Larry Holley just completed his 32nd year as the head men’s basketball coach at William Jewell College (1979-80 was his first) where the basketball court is named in his honor. He has received 14 Coach of the Year Awards including the prestigious Sears/NABC NAIA National Coach of the Year Award in 1996 (he was the first NAIA coach to receive this award from the NABC). He has also been selected to five Halls of Fames: the Greater Kansas City Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the William Jewell College Athletic Hall of Fame, the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) Hall of Fame and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. In May of 2003 he was a court coach at the USA Basketball Pan American Trials in Colorado Springs, CO.
Holley’s coaching background includes: one year at Harrisburg, MO High School (he was the head coach of 6 teams with no assistant: varsity, JV and JH boys and girls – he coached 91 games – record of 65-26 – varsity boys were 17-11, varsity girls 24-2); six years at Central Methodist College (record of 61-93 – only one winning season – named HAAC Coach of the Year in 1971-72, the first year of the HAAC Conference), and four years at Northwest Missouri State University (two as the top assistant and two as the head coach: record of 26-26 – set an NCAA record in his final year at Northwest by going 15-0 at home and 0-11 on the road – which included wins over 5 nationally ranked teams).
Since his return to his alma mater in the fall of 1979 he has guided eleven Jewell squads to HAAC Regular Season Conference Titles, and fourteen to the NAIA National Tournament with four of them reaching the Final Four (1993, 1995, 1996, 1997) and three reaching the Elite Eight. Holley’s teams have had two winning streaks that will be hard to top: a 43-game home court winning streak and a 45-game Heart of America Athletic Conference winning streak that included 21 road wins in a row!
Coach Holley is the career leader in wins among HAAC basketball coaches. He’s had twenty-four 20-win seasons (fourteen of his teams have had 25 or more wins and 4 have won 30 or more games). He ranks #3 among all NAIA coaches (over 260 schools) with 822 wins (including 735 at William Jewell). The 822 wins ranks him #7 among all active four-year college coaches (NCAA I, II, III & NAIA I & II – nearly 1300 schools). He is only the 14th NCAA or NAIA coach to win 800 or more games (he currently is #13 on the all-time list). He ranks #1 all-time in career wins among four-year college coaches at Missouri Colleges/Universities ( Norm Stewart former University of Missouri coach is #2 on the list). There have been numerous outstanding wins in his tenure at Jewell but two stand out (and both occurred at Municipal Auditorium): the Cardinals win over UMKC in 2004 and Jewell’s win in the first round of the NAIA Division I Tournament in 2009 over #1 ranked Rogers State, OK.
Holley has coached 24 NAIA All-Americans including six 1st team selections and one who was named NAIA II National Player of the Year (Brook Russell: 1996). Twenty-six of his players have been named NAIA Academic All-Americans. While at Jewell 135 out of 141 of his fourth year players have graduated (96%)! Coach Holley’s teams have consistently been ranked in the NAIA’s Top 25 including #1 rankings in 1996 and 2004. They also received the #1 seed in the National Tournament in 2004.
Holley is a 1967 Jewell graduate. He lettered four times in each of three sports (cross country, basketball & track). He was captain of each sport and capped his career by being named Jewell’s Athlete of the Year (Cecil R. Martin Award) as a senior. He scored 1122 points in his basketball career at Jewell (#7 on the scoring chart at the time – currently #37) and was an All-Conference and All-District selection as a senior. Off the court he was: President of his fraternity (Lambda Chi Alpha); President of the J Club (letter winner’s organization); Vice-President of the senior class; a member of Aeons (senior men’s honorary fraternity); selected to Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities; and he was the recipient of the Colonel Alexander Doniphan Award that goes to the senior man deemed most likely to succeed. He was also a member of the Concert and Pep Bands and Chapel Choir all four years.
Larry is a graduate of Jameson, MO High School where his dad was Superintendent of Schools (and coached basketball) and his mother was a teacher (and Principal of the school). During his days at Jameson he was involved in numerous activities: he traveled to Columbia, MO for five State Events as a senior (Basketball, Indoor Track, Outdoor Track, Music and Speech): Basketball (he was Jameson’s first ever 1st Team All State Selection as a senior after leading the Huskies to a record of 33-1 and 3rd Place in the Missouri Class S State Tournament – Fritz Krisler of the Kansas City Star named him the Best Class S Player in the State – his jersey is now retired); Track (he was the State Indoor Champion in the Class S Mile Run and placed 4th in the State Outdoor Meet); Music (he received I ratings in Trumpet and Vocal Solos as a junior and senior at the State Music Contest); Speech (he received I ratings in Poetry Reading and Radio Speaking at the District Contest and competed at the State Contest as a senior)…he was also Valedictorian of his graduating class (class of 10, but he was upper 10%!).
Larry and his wife Linda reside in Liberty. Larry has three daughters (Lindsay – a 1998 William Jewell graduate; Lauren, a 2002 William Jewell graduate; and Lacey, a 2003 graduate of Drake University) and two grandchildren (Lindsay’s children: Reagan, 5 and Evan, 3!
Tim Sutton
Assistant Basketball Coach
Tim Sutton enters his seventh season as an assistant coach with The Cardinals. Sutton coached previously at Excelsior Springs and North Kansas City High Schools. Tim played basketball and baseball at Excelsior Springs High School. He is a graduate of Northwest Missouri State University and he and his wife, Janet, live in Liberty and have one son, Sam (14).
Matt Sligh
Assistant Basketball Coach
Matt Sligh enters his second year as an assistant coach for the William Jewell College Basketball program. He is a 2005 graduate of Covenant College (GA). While at Covenant College, Sligh participated on the men's soccer, men's basketball and men's golf teams. In the spring and summer of 2005 he spent time as an assistant basketball coach at Covenant Collge. He was an Academic All-American at Covenant and has spent the last five years working for Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Along with his coaching responsibilities Sligh will be heavily involved in recruiting for the Jewell men's basketball team. He and his wife, Marina, reside in Liberty, Mo.
