Story by Joe Hickman
Anyone who’s traveled the youth basketball circuit in the region knows the name Robert Yanders.
And if you are a longtime fan of the Missouri State Bears, you remember him as the starting guard for Barry Hinson’s teams for two seasons from 2000-02 where he averaged 10 points per game.
Or if you followed the Milwaukee native when he first arrived in the Ozarks you saw his leadership at Missouri State-West Plains where he helped the Grizzlies achieve a number 2 national ranking and Region 16 championship in 1999, resulting in his being named to the school’s Hall of Fame.
But after Yanders played professionally overseas, he achieved his greatest success when he returned to the Ozarks and became a youth basketball coach, mentoring thousands of local players including many of the top stars in the area. Yanders even started his own basketball facility and prep school in Nixa known as “The Basketball Movement” where among the programs he offered were skill development, team placement, clinics, Euro preparation and NBA pre-draft preparation.
But on Monday The Basketball Movement gym was silent with flowers sitting by the front door after news broke that Yanders had passed away overnight at the age of 44.
Friends we talked to on Monday expressed distraught and surprise in saying Yanders appeared in good health. Isaac Haney, a former stand-out at Kickapoo who now plays at Austin Peay after college stops at
Missouri State and Northwestern State, worked out with Yanders Friday at the Nixa facility.
His reaction when he heard the news Monday morning?
“It was a shock then and it’s still a shock now,” he said. “I woke up today thinking I would get to learn and train under him just like I do every day. Anyone who was able to be trained by him considered him a father figure. He meant so much to be beyond basketball. And as much as he shaped me on the floor he really shaped me off the floor as well.”
When asked what was special about Yanders’ transformational teachings?
“It was just the way he was able to take a bunch of individuals who were just interested in basketball and having fun and teaching the value of hard work and togetherness,” Haney replied. “We became closer like brothers and family.”
“He had an impact on southwest Missouri as much as any player,” said Yanders’ head coach at Missouri State Barry Hinson who now heads up Oklahoma State’s NIL program. “And it wasn’t only basketball. He just made people better.”
Hinson too couldn’t believe the news he woke up to on Monday.
Haney had just worked out with Yanders on Friday at the Nixa gym and couldn’t believe the news this morning.
And Hinson says heaven won’t be the same with Coach Yanders there now.
