– Steve Scholfield is moving on down the road.
About 11 miles.
Scholfield, who has been the Crocker High School boys’ basketball head coach the past 10 years, has resigned that position to become the boys’ basketball head coach at Frisco League rival Iberia.
Scholfield will also be in charge of the junior high boys’ basketball program at Iberia.
He replaces Matt Pugh as Iberia head coach. Pugh, who has coached the Rangers the past two seasons, resigned to accept the Hannibal High School boys’ basketball head coaching position.
In addition to his boys’ basketball coaching duties Scholfield also served as the athletic director, softball head coach, a physical education teacher and ISS instructor at Crocker.
Scholfield’s Crocker boys’ basketball teams have been 180-96 over the past 10 years, including a 18-9 record this past season. The past several years the Crocker Lions have been one of the most entertaining teams in the area with its record-setting, high-scoring style, which has helped produced all-state players the past two seasons.
“I hope to be able to play somewhat that way (at Iberia),” said Scholfield, who has a degree in physical education from Quincy University. “We’ll have a little more height than I’m used to. We’ll try to take advantage of that.”
Iberia finished 12-14 last season under Pugh. From that team Scholfield inherits four of the Rangers’ top six players, including 5-11 Zane Dickey, 5-10 Ethan Minnick, 6-2 Garth Minnick and 6-5 Matt Edmonds.
Dickey was an All-Frisco League selection this past season.
“Coach Pugh has done a great job getting the program going in the right direction,” Scholfield said. “I hope we can keep it going.”
Scholfield says his family will continue to live in Crocker, a place he says he is grown to love.
“The worst thing about the Iberia job is playing Crocker,” he said. “That won’t be much fun; it’ll be hard coaching against the kids I have coached.”
Revamping Staff
The addition continues a revamping of the Iberia High School coaching staff.
Also added to the Rangers’ staff is Jason Morris, currently the baseball head coach at Licking.
Earlier this spring Morris announced he was resigning at Licking at the end of this school year to become Iberia’s baseball head coach.
Morris will replace Jason Reinsch, who has served as the Ranger baseball head coach one season. Reinsch is returning to Springfield to pursue his master’s degree. Reinsch replaced long-time Iberia baseball head coach Harv Antle this school year, after Antle resigned to become the Camdenton baseball head coach. Antle had coached Iberia to several district titles in a 12-year coaching stint, including the 2001 Missouri Class 2 state championship.
Iberia will have a third new head coach in 2008-09, as Chris Harris will take over as golf coach.
“I am really pleased,” Iberia Athletic Director Lisa Law said of the Rangers’ recent coaching hires. “Every year coaches hunt around, and I knew Steve was looking. And after Coach Pugh had applied at Hannibal – and we knew he had a good chance at getting it – we were kind of fighting a timeline before we could talk to Steve. But it ended up working out well. We were very pleased with Matt and couldn’t have asked to a better replacement in Steve.
“And Jason Morris has a top-notch baseball program at Licking. The won-loss record may not be as good this year, but I really like the way he has run that program. We feel we have gotten two great coaches out of the Frisco League.”
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