McCracken County's Scott Sivills named Kentucky high school girls basketball coach of year

Scott Sivills called it “a crossroads” in 1995 when Scott Edgar left Murray State to become the men’s basketball coach at Duquesne University.

Sivills had a chance to follow Edgar to Duquesne as an assistant coach but decided to stay home in Western Kentucky. When Mark Gottfried got the head coaching job at Murray State, “things didn’t work out” for Sivills to join his staff.

“I found myself looking for a job,” Sivills said.

Nearly three decades later, Sivills, now at McCracken County High School, has established himself as one of the top girls basketball coaches in the state. With a 480-290 record and five regional championships over 25 seasons as a head coach, Sivills doesn’t regret the choices he made back in 1995.

“I think I was kind of meant to be coaching the women’s side,” he said. “I’ve truly enjoyed it. It’s been a great ride so far.”

Sivills led McCracken County to a 35-3 record this past season and a trip to the Sweet 16 championship game, eventually falling to Sacred Heart 68-53. Coaches around the state took notice of Sivills’ work, voting him The Courier Journal’s Girls Basketball Coach of the Year.

Kentucky's 10 best: Meet the star-studded KHSAA basketball all-state girls team

Meet the squad: The Kentucky All-State boys basketball squad is loaded

“We have probably the best coaches in the country in our state, and there’s a lot of coaches that deserve this award,” Sivills said. “I’m beyond blessed that coaches across our state voted me as Coach of the Year. I guess they’ve seen our hard work and what we’ve done the last couple of years. Just truly honored and blessed.”

Sivills received 25 votes from the 87 coaches who returned ballots. Sacred Heart’s Donna Moir, a five-time winner of the award, was the runner-up with 14 votes and was followed by Manual’s Ashley Franklin (10), George Rogers Clark’s Robbie Graham (nine) and Lawrence County’s Melinda Feltner (seven).

Sivills, 52, is a 1989 graduate of Trigg County High School and played four seasons (1989-93) at Murray State.

He was an assistant coach for his uncle, Buddy Sivills, for three seasons with the Trigg County girls program and was named head coach at Calloway County in 1998. He posted a 302-209 record in 17 seasons there, leading the Lakers to First Region titles in 2003, 2007 and 2011. The 2010-11 squad reached the Sweet 16 semifinals before falling to eventual state champion Rockcastle County.

'A dream come true': Sacred Heart star ZaKiyah Johnson enjoying whirlwind recruiting process

Mr. and Miss Basketball: North Laurel's Reed Sheppard, Rowan County's Haven Ford earn honors

Sivills took the McCracken County job in 2015 and is 178-81 in eight seasons there. Four of his first six seasons ended with losses to Marshall County in the regional tournament.

“Just climbing hills, man,” said Sivills, who also teaches science at McCracken County. “We finally did it. … It’s about the players. You have to have really good players. They make the coaches look good.”

Sivills admitted he “lucked out” when Destiny Thomas joined the program after playing at Paducah Tilghman as a seventh- and eighth-grader. Thomas, a Murray State signee, earned first-team All-State honors as a junior and senior and led the Mustangs to a 66-5 record over the past two seasons.

Last season marked McCracken County’s first-ever trip to the Sweet 16, ending with a first-round loss to Southwestern. Sivills said the lessons learned from that trip helped this season as the Mustangs made a run to the state final.

It ended with a loss to a Sacred Heart team that won its third straight state championship.

“It’s one of those games where you have to tip your hat to your opponent,” Sivills said. “When they shoot (71)% for the game, there’s not a lot you can do. I keep telling everybody, ‘We shot 50% for the game.’ We didn’t play bad. They just played better.”

Starting 5: Recapping last week's news around the city, including Ballard softball's record-setting win

McCracken County will lose four of its top six scorers to graduation, including Sivills’ daughter, Caroline. She has signed to play volleyball at Shorter University, an NCAA Division II school in Rome, Georgia.

But Scott Sivills is confident the Mustangs will be competitive next season with current juniors Claire Johnson (17.0 ppg) and Mikee Buchanan (12.4 ppg) both returning.

“Probably the top two players in our region … and we have some good young pieces back,” Sivills said. “I think we’ll be in the hunt.”

Jason Frakes: 502-582-4046; jfrakes@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @kyhighs.

Past Courier Journal Girls Basketball Coaches of the Year 

1975 – Bunny Daugherty, Sacred Heart; 1976 – Daugherty, Sacred Heart; 1977 – Peggy Fiehrer, Butler; 1978 – Roy Bowling, Laurel County; 1979 – Bowling, Laurel County; 1980 – David Young, Allen County-Scottsville.

1981 – Dan Hempel, Clark County; 1982 – Charlie Just, Mercy; 1983 – Vanous Lloyd, Warren Central; 1984 – Howard Beth, Marshall County; 1985 – Beth, Marshall County; 1986 – (tie) Teresa Ashby Terry, Madisonville; Beth, Marshall County; 1987 – Bill Brown, Southern; 1988 – Bowling Laurel County; 1989 – (tie) Ken Smith, Manual; Dave Weedman, Oldham County; 1990 – B.J. Elswick, Elkhorn City.

1991 – Leslie Scully, Mercy; 1992 – Jerry Troutman, Bullitt East; 1993 – Barbara Kenney, Nicholas County; 1994 – Rick Powell, Holy Cross; 1995 – Beverly Roby, Marion County; 1996 – Mark Evans, Oldham County; 1997 – Tim Mudd, Elizabethtown; 1998 – Mike Kindred, Montgomery County; 1999 – Jim Wright, Shelby County; 2000 – John “Hop” Brown, West Carter.

2001 – Greg Parrett, Jackson County; 2002 – Donna Moir, Sacred Heart; 2003 – Moir, Sacred Heart; 2004 – Moir, Sacred Heart; 2005 – Chrysti Noble, Rockcastle County; 2006 – Steve Helton, Scott County; 2007 – Jason Seamands, Lexington Christian; 2008 – Mike Sowers, Paul Dunbar; 2009 – Mudd, Elizabethtown; 2010 – Trent Milby, Marion County.

2011 – Noble, Rockcastle County; 2012 – Sarah Van Horn, Paul Dunbar; 2013 – Milby, Marion County; 2014 – Larry Just, Butler; 2015 – Kes Murphy, Covington Holy Cross; 2016 – Just, Butler; 2017 – Chris Souder, Mercer County; 2018 – Souder, Mercer County; 2019 – Katie Haitz, Ryle; 2020 – Chris Stallings, Bullitt East.

2021 – Moir, Sacred Heart; 2022 – Moir, Sacred Heart; 2003 – Scott Sivills, McCracken County.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: KHSAA basketball: McCracken County's Scott Sivills voted coach of year