Missouri State Final Four appearances. At one time, he was the winningest coach in the nation. Miller’s squads were known throughout the state of Missouri as… Read more »
Nyla Milleson
Up in north central Kansas, word reached a high school girls basketball coach that Glendale High School in Springfield, Missouri needed to fill the same role. This was 1992, weeks after Nyla Milleson had guided Junction City to a state third-place finish. Which already was quite a story. Seven years earlier, she had switched her… Read more »
Doug Minnis
Doug became his coaching and teaching career at Bishop Ward High School in Kansas City in 1956. He was the assistant athletic director, assistant football and basketball coach and head baseball coach. Minnis moved to Missouri Western in 1969 as the assistant football coach and head baseball coach. He started the baseball program and built… Read more »
Randy Morrow
Randy finished his 33rd year of coaching in 2010, his 20th at Warsaw, where he has a 184-57 won/loss ratio. His overall coaching record is 258-85-3. During his tenure at Warsaw, his teams have won 2 State Championships, 2 second place finishes and 8 semi-final appearances. His teams have won their district 17 of his… Read more »
Paul Mullins
Known as “Moon”, Mount Vernon native enjoyed an outstanding football career at two Missouri colleges, and went on to become a legendary coach. Mullins lettered in football, basketball and track for three years each in high school, then lettered as a freshman football player for the then-Southwest Missouri State Bears of coach Fred Thomsen in… Read more »
Jill Nagel
In 2004, for the first time in her life, Jill Nagel had to watch a basketball season go on without her. She had starred for King City High School in the early 1990s, and then at William Jewell College, where, “after a quarterfinal conference tournament loss at Lindenwood,” she said, “I took off my jersey… Read more »
Lynn Nance
Granby native Lynn Nance excelled on the Missouri hardwood in high school, at Southwest Baptist College and in the professional ranks with the St. Louis Hawks. Named one of the Top 100 Missouri Athletes of the Century, he went on to become one of the most prolific college basketball coaches in the state’s history. Between… Read more »
Leon Neal
He grew up in the 1960s and 1970s in what’s now South Central Los Angeles where, in his words, “Many black males would die by the age of 25 because of gangs, the Crips and the Bloods, and yeah I lost some friends.” Leon Neal, the longtime coach of the Evangel University women’s basketball program,… Read more »
Marvin Neals
Marvin Neals, who coached both Soldan High School and Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School to Missouri high school basketball championships, is noted as one of the finest coaches in the state. He is the only coach in the history of Missouri to win state championships in two different classes in the state. Neals took… Read more »
Dave Neier
Dave Neier never has been one to draw attention to himself. And his favorite comment to local media was, “You were there, you saw what happened.” Later, it became, “What are you asking me for? You know what’s going on.” What went on was winning. His St. Francis Borgia Regional High School boys basketball teams earned… Read more »
James Nelson
Jim Nelson coached at Jewell from 1950-1990. He had the longest tenured coaching career in the history of Jewell athletics. During his illustrious career he served as assistant football coach, head football coach, head men’s basketball coach, head women’s basketball coach, cross country coach, track coach, and tennis coach. Nelson came to Jewell with Dr.… Read more »