Remembering Bob Sechrest

Poplar Bluff native and former Mineral Area College men's basketball coach Bob Sechrest died Thursday.

The http://www.dailyjournalonline.com/" target="_self">Daily Journal in Farmington will have a tribute written by Leroy Sigman, a long-time sports and news reporter who is now retired, later today and here is our story from today's DAR:

By ALEX ABATE

Daily American Republic

Former Poplar Bluff graduate and Mineral Area head basketball coach Robert “Bob” Sechrest died Thursday. He was 80.

He is survived by his wife Eileen, daughter Sharon and five grandchildren.

Sechrest graduated from Poplar Bluff in 1946 where he was a member of the Mules football and basketball teams. In 1987 he was inducted into the Poplar Bluff Sports Hall of Fame.

The funeral will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Sechrest Fieldhouse on the campus of Mineral Area College where he had an impact on his players and they kept in touch with him.

“We have had lots of young men tell us that two years at (Mineral Area) were the happiest years of their lives,” said Eileen, Sechrest’s wife of 61 years.

Sechrest had an outgoing personality and was an honest man.

“He was always himself, I guarantee that,” Eileen said. “He put on no acts for anybody.”

Former Mules team manager and lifelong friend Sam Giambelluca said Sechrest was quite the athlete.

“He was kind of a cross between a forward and a center,” Giambelluca said. “Bob was a tough ballplayer. He was a good rebounder and strong around the basket.”

Sechrest coached at Mineral Area for 24 seasons and compiled a mark of 465-273.

Over his time with the Cardinals, he had seven nationally ranked teams and was named Region XVI coach of the year on three occasions.

Sechrest, who served in the Army from 1946-48, got his first coaching job at Van Buren in 1951 and was 81-41 over four seasons with the basketball program. He also coached the Bulldogs’ football program while serving as a physical education teacher. He then coached at Thayer for one season of both basketball and football. His basketball team finished the season with a mark of 26-5 and his football team finished 10-0 and went to state. After Thayer, Sechrest began coaching at Flat River High School for six years before moving to Mineral Area.

“He was technically a great coach but really Bob’s whole deal was that he was such a people person,” Former Mineral Area assistant and current Athletic Director Tim Gray said. “He loved what he did and competing and developing kids not just as players but as people. He got people to play harder and compete harder than they ever thought they could.”

Gray remembers his first encounter with Sechrest fondly. Gray played for Jefferson at the time and took a charge from one of Sechrest’s players. Gray was knocked out and ended up going to the hospital. Sechrest called Gray’s parents the next morning to check on him.

“That really summed it up,” Gray said. “He tried everything to win the game but when the dust settled down, he took the time to call my parents to find out how I was doing.”

Sechrest, who retired as the Mineral Area athletic director in 2004, was tough on his players but it was always for the best.

“Bob was just a special man,” Gray said. “He could be very hard and demanding on you but that was for your sake, not for his. He developed people in a lot of ways because of that.”

Sechrest was the Region XVI Director for 16 years and was also inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1990 three years after he was selected for the NJCAA Basketball Hall of Fame and Poplar Bluff Sports Hall of Fame in 1987.

At Mineral Area, Sechrest went up against Three Rivers and coach Gene Bess plenty of times in what was always a good rivalry.

“He was just one of those guys that had a knack for putting a good team on the court and always was competitive,” Bess said. “He was always right in the middle of every game that he played in.”

As soon as the horn sounded, Sechrest and Bess resumed their friendship.

Bess went with Sechrest to many Region meetings over the years and said he was a pleasure to be around.

“(Those were) some of my finest times socially that I can remember,” Bess said. “Bob was a great conversationalist. He knew the national sports scene. We had a lot of good conversations about a lot of things.”

Visitation will be from 5-9 p.m. Friday at Horton-Wampler Funeral Home in Park Hills and the funeral will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Sechrest Fieldhouse.

Donations in his honor may be sent to the Bob Sechrest Scholarship Fund at Mineral Area College to Denise Sebastian, Mineral Area College, P.O. Box 1000, Park Hills, MO 63601.