Fletchall named Barton men's basketball coach
Craig Fletchall was named as the new men's basketball coach at Barton County Community College Wednesday afternoon when the college's Board of Trustee approved his hiring at its monthly meeting. Fletchall becomes the school's 11th men's basketball coach, replacing Dave Campbell, who resigned after two years at the Cougar's coach.
Coach Fletchall comes to Barton County from Neosho County, where he has spent the past 5 seasons as the coach of the Panthers. This past season Coach Fletchall guided Neosho to the Region VI finals for the 1st time in school history. His 5-year mark at Neosho was 101-58. This season the Panthers jumped to a 17-1 start to the season before finishing with a regular season mark of 23-7. Neosho then knocked off 3-time defending Region VI Champion Coffeyville in the semifinals, 74-59. Upstart Pratt ended Neosho's season in the Region VI Championship game, 77-65. Neosho was ranked as high as No. 12 this year – the highest ranking in school history.
Coach Fletchall is 2-1 life time against Barton, including a 69-68 overtime win this past December as well as ending Barton's string of 50 straight non-conference home wins in 2002. Neosho defeated the then unbeaten and No. 1 ranked Cougars 100-98 in double overtime at the Walnut Bowl/Cougar Booster Club Classic.
Coach Fletchall has spent most of his career in the Jayhawk Conference and it's surrounding communities. He grew up in Hutchinson and went to college at Wichita State University and Fort Hays State University. He spent 11 seasons in the high school ranks, winning a state title at Hutch Trinity in 1987. Trinity was where Coach Fletchall started his coaching career, going 40-9 in his 2 seasons with the state title in 1987. After winning the state title, Coach Fletchall moved on to Wichita Kapaun Mount Carmel where he guided the Crusaders for three seasons before taking the job at Shawnee Mission East. In his 6 years at East, his clubs went 86-47 and posted the school record for number of wins at 19 in his final season in 1996. His teams won back-to-back Sub State titles (the only time in school history). He earned league Coach of the Year honors at Trinity (1987) and East (1993). Coach Fletchall was 146-99 in his 11 seasons at the high school level.
He began his service in the Jayhawk Conference as an assistant at Cowley County for 3 seasons. The Tigers set the school record for wins in 2 of those 3 seasons. In 1998 – Coach Fletchall's initial season at Cowley – the Tigers won 25 games only to better that mark in 2000 at 26. From there he moved on to Neosho where be took the Panthers to within a game of the NJCAA National Tournament.
In addition to the success of his teams on the court, Coach Fletchall's teams have had great success in the classroom as well. Each of his teams have had a 3.0 GPA or higher and 34 of the 35 sophomores have graduated from Neosho during his tenure. In 2001his team had the highest GPA in NJCAA Division I. The team was also honored as an Academic All-American team in 2002 when Neosho had the 4th highest GPA at the division I men's basketball level.
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