Like moving pieces on a chess board, everything is lining up in the Grandview athletic department for the 2018-2019 school year.
The three new hires at the high school are familiar names in Jefferson County prep sports.
Don Jeffries, 42, succeeds Ronda Hubbard as the athletic director after Hubbard spent two years in that role. Jeffries, a Windsor alumnus, was the Owls’ assistant baseball coach for 13 years but most recently worked outside the area as principal at Blair Oaks Middle School in Jefferson City.
With his daughter starting kindergarten this fall, Jeffries said he’s glad to be back closer to home.
“When I got my administrative degree, I really wanted to be an athletic director,” said Jeffries, who was the curriculum director for seven years at Windsor Middle School. “Sports are a big passion of mine. I’m very organized and have always been drawn to that job.”
Jeffries will also fill Hubbard’s role as assistant principal at Grandview High. His salary is $63,000.
“We have a community where the school is at the center. That’s always been a staple of Grandview. There is no Grandview city or Windsor city and the schools are the focal point of the community.”
Jeffries said it’s too soon to say if he’ll coach a sport like Hubbard, but it’s not out of the question.
“I will be picking up a sport, but (first) I’m trying to see the pieces we have in place,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll be a head coach. It most likely won’t be a fall sport as I get my bearings.”
For the girls basketball head coaching vacancy, Steve Noblitt succeeds Hubbard, who guided the Eagles to a two-year record of 44-7. She resigned in February to become the activities director and transportation director at Marshfield High School.
It’s a homecoming of sorts for Noblitt, who coached the Grandview boys basketball team from 1996-2004. The Eagles won at least 21 games in each of his last three seasons and captured a Class 3 district championship in 2004.
Noblitt, who will be 61 next month, is retired and lives in Hillsboro. He’ll be paid $5,520 to coach. He was an assistant coach for the Oakville boys basketball team that made the Class 5 final four in 2009 and 2010. He retired from coaching in 2011 and from teaching at Oakville in 2016.
He came by his new job almost by accident.
While working part-time at the fitness center at Jefferson College, Noblitt was running an errand to De Soto when he stopped by Grandview to visit R-II superintendent Matt Zoph. The two knew each other from when Noblitt coached and taught history at Grandview.
“I walked into the office and he had a shocked look on his face, and he asked if I was going to solve his dilemma for the coaching job,” Jeffries said. “We started talking and I was thinking, ‘Well, the good Lord works in crazy ways.’ He told me more about the job and I said if it works out, I’ll do it.”
Jeffries was part of the committee that interviewed candidates for the two coaching positions and said Noblitt’s roots in the area made him the perfect choice.
“When you say his name around Grandview, people light right up,” Jeffries said. “The girls are coming off two successful seasons and I think it will be a great mesh. He really emphasizes what will make a great program: play strong defense, do a ton of shooting and play with a quick pace.”
He’ll have to do it without 2018 graduate Macy Ketcherside, the small-schools player of the year in the Jefferson County Activities Association last season. Also departing via graduation are all-conference picks Meaghan Faust and Katelyn McGlaughlin. Kaylyn Sparks, a three-year varsity player, should return this winter for her senior year.
Junior-to-be guard-forward Isabelle Kuczka had knee surgery after an injury early in the season and, if she returns to form, will give Grandview a top scoring threat. Kuczka set a school record with seven 3-point baskets against Festus in the Eagles’ first game last season.
“We’re going to have to develop our depth,” Noblitt said. “I’m impressed with Kaylyn Sparks. She’s a good place to start. We have four juniors who have varsity minutes since they were freshmen.
“I’m hearing (Kuczka) can shoot the daylights out of it,” he said. “She’ll be released in June for some activities. We’re not going to push her hard. We should have a salty starting five.”
Former Hawk standout takes over boys team
Taylor Hassell, a 2013 Hillsboro graduate and the JCAA large-schools player of the year his senior year, has been hired to coach the boys basketball team. He succeeds Chris Miller, who stepped down this spring after posting a four-year record of 37-63.
Miller, who taught physical education at Grandview Middle School, will be the new assistant principal at Grandview’s alternative school. He called his new position “an opportunity to move my career forward and have an impact on kids’ lives.”
Hassell, 23, will work as a paraprofessional at Hillsboro Elementary School and will be paid $4,420 to coach the boys. He graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 2017 with a degree in business education and was an assistant coach at Kaskaskia Junior College in Illinois in 2017-2018.
“(Hassell) brings a ton of passion for the game of basketball to our program,” Jeffries stated in a press release. “His enthusiasm for the game is going to be infectious for our kids. His emphasis on a fast-paced game will be a great fit for our athletes. More importantly, he places a great deal of importance on being a complete student-athlete.”
Hassell, who lives in Festus, played for Hillsboro head coach Dan Johnson and later was an assistant to Johnson while attending SEMO.
“I’ve always wanted to coach,” Hassell said. “I was able to get into coaching pretty quickly. I got my feet wet fast. I was the head manager for the men’s basketball team at SEMO, so I was able to see how things worked from the bottom up.”
Hassell said his teams at Grandview won’t live and die on one player.
“We’re not going to ride one person night in and night out,” he said. “That’s not what I want to build here. I want each person to make the other better. We’ve got to instill confidence in each other and me as a coach. That’s where we’ll start and move slowly but surely every day. Baby steps will be the key for us.”
After playing only a junior varsity schedule last year, Grandview football will return to the varsity playing field this fall. Jeffries said that will be exciting for everyone at Grandview.
“I was curious about the return to Friday night football and coach (Dave Dallas) has done a wonderful job of generating numbers,” Jeffries said. “We have kids coming to work out and we’re all excited to return to Friday night football and have complete varsity and JV schedules. As an entire school, Friday night sets the tone as far as enthusiasm for your community.”