Menu
Remembering John McNeley
Toward the end of Kevin McKinley’s stint as the athletic director at Nevada High School, one of the buzzwords in education was “relationships.”
In what seemed like every school district at the time, Nevada’s included, administrators, teachers and coaches were instructed to focus on building relationships with students that would last even beyond graduation, in order to make them more excited about coming to school and to best prepare them for the real world.
According to McKinley, even though the initiative wasn’t formally launched by his longtime friend and fellow educator John McNeley, it might as well have been.
“John was doing that 25 years ago,” McKinley said of McNeley, the winningest basketball coach in Nevada history who died unexpectedly Monday at the age of 58. “I’ll remember that more than any game or championships and all that — the relationships he had with kids.”
Testaments to those relationships McNeley forged during his 30-year career at Nevada, from which he graduated in 1980, flooded the social media pages, devices and conversations this week of those closest to him, as “Coach Mac” was one of the most recognized, downright iconic, figures in Nevada Tigers history.
After returning to his alma mater as an assistant boys basketball coach for the 1990-91 season, in which the team finished runner-up at the state tournament, McNeley began teaching full-time and coaching junior varsity before taking over the varsity team in 1996. He won two district championships and accumulated a career record of 228-233, winning 45 more games than any other coach in program history. He stepped down in 2014 to become the school’s athletic director.
This most recent basketball season, which wrapped up three days before his death, saw his twin sons Lane and Logan McNeley help lead the Tigers to a 22-6 record and the quarterfinals of the Class 5 state tourney — something McKinley said made it one of John’s favorite seasons ever.
“He texted us after the sectionals game against Logan-Rogersville that it was one of the happiest times in his life,” said McKinley, who was the A.D. for 15 of McNeley's 18 years as head coach. “We never know when any of us are going to be called home, but the fact that he got to experience that with his boys…some of those pictures of him hugging them were priceless then, but they’re even more priceless now.”
Shaun Gray, who took over for McNeley as head coach of the Tigers in 2015, said there’s an image of John in his head from that thrilling comeback win over Logan-Rogersville that he’ll never forget.
“We were making that comeback, and Logan-Rogersville threw the ball out of bounds, and the ball bounced once into John’s hands right where he always sat in the front row on the far sideline,” Gray said. “He stood up, caught the ball, and slammed it on the ground twice with pure jubilation. The look on his face, the passion, the joy, I’m never going to forget that moment. At that moment, I almost knew we were going to win the game.”
In addition to McNeley's successes on the court, McKinley and Gray said they'll also remember John — who in addition to Lane and Logan is survived by another son, Myles, a daughter, Morgan, and his wife, Jodie, who was also a coach and teacher at Nevada before becoming a counselor, principal, and eventually assistant superintendent of the school district — as a terrific leader off the court, as well.
“He was proud of all of his kids, and he was proud of the fact that they conduct themselves both in the public and outside the public eye the right way,” McKinley said. “In addition to being proud of his kids, no one was more proud of his wife than John. The fact that Jodie has risen to that office, I know, was a source of great pride for him. It made Jodie one of John’s bosses, but he enjoyed every bit of that.”
Gray agreed.
“One of the things he tried to emphasize is that he lived life the way he talked it. I think his former players and the people who coached with him, the type of husband and father that he was, he left that legacy behind too. The type of people that Morgan and Myles and Logan and Lane are, the way that they live their lives, and the way they treat other people, they’re living his legacy,” said Gray, who was quick to recite one of McNeley’s favorite quotes. “There’s only one way to approach things in life, and that’s to the best of your abilities.”
As the tributes to McNeley have come in, common terms used to describe him have included “faithful” (he was a member of the First Baptist Church for nearly his entire life), “compassionate” (he was known for diagnosing the problems leading troubled students astray), and “passionate” (he was a fierce competitor, even long before he ever manned the sidelines inside Wynn Gymnasium).
“John was probably the most intense basketball player when he played that I’ve ever been around, in Nevada or otherwise,” said McKinley, who credited his and McNeley’s Irish roots for that competitive edge. “John was a full-fledged Irishman, as I am, and he could get emotional and he could be pretty tough, especially on officials. What you’ve got to understand is the purpose of it. The purpose was to get kids as close to their potential with their God-given abilities as possible. If you’re not intense, kids will not push themselves to the point that they’ll get the most out of themselves.”
Another example McKinley gave of McNeley’s passion for winning was stepping into the batter’s box to face him during junior Babe Ruth league baseball in 1976.
“John threw incredibly hard. A teammate once told me John was the only guy you ever played with where you could hear the ball coming because of the seams,” said McKinley, who after one strike out of McNeley's hand stepped out of the box for a few practice swings just so he didn’t have to step back in. “Finally, John screamed at me, ‘Get back in the box, McKinley!’ I swung at the next two pitches just to get back to the safety of the dugout. It was the best business decision I ever made.”
Fast-forward more than 40 years later, on the week of St. Patrick’s Day, and McKinley couldn’t help but get emotional remembering all these stories about one of his closest friends.
“I just hate this. I absolutely hate it. It’s been a heck of a punch in the gut,” said McKinley, who’s been reminded of a favorite quote of his own, uttered by former U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan following the assassination of President Kennedy. "'I don’t think there’s any point in being Irish if you don’t know that the world is going to break your heart eventually. I guess that we thought we had a little more time. So did he.'"