By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The new head coach for Neosho’s girls basketball team is a familiar name for the Wildcats.
Tyler Chaney, a standout basketball player at Neosho who continued his career at Missouri State, takes over the program after a 10-17 season last winter.
“I’m a Neosho guy and I’ve been curious about the job over the last few years,” Chaney said. “I’ve always thought if I did get back into coaching I’d love to coach the Neosho Wildcats, the lady’s program. It’s a job that’s on my bucket list and I felt like I could come in and be a big contributor and help out the Neosho program, help us to some success.”
Chaney’s got years of coaching experience, both with traveling teams and as an assistant for the Neosho boys. He’ll try to guide the Wildcats to their first winning season since the 2017-18 school year, but he’ll have a young roster in year one at the helm.
Neosho graduated Karlee Ellick, a second team all-conference pick in the Central Ozark Conference who was also named to the all-conference defensive unit. She was also on the Class 6 District 5 postseason team. Ellick averaged 17.5 points per game with 10 rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block and shot 50 percent from three-point range.
“Last season we had a pretty big squad, we probably had an average height around 6-0 with some pretty tall girls and a lot of experience,” Chaney said. “This year we have the complete opposite. We don’t have the size and we don’t have the experience. We’ve got one returner who got major minutes and we have one senior returning.”
Junior guard Beclynn Garrett returns after playing in 14 games and averaging nine points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.7 steals in 25 minutes. Chaney said she’ll be the hardest worker on the floor at all times.
“She’s a great leader and if she can stay healthy she’ll have a great season,” he said. “She’s been battling the injury bug over the last couple seasons so keeping her healthy will be a big key to our success.”
CLICK HERE FOR LINKS TO ALL OF THE WINTER PREVIEWS
Senior forward Courtney Thomason played in 23 games last year and averaged three points and three rebounds in 13 minutes. She figures to play a larger role in her final season.
After that, the roster is virtually a “complete overhaul,” Chaney said. “It’ll be way different from last year’s roster. We’re just excited to get going and get some new faces in to fill the roles from last year.”
Chaney said the Wildcats will have to replace between 80 and 90 percent of their scoring from last season.
“I’ve been around basketball my whole life and with coaches who were really good, they just instilled in me to keep it simple, so we’ll take care of the ball and we’ll rebound and we’ll play some tough defense, make it harder on the other team to get an easy basket,” Chaney said.
Neosho opens the season on the road at Seneca on Nov. 20 and plays its first home game Nov. 21 against Clinton. The Wildcats will play in the CJ Classic (Nov. 27-30), their own Neosho Holiday Classic (Dec. 27-29), and the Gary Keeling Invitational in Bolivar (Jan. 15-18).
The Wildcats will play in a jamboree at Webb City on Nov. 16.
