Pat McKee made the coveted Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 following an outstanding 26-year career as a sports reporter and editor at the Indianapolis Star. A year later he made the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame.
However, he also has earned new-career acclaim during his second season as girls basketball coach at
Columbus North (Columbus, Ind.).
Pat McKee
Photo courtesy of Julie Pruitt
The 52-year-old McKee guided the Bull Dogs to their first-ever regional and semistate championships this year. On Saturday they forced
North Central (Indianapolis) into overtime before losing the Class 4A state championship game in a 50-48 nail-biter.
Six-foot-five Nariah Taylor was too much for the Bull Dogs. The Auburn University signee scored 14 of her team-high 18 points during the fourth quarter and overtime, including the two winning free throws with 0.8 of a second left. Freshman
Ali Patberg, a 5-9 guard, paced the young Bull Dogs (23-4) with 19 points and is a star of the future.
Earlier in the week, Columbus North athletic director Jeff Hester told Kyle Neddenriep of the Indianapolis Star that McKee is "the most detail-oriented person I know. He has a very unique skill set in that he also helps me as the sports information director at the school. It's a great story line. He's extremely humble and has refused to take any credit, but he's obviously a big reason why we've had so much success."
A 1977 graduate of Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis, Mo., McKee was a non-starter but grew to love basketball. He got his first real taste of coaching while serving as a volunteer women's basketball assistant coach at Butler University from 1984-88. He also coached girls AAU basketball from 1989-2004, winning national championships with various age groups in 1995, 2000 and 2004. Some years he was coaching three different teams at once.
McKee, who splits time between Columbus and Fort Myers, Fla., actually has four part-time jobs. Three of them involve media work, while the other is coaching.
Looking at his last game, he told MaxPreps, "I'm disappointed because we were there to win. Our kids have a lot of character and heart. I have a lot of pride in these kids. They are terrific."
He refuses to take credit for a program that was on solid ground when he took over.
He insisted, "It's about kids. I'm an old guy. I really am happy for the kids. Most of the fun I have is watching them be happy."
The best part is that 28 of the 29 players in his program will return. He started six different players at least 18 times, so he really returns all five starters.
McKee concedes that next year "We are a target."
*The
Millbrook (Winchester, Va.) girls basketball team defeated Grafton (Yorktown, Va.) 68-43 to tie the state record with its 78th consecutive victory.
*
Manchester (Conn.) defeated West Haven (Conn.) 56-34 to give girls coach John Reiser his 400th victory.
*Marcia Pinder of
Dillard (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) has been named National Coach of the Year by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. She is Florida's winningest basketball coach - male or female - with a spectacular 804-175 record and has seven state titles.
