Inductees

She lived the dream that made an impact. Of coaching community college women’s athletes. Of recruiting St. Louis-area teens for basketball, field hockey, volleyball and softball. Of setting them up for success on the field, and in life.

Then again, Celeste Knierim certainly wasn’t afraid to roll up her sleeves. In fact, when offered the Meramec Community College basketball coaching role, the pay was only $500 for the season.

“There was no question I took the job,” Knierim says even today, smiling proudly.

Despite the modest bonus – and the only bonus she received for several years, even though she shouldered those additional roles –Meramec became a softball powerhouse. And that’s why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted Knierim with the Class of 2021.

Knierim launched Meramec’s softball program in 1975 and became one of the top coaches in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), guiding Meramec to a 1,043-542 record through 2004. Her teams earned 16 NJCAA Tournament berths, with 15 teams finishing in the top seven. Three were national runners-up (1978, 1985, 2004).

Her teams won 25 conference titles, and she was a 12-time Regional Coach of the Year. Sixteen teams won Region 16 championships, and 45 players earned All-American honors.

This for a coach raised by a single mom in south St. Louis and who believed her calling was in junior college, which explains why Knierim turned down several NCAA Division I job opportunities.

“Mom worked four part-time jobs, so watching her work ethic made me a better teacher/coach,” Knierim said, and later added, “(Coaching juco) was very rewarding. To see the kids go from freshmen to sophomores, seeing the maturity level go up was great. And to see them go on was special.”

A 1968 Roosevelt High School graduate who later graduated from what’s now Truman State University, Knierim was hired by Meramec as full-time physical education teacher for the spring 1975 semester.

She coached basketball for six years (six conference titles, four national tournaments), volleyball for nine years (nationally ranked several years), field hockey for six years (played four-year schools) and then softball.

In softball, Knierim built her teams on speed, fundamentals and camaraderie – all patterned after Cal Poly Pomona coaches and eventual National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Famers Carol Spanks and Shirley Topley,

When she stood near the third-base coaching box and heard opposing players say that they were guessing what Meramec would do, Knierim would tell her team, “We’ve got them.”

To enhance their glove work, she installed this technique: combine their pinky and No. 4 finger together in the final socket, move the middle finger down one and use the forefinger outside. That created quicker wrist reactions.

Knierim also got creative in recruiting. She would find hidden gems and turn them into All-Americans. At one point, she brought in Meramec basketball player Lakeisha Carter, who had never played softball and didn’t care for batting or fielding.

Used as a pinch-runner because of her speed, Carter scored the winning run in a 1999 national tournament game. And the hit came from one of three Netherlands players on the roster – with Carter later visiting them overseas.

Overall, Knierim challenged her teams, scheduling early season trips to Arizona against top teams.

“I always tried to create experiences for our players, for life,” said Knierim, who fought for more funding to make it happen.

Her work gained national attention, too.

In 1992, she the NJCAA asked her to develop an All-Star program, which ran from 1993 to 2004, for the Canada Cup International Tournament. She coached the first two NJCAA All-Star teams and then was the program’s administrator for eight years.

In USA Softball, she was the first alternate coach for the 1991 Pan-Am tryouts, a member of the coaching pool from 2000 to 2008, a coach at the 2002 tryout camp in Colorado and evaluator for the national team’s open tryout that same year.

The Japan National Team coach asked her lead an international clinic in Japan. And, in 2004, Knierim received recognition in “Faces in the Crowd” in Sports Illustrated.

Knierim thanks many for her success: players, longtime assistant Vicki Schneider, athletic directors Bob Murrey and Bob Bottger, as well as coaches across the nation.

“We stressed that every player on the team had worth and was an equal,” said Knierim, who is now writing for Jugs magazine and helping to run the St. Louis Softball Showcase. “We are all family whether they played in the 70s through the 2000s.”