Inductees

Like many kids in Missouri, Phil Dorman grew up playing mostly baseball and football. Wrestling, the sport where he would make a significant mark, wasn’t even on his radar until eighth grade.

“Some of the high school wrestlers I knew told me I needed to wrestle when I got to high school,” Dorman said. “I only weighed around 100 pounds and they were going to need someone to compete at 98 pounds.”

While he admittedly struggled with the sport initially – “I was not very good my first year and did not win a lot of matches” – a seed had been planted within Dorman and he soon fell in love with the sport. That love grew into one of the most remarkable coaching careers in Missouri history.

In 19 years as head coach at Platte County High School, Dorman coached the Pirates to seven state championships (2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2010) and 31 individual state titles. Along the way, Platte County was 156-35-3 in duals and won 11 conference and nine district championships. He was named Missouri Wrestling Association’s Coach of the Year six times.

For all of his coaching success and the impact he made on dozens of lives, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted Phil Dorman as a member of the Class of 2024.

Wrestling had such a strong impact on Dorman, that he knew during his junior year at Pleasant Hill High School that he wanted to be a coach.

“By then, wrestling was my passion and we had coaches at our school that I really looked up to as role models,” Dorman said.

One of those role models was his coach at Pleasant Hill, Steve Leslie.

“He taught me the sport of wrestling and I am forever grateful to him for making the experience a good one,” Dorman said.

After graduating from the University of Central Missouri, Dorman joined Leslie’s staff at Pleasant Hill. But Dorman really wanted to lead his own program.

“It was a really good situation for me, but every year I was looking for head coaching opportunities,” Dorman said. “I had several interviews at other schools, but nothing ever came of them.”

That all changed in 1994, when the Platte County head coaching job became available. Dorman had his eye on Platte County for a while, and he jumped at the chance.

“I always looked at Platte County as a dream job,” Dorman said. “I was fortunate to have received an interview and was offered the job. I had been really disappointed in not getting one specific job that I had applied for and thought I should have gotten, but things happen for a reason, and I was truly blessed to have landed at Platte County.”

While considered by many in the Kansas City area to be a solid program at the time, Platte County had experienced only moderate success before Dorman’s arrival.

“I always saw that they had talent and that is why I always eyed Platte County as an opportunity,” Dorman said.

It took three seasons before Dorman had Platte County competing for a state title, as the Pirates finished third in 1997. In 2000, the Pirates finally broke through, winning the program’s first state championship and beginning a run of seven titles in 12 years.

Dorman says he gets asked all the time about the teams that stood out during Platte County’s run. He made special mention of teams in 2001, 2006 and 2010.

“The 2001 team was the experience of a lifetime for me as a coach,” he said. “We were loaded that year. So much so, that we had a returning state fourth-place finisher that couldn’t even make the lineup. I knew we were going to be pretty good.

“The 2006 and 2010 teams both won state championships without any individual state champions. That’s pretty cool because those were true team championships.”

Like any coach or athlete, Dorman had several people influence his journey. He specifically mentions his former high school coach at Pleasant Hill, Steve Leslie; Pleasant Hill coach Tim Crone; Oak Grove head coach Bob Glasgow (MSHOF 2017); and Pleasant Hill football coach Bill Cox.

A humbled Dorman says being elected to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is an honor.

“I am not a personal accolades type of person, but I am very honored by this selection,” he said. “I have been inducted into some other halls of fame, but this is a really big honor to me.”