Each month, Eagle Radio in Great Bend is recognizing groups or individuals that make a big impact on our community. This Appreciation Month is highlighting coaches.
By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Great Bend High School teacher and coach Bill Maddy
remembers a coach he had in high school while growing up in Stockton, Kansas.
Phil Wilson arrived to Stockton High School to coach the football team going
into Maddy’s senior year. Stockton won two total games over the three years
combined prior to Wilson’s arrival.
“I remember on the first day coach Wilson came in and said ‘I haven’t had a
losing season since my sophomore year in college and I’m not starting now,’”
said Maddy. “Basically, losing wasn’t an option. We all bought in.”
From winning one game his junior year, Maddy’s senior year saw the Stockton
Tigers make it to the state championship game.
What Wilson preached
and did stuck with Maddy as he went to Fort Hays State University to compete on
the football team. After breaking his thumb during the summer following his
freshman year at FHSU, Maddy decided to quit playing and concentrate on his
math education degree. After graduating college, it was another former coach
that came to his aid.
“Mark Altman went to Lebo after coaching at Stockton,” said Maddy. “When I
graduated from Fort Hays, he called me and said he was leaving and thought he
could get me a job at Lebo High School.”
The 23-year-old Maddy, right out of college, started teaching math and coaching
in Lebo.
“I was blessed with some really good talent in Lebo,” said Maddy. “I remember
starting the basketball season 11-0 and thought this is easy. It also helped
that our kids were learning the same system I had. They had my coach, Altman,
and I had the same philosophy.”
Maddy spent four years in Lebo doing anything and everything in what he
described as a family atmosphere.
“I painted the football field and I don’t think I got paid anything extra for
it…it just needed to be done,” said Maddy. “I put in a lot of work and got home
late. It’s a good think I did it when I was young.”
Maddy is very familiar with the Great Bend and Hays rivalry but said the Lebo
versus Waverly rivalry is right up there.
“Waverly and Lebo are 15 minutes apart and both share the same district and
superintendent,” said Maddy. “I wish everyone could be part of it. In the movie
Hoosiers, when the whole town packed up to watch the game…that’s exactly what
it was while I was in Lebo.”
Maddy met his wife, from Great Bend, in college. Wanting to get back closer to
family, Maddy accepted a teaching position in Ellinwood in the mid-1990s. The
only coaching positions Ellinwood had open at the time were junior high girls
basketball and assistant football.
“I was told we didn’t have a strong group at the junior high level and we
probably wouldn’t win a game,” said Maddy. “We took second in the league tournament
that year and won it the next year. They couldn’t always do what I wanted but
they always tried to do what you told them.”
Two years later, Maddy became the head girls basketball coach at Ellinwood High
School and eventually took the Eagles to their first state tournament in 2005.
In his 16 years at Ellinwood, Maddy also spent time coaching football.
Another coach guided Maddy to his next job. Carrie Minton was an assistant
coach with Maddy for a short time in Ellinwood. Slowing down in his coaching
duties, Maddy received a request from Minton in 2012.
“She said ‘I think I’m going to be the head girls basketball coach at Great
Bend, do you want to come over?’” said Maddy. “I thought about it for a week
and then said yes.”
Maddy currently serves as an Individual Learning Center (ILC) teacher at Great
Bend High School and is an assistant coach for the football, girls basketball and
track and field teams.
“I actually enjoy being an assistant coach more,” said Maddy. “I got to the point
as a head coach where I wasn’t enjoying the winning. It was just a relief not
to lose. Now I can give my two cents and I’m the good cop as the assistant.”
Listing his favorite moments while at Great Bend, Maddy recalls the 2016
football team that was one game away from the state championship. Maddy enjoyed
the comeback, referred to as the “Miracle on Morton”, in 2019 where the
Panthers beat Andover. The girls basketball team making it to the state tournament
in 2014 is high on the list for Maddy as well.
“I love when teams or individuals play beyond their capabilities,” said Maddy. “There’s
nothing like seeing kids play to their potential or accomplishing something
they were not expected to achieve.”
Read the previous Appreciation Month stories by clicking HERE.