By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Great Bend native Matt Keeley is settling into his new coaching gig, a job much closer to his hometown. For the past seven seasons, Keeley has served as the head basketball coach at Ottawa University Arizona, winning 113 games. Last Wednesday, he was introduced as the head coach at Northwest Missouri State University.
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At the press conference, Keeley said Maryville, Missouri had a lot of similar charm of Great Bend, where he and his wife Jana grew up.
"Jana and I are high school sweethearts," said Keeley. "She lived on the west side of town and I lived on the east side of town, 10 minutes and three stop lights away. That's exactly where we grew up, so this community felt awesome."
The latest population census had Maryville, Missouri with a population of just under 11,000, and the town is located approximately 100 miles north of the Kansas City metropolitan area.
Familiar with the MIAA, Keeley spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Washburn University before coaching at MidAmerica Nazarene University and Ottawa University Arizona.
Keeley said the sales pitch to move went over well with his four children.
"My youngest wanted to know what our mascot was," said Keeley. "I said we're the Bearcats...I said Bobby Bearcat. She asked if she could meet him. I said yeah, and she was onboard. That was an easy sell."
"My son Cam, who's a second grader, asked what kind of house are we going to live in. Can we have a basement? Because in Arizona there are no basements. Realtors, I need to find a house with a basement in it."
"My daughter Reese wanted to know what our school color was. We're green and she has green eyes. She thought that would work out well."
"Cade, like a coach's kid, wanted to know if they were pretty good. Yeah man, they're pretty good."
Northwest Missouri has made it to the NCAA D-II Tournament 11 consecutive seasons. The Bearcats won national championships in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022.
Keeley was a 2000 graduate from Great Bend High School.