Inductees

For the past six decades, the Marionville High School boys basketball teams have been among some of the best teams in Missouri.

Since 1970, the Comets have had 17 state tournament teams. That covers six Final Fours (1978, 1982, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006), as well as six state quarterfinalists (1970, 1981, 1998, 2007, 2019, 2023). The 1996, 1997, 2003, 2010 and 2016 teams also won districts and played in the state tournament. The 1982 and 2005 teams won it all.

And that’s why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted the 17 Marionville State Tournament Teams with the Class of 2025.

“When growing up in a town that is passionate about their sports programs, you can feel the excitement at school and in the community growing up on game days,” said current football coach and athletic director Paden Grubbs. “Regardless, if it was going to watch Friday night lights in the fall or watch the basketball team in the winter, the kids at Marionville want to be the next team that did something big.”

Grubbs played basketball for the Comets from 2002 to 2005 and was part of one of the best runs in the program’s history. Under coach Ted Young (MSHOF 2020), the Comets placed third (2002), second (2004) and, in 2005, won the Class 2 title by beating St. Vincent 35-30.

It was the first title for the school since the Class 2 state title in 1982, coached by Tony Armstrong (MSHOF 2018). Those Comets beat Monroe City 70-61 in the finals. The run included a quarterfinal victory against Alton at Hammons Student Center. That night, Armstrong scrapped Marionville’s season-long, man-to-man defense and turned to a zone in the second half in a come-from-behind victory.

On that team?  A junior guard named Ted Young – yep, the same one mentioned above. He was a two-time All-Stater in basketball and once in football. He scored more than 2,000 points.

“I am so fortunate to have been able to play and coach at Marionville High School,” Young said. “I remember watching the guys who played before me and how I wanted to be as good as they were. I was blessed to be coached by great coaches and was able to coach great players. I had some great teammates, and I had some excellent assistant coaches. I’m proud to be a Comet.”

The Comets were runners-up in 1978, 2004 and 2006. The combined margin of defeats was 14 points in those three games, including a three-point loss to Harrisburg in 2006.

“I think the first thing I’d say and bring up is the coaching,” Grubbs said as the reason for the success. “We have had great coaches come through Marionville High School. We were not always the most talented team on the floor, but I felt like we were always the most prepared and understood how we needed to play to win.”

Even more impressive was that the Comets’ football teams had deep playoff runs with many of the same players who became starters as soon as the season was over.

In 2003, the Comets won their first football state championship. Months later, the basketball team placed second. Football had runner-up finishes in 2005 and 2006 in November. The basketball team won a title and the other was second, respectively, that March.

“I really think the success we had in football carried over to basketball,” Young said. “Coach Will Christian started in the weight room and on the field, and Coach Rick Scholten continued it as well. There were a few years where we would only get one to two practices before our first game. … We would try and get into basketball shape over Christmas break and hopefully that would help us later in the year.”

Young, the basketball coach from 1998 to 2018, and Grubbs, an All-State linebacker his senior season and coach of the 2023 state football title team, concurred that players worked hard and wanted to win.

That was the connective tissue between all Marionville teams, from 1970 to the 1990s playoffs teams coached by Doug Arnold, and which featured Bryan Osterloh and Wes Murphy, who won a national title at Evangel, to the 2000s teams.

“Our community has been very supportive for as long as I can remember,” Young said. “From grandparents to aunts and uncles to all of our businesses and firetrucks and police on our return from big wins. Marionville has had pretty good success in basketball for a long time.”