Two-time Kentucky state champion basketball coach seriously hurt tubing on Missouri lake

Mercer County High School girls basketball coach Chris Souder, who led the team to back-to-back state championships a few years ago, was seriously injured in a tubing accident Tuesday while on vacation in Missouri, officials said.

Missouri State Police said in a report that the accident occurred at Lake of the Ozarks when an inner tube being pulled by a pontoon got too close to a dock, and struck the dock, ejecting two skiers on the tube.

The report said Souder, 58, received “serious” injuries and was taken to the hospital.

Mercer County Superintendent Jason Booher told the Herald-Leader on Thursday afternoon that Souder and his wife, Carmen, were on the tube. Booher said as far as he knew, Carmen Souder was “OK.”

Booher said Souder sustained serious injuries to his hip and pelvic bone and will have surgery in Missouri before returning to Kentucky.

“He texted me last night and said, ‘We are both just lucky to be alive.’ He followed that with ‘the good Lord must have not been ready for us yet.’ We wish them the best of luck and a speedy recovery. We also look forward to him being back on the sidelines soon for us,” Booher told the Herald-Leader.

At Mercer County High School, Souder’s teams won state championships in 2017 and 2018.

He then coached at South Laurel High School in Laurel County and, between the two schools, was a seven time regional champion, according to Mercer County officials. Last month, Souder left South Laurel to coach Mercer County High School again.

Souder went 490-214 in 19 seasons in his first stint at Mercer, according to WLEX, then went 136-63 in six seasons at South Laurel, where his teams made two Sweet 16 appearances.

“We hired him around three to four weeks ago to bring him back home,” Booher said.