The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame honored two Republic coaches Thursday at its basketball tip-off luncheon, inducting Gary Stanfield into the Hall and recognizing Sara Bos Barnhart as one of its “Filbert Five” standout former players for her career at Billings and Drury.
Stanfield was inducted into the Hall of Fame for his coaching career at five southwest Missouri high schools and at Drury College. Of the five teams he coached in high school, four of them advanced to a Final Four.
“The one that we didn’t go is the first one (Weaubleau). I guess I’m egotistic enough to say that if I would have known what I learned even six years later…I think we could have got there with that group. I think you do learn and the kids benefit.”
Stanfield won a state championship at Springfield Hillcrest in 1984 before moving to Drury, where he eventually led the Panthers to a national Sweet 16. He retired from coaching, then returned to the bench in Republic in 2008. He helped the Tigers reach the Final Four in 2010, where they finished fourth.
“I didn’t see 2010 any different than any other year. You just do the best you can. The kids work hard. They all wanted to do that. They all wanted to win that last game. You want them to feel good about themselves…if they get out in the semis, if they go out in the finals, you want them to feel good about it as they look back,” Stanfield says. “I think we did it the right way and I think all of my teams would say they were proud of what they did. They worked hard, made things better, and sometimes there’s a better team on the other end.”
Stanfield says he sees his induction as a reflection of the “outstanding” people he’s worked with over the years.
“In the coaching ranks we always say that it takes good players to make good coaches. I had good players, and to have good players, you have to have good parents,” he says. “If you have the opportunity, then, to put all that together, more often than not, good things happen. In this particular career, that happened a lot: I had good parents, good players–a perfect storm…maybe not in the sense of all state championships, but what you work for is to put together every team that has a chance to do that, and we did that.”
Barnhart, who coaches the Republic 7th grade girls team this season after three years as the freshman coach, was honored for her standout career at Billings and Drury. As a Wildcat, she graduated with most of Billings’ major girls basketball records, including the record for career scoring.
“It means a lot,” she says of her recognition. “It was definitely unexpected when I got the phone call. It’s a great honor and I’m humbled by it.”
Barnhart says she applies a lot of the lessons from her playing days as a coach at Republic now, but one thing stands out.
“Defense. Defense took me to the Elite 8 (at Drury). Defense took me to the Final Four in AAU basketball. It’s defense for sure,” she says.
Barnhart will be on the sidelines coaching for Republic tonight as the Middle School Lady Tigers host Willard.
