Drury names former Lady Panthers, Lady Bears head coach Nyla Milleson as athletics director

Former Drury and Missouri State head women's basketball coach Nyla Milleson was announced Monday as Drury University's next athletics director.

Milleson, who helped build the Drury women's basketball program in the 1999-00 school year and served as its head coach for seven seasons, will replace Corey Bray who will leave Drury to become the Director of Athletics at Oklahoma City University. Bray replaced Mark Fisher following the 2018-19 academic year.

At Drury, Milleson is an athletics hall of fame member after leading her teams to a combined 185-36 record. Five of her seven Lady Panthers teams qualified for the NCAA-II Tournament. Her 2003 and 2006 teams qualified for the Sweeet 16 while her 2007 squad reached the NCAA-II Elite Eight.

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Milleson returned to the Ozarks last year when she became the athletics director of the Hollister R-V School District. She moved to Hollister after serving as George Mason's head women's basketball coach from 2013-21. She went 98-140 in her eight seasons.

The former Missouri State head coach was fired in 2013 after leading the Lady Bears to a 105-87 record from 2007-13. She led the Lady Bears to one regular-season title and three 20-win seasons. She was replaced by Kellie Harper.

Milleson started her collegiate coaching career with a seven-year stint as Drury's first-ever women's basketball coach where her teams averaged 26.4 wins per year.

The Goodland, Kansas, native started her Ozarks coaching career as the head coach of the Glendale High Lady Falcons where she led GHS to a 158-39 record in seven seasons. The Lady Falcons won a Missouri Class 4A state title in 1996 and she was named the Associated Press Missouri Coach of the Year.

Milleson has 37 years of experience in education and coaching. She earned her Bachelor of Science and Master's Degree in Educational Administration from Kansas State.

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Former coach Nyla Milleson named new Drury athletics director