John McNeley named new Nevada AD

By Eric Wade

Daily Mail Sports Editor

Nevada High School's search for a new athletic director has officially come to an end. The Nevada R-5 Board of Education held a special meeting on Friday morning in which a recommendation was approved to appoint Nevada High School boys' basketball coach John McNeley as the school's new athletic director.

McNeley has been with the Nevada R-5 School District for 24 years as a coach -- six as assistant boys' basketball coach, followed by 18 as head coach -- and has spent 22 of those years teaching. He currently teaches business and finance at Nevada High School and said the reason he pursued the athletic director position when it opened was simply his love for the district as a whole.

"I think it boils down to the fact that I've got such strong feelings for Nevada High School and for the athletic department and if there's any capacity that I can hold that to where I think I can help," he said.

That wasn't all, however. McNeley's interest and understanding of what he was about to get himself into by pursuing the position were also sparked by something much deeper.

Former Nevada High School athletic director Kevin McKinley was an assistant under McNeley with the Tigers and the two also went to Nevada High School together, both playing for the Tigers basketball squad. That history has created a relationship between the two that not only contributed to McNeley's interest in the athletic director position, but also gave him a little bit deeper understanding of just what the job entails than most outside observers.

"I'm pretty familiar because the guy who served as the AD is a pretty good friend of mine," McNeley said of his knowledge of what's ahead. "Our relationship goes way beyond coaching and teaching at Nevada High School."

On top of that inside knowledge of the job, McNeley said his experience in the district and closeness with McKinley has given him a significant edge over others who could have pursued the job since he has already formed a number of positive relationships with the people around him with whom he will now work on a regular basis as athletic director.

"I think that's a positive to the situation," he said.

McNeley's pursuit of the new position at the head of Nevada's athletic department began as a result of McKinley's exit, which became official June 19. Though district officials declined to comment on the circumstances behind McKinley's exit, he said in early May that his confidence was very high in the assumption that it was connected to his voicing of discontent over the district's salary schedule.

"Although I did receive my contract indicating my rehiring on April 12, obviously, my questioning of the fairness of our current salary schedule has made the path going forward a difficult one between myself and the central office," McKinley said. "It became obvious to me months ago that a philosophical divide was starting to emerge on items ranging from how to handle anonymous parental complaints, to crowd control and fan behavior, and regarding varying methods of athlete motivation and accountability."

With McKinley's exit came the end of a 15-year career as Nevada High School athletic director that featured a number of trying times, including five years of being forced to try to maintain complete athletic schedules despite Nevada being stuck under independent status after the dissolution of the Southwest Conference in 2008. During those five years, however, McKinley maintained a 99.3 percent completion rate on the schedules of all of Nevada's major sports.

Once his exit became official and McNeley was able to voice his desire to pursue the position, there wasn't much of a process he had to follow.

"It has not been much of a process," McNeley said. "I basically indicated interest, had a brief conversation (and) was notified that I would be recommended for the position."

Once McNeley was notified that he would be recommended by Nevada R-5 superintendent Dr. David Stephens, it wasn't long before a special meeting was called by the R-5 Board of Education and that recommendation was unanimously accepted.

Though there are a lot of things McNeley looks forward to about being athletic director and a number of positives he sees in it, one thing about his new job didn't make him nearly as happy. As of the end of the 2013-14 school year, McNeley will be forced to vacate his position as boys' basketball coach.

McNeley guessed that the revelation that he wouldn't do both had more to do with a simple preference by district officials to have someone who was solely devoted to the one job of athletic director than anything else, but couldn't say for sure why he wouldn't be able to continue to coach

"I can't go any further than that because I don't know," he said. "I enjoy coaching, there's no doubt about it."

McNeley is scheduled to have a meeting on July 8, with district officials, but was unsure of when his tenure as athletic director was to start, officially.