Inductees

When he was hired to coach the Blue Springs High School football team, you figured he wanted to raise the bar.

Little did anyone know that Kelly Donohoe wanted to raise it clear the top of the goal posts.

“I told our kids, ‘Our goal is to play at the standard of Rockhurst (High School) and that most high school kids hope they can beat Rockhurst,’” Donohoe said of one of the state’s top programs. “Our mindset is, ‘We will beat them.’ That got ingrained.”

Donohoe certainly embedded Blue Springs Football into the state sports fabric, and his overwhelming success is why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is proud to induct Donohoe with the Class of 2019.

In his 19 seasons as head coach of Blue Springs High School since the year 2000, Donohoe is 210-55 and has led the Wildcats to seven state championship games, winning four state titles (2001, 2003, 2012 and 2013). The 2001 and 2014 teams each finished 14-0, while the 2003 team finished 13-0, and the 2012 team went 13-1.

His 2009, 2016 and 2017 teams were state runners-up. Additionally, Donohoe’s teams have advanced to one other state semifinal (2018) and have made seven other state quarterfinal appearances (2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2014, 2015). Blue Springs also has won the same number (14) of conference and district titles.

This by a coach who quarterbacked Harrisonville High School in the mid-1980s, went on to quarterback the University of Kansas (1986 to 1989) and credits so many coaches for putting him in position to succeed.

Among them are Loren Schweizer, John Culp, Bruce Graber, Bob Barrett and Glenn Mason. In order, they were an eighth-grade coach who let Donohoe call plays; a Harrisonville varsity offensive line coach who implored players always to do the right thing; an offensive coordinator who won his trust; and then his high school coach and KU coach, respectively.

“Coach Barrett was one of those guys you wanted to run through a wall for,” said Donohoe, a sophomore on Harrisonville’s 1983 state runner-up team. “Looking back, he was a guy I wanted to model myself after.”

Mason, “was a guy who brought life into me,” Donohoe added. “In 1987, I had lost some confidence. He made me believe I was a pretty decent quarterback.”

Those influences led Donohoe to pursue high school coaching. After several years as an assistant, including Blue Springs South (1993-1996), he took on his first head coaching job at Raytown South, which had only four wins in three prior seasons. His first year there produced a 9-3 playoff team.

“People said it would a coach-killer,” Donohoe said of the Raytown South job. “I was young enough and dumb enough. And I brought in three assistants who were kid magnets.”

Developing a rapport with potential football players in the hallways became a key at Blue Springs.

“The 2001 team was a group of guys who really meant a lot to me,” Donohoe said. “Some of the kids had to be recruited to play my first year. They were just a really tight-knit group.”

The 2001 team overcame a 14-0 deficit to Blue Springs South to win 15-14 as Andrew Tuggle scored on a toss sweep for the tying score, part of a season when Justin Witworth emerged from a trio of QB candidates.

The 2003 team managed to advance out of districts after rallying from 11 points down in the final five minutes to beat Oak Park. Despite yielding 400 yards rushing, Blue Springs had a big fourth-and-1 stop and later began its winning drive at its own 5-yard-line, scoring with 22 seconds left.

The 2012 Class 5 state title team restored order in a big way, and many of those Wildcats returned for an encore state championship, including Dalvin Warmack, the 2012 and 2013 Missouri Gatorade Player of the Year selection.

“I’m lucky to be at a school that values the importance of activities and understands what they can do for young people,” Donohoe said. “And I’ve been lucky enough to have kids who are good people.”

Donohoe, who battled a cancer during the 2018 season, also has long had the support of his wife, Jennifer, and their children, daughter Taylor and son Chase, the Wildcats’ starting QB in 2016 and 2017.

“(Jennifer) is the ultimate football coach’s wife,” Donohoe said. “I can’t recall one time when she’s complained about football. She just gets it.”