The good coaches want to coach, even after walking away from the game.
That was the case for Rod Gorman, who got back into high school basketball coaching after hardly ever going away. And now the Licking native has reached a rarified air milestone.
A state championship winning, Missouri Basketball Coaching Association Hall of Famer boys’ basketball head coach, Gorman thought he had retired from the game in 2016 after wrapping up a long and distinguished career at Logan-Rogersville.
However, that retirement didn’t take, as the coaching bug quickly brought Gorman back to a couple smaller schools in the area – first Houston and this past season Bunker.
At both Houston and Bunker, Gorman helped the basketball programs there break new ground. And with the Bunker Eagles he recorded his 600th career head coaching victory. He now has an eye-popping 600-334 record and currently has no plans of leaving coaching a second time.
“It has been fantastic,” Gorman said of his three-decade basketball career coaching run. “The great thing about coaching, every challenge is different. Forty-four years of my life have been involved in basketball, and I have loved it.”
After Gorman’s all-state playing career with Licking in the Frisco League, the 1983 Wildcat grad went on to play four seasons at Drury University in Springfield.
He quickly got into the coaching game, with his first job being head coach at Bourbon from 1987-90, winning three district championships there.
Gorman then moved on to Festus, during which he led a 30-1, state championship 1990-91 squad. After his stint there, he moved on to a larger school, Cape Girardeau Central, where he coached from 1991-96 and captured a district title.
He then went back to his Southwest Missouri roots, taking the Logan-Rogersville post, which seemingly was the end of his coaching journey. In 20 years, from 1996-2016, Gorman had one of the most successful programs in the area. Although not returning to the state Final Four, Gorman led Rogersville to nine district championships and seven state tourney quarterfinal berths.
In 2016 he called it a career, retiring from Rogersville.
But basketball has a funny way of calling coaches back, which is what happened to Gorman.
With a house near Montauk State Park close to his hometown of Licking, he still had the itch to coach, although he didn’t want to leave home to do it.
“In a nutshell, when I retired in 2016 I had been athletic director and basketball coach (at Rogersville) for 20 years and felt like I was ready for retirement,” Gorman said. “But by April, I had the feeling I didn’t belong to a team anymore for the first time in my life. So I looked around at some opportunities that would work for me. I was ready for something different.”
That’s when the challenge at Houston High School came up.
“Houston had had 10 coaches in 11 years,” he said. “Coach (Brent) Hall, their AD, was a good friend of mine and asked if I’d do it for one year. I wasn’t interested in that; I wanted to give them some security. And it was a great decision for me and those kids.”
So instead of a one-year stop, Gorman was at Houston from 2016-2020 and coached the Tigers to their first winning season in 19 years.
After having a group of seniors he liked for their entire four-year playing career, Gorman was ready to leave Houston, so he resigned after the difficult, COVID-plagued season of 2019-20.
“Last year was the COVID year and the class I started with at Houston graduated,” he said. “I was going through some personal changes and when I moved back to Montauk there were only three jobs I thought would work for me – Licking, Houston and Salem. Then I went to Bunker, which is 40 minutes from my house with a great facility and talent. And basketball is king there.”
Gorman took the job for this past season and loved it. The Eagles finished 18-7, winning two games in the Class 1 District 3 Tournament – including Gorman’s career win No. 600 – before losing to 25-win South Iron in the district title contest.
“It’s been a great year,” he said. “We’ve got a great schedule and the kids are interested in basketball and want to be good. We had a sophomore (6-4 Cade Sutton, who averaged 19.5 points and 9.5 rebounds) who was all-state and another real good junior. (Sutton) is the best sophomore I’ve ever coached in 34 years.”
And Gorman said it doesn’t matter if you’re coaching a Class 5 team or a Class 1 squad.
“Coaching is coaching,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed every place I’ve been. The relationship with players is the most important thing in coaching – it’s a lifelong thing.”
Bunker has been such a pleasant experience that Gorman has signed a contract there for the upcoming 2021-22 school year. In addition to his coaching duties, Gorman is a part-time PE teacher, starting his work day at noon.
How long will he continue to coach? We’ll see.
“As long as I enjoy it, I’ll keep coaching,” Gorman said. “Next year will be Year 35 for me, and as long as I enjoy it and feel I’m having a positive impact on kids I’ll keep doing it.”
