This year has been filled with milestones for Craig Engelbrecht, head varsity boys basketball coach for the decorated Eugene Eagles.
He celebrated his 500th varsity win. The 1992 Eagles team celebrated the 25th anniversary of taking second place at state high school basketball championships. The current varsity team earned the Show Me Conference title in early February.
These accolades join seven district titles, numerous conference titles, and, for Engelbrecht, the Class 3 District 8 Coach of the Year Award in 2013-14 after 27 years of coaching at Eugene High School.
However, he added one more item to the list in early January: his retirement from teaching.
Even though after this school year he won't be a daily presence in the gymnasium teaching physical education, Engelbrecht will continue to coach the boys basketball team. He is thankful for his 33 years as an educator, especially at his alma mater.
His ultimate goal was to return to the area where he grew up. That is where he played high school basketball and baseball; met his high school sweetheart and now wife of nearly 27 years, Kelli; and where his family planted its roots.
Teaching and working with school districts was a family occupation - his mother taught 31 years at Russellville, his father became a custodian after years working at the MFA Feed Mill in Eugene, and his brother taught at Jefferson City and now at Ozark Christian College.
"We all went into education in some way. It makes it easy when your mom is a teacher. She takes out that red pen and grades all your papers, and then you have nothing left," Engelbrecht said with a laugh.
After graduating in 1979, Engelbrecht attended now University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, earning his bachelor's degree in physical education with a minor in speech and drama and English in 1983. He then took classes at the University of Missouri in Columbia and Lincoln University, earning certification to teach K-12 physical education.
"I got my first job teaching at Russellville schools in 1984. The only reason I got a job there was because of Jack Brumley, who was in administration at the time, and because of my mom, who taught there. He liked her style of teaching and thought he would give me a try," he said. "She taught English and speech and drama, too. I guess I kind of followed in her footsteps."
While teaching English at Russellville, he also delved into his first coaching jobs for the girls basketball and junior high boys basketball and baseball teams. Knowing he wanted to coach, he studied books from coaching greats such as Dean Smith, Jerry Tarkanian and Norm Stewart, all of which still line the shelves at his current office next to the Eugene High School gymnasium.
An opportunity to teach and coach came up at his alma mater, and Engelbrecht secured a job teaching English and speech and drama. For 20-some years, Engelbrecht enjoyed educating students on these subjects, including putting on an annual spring play. He felt orchestrating a theatrical performance was much like coaching a basketball team.
"To me, it is just like a basketball game. You are trying to put people on the stage in the right positions, get them to move, get them to tell the story," he said. "It is like building a team."
He then was able to teach physical education, carrying on those team-building skills during team sports classes and implementing new activities into classes, such as weightlifting and body weight exercises.
"As far as physical education, I just want to get every kid to participate. I think that is what everybody is trying to stress: Be physically active. Get that time in to take care of yourself," he said.
During his first three years at Eugene, Engelbrecht also coached junior varsity basketball and baseball, before taking the role as head varsity boys basketball coach in 1990. Like one of his own mentors, the late junior high basketball coach Kenny Martin, building those teams is also building the school's sports program.
"We all loved him. He worked us hard, but he was fair. And we learned to develop those relationships with people," Engelbrecht said of Martin. "I had really good junior high teams, and you knew if they kept developing they were going to be really good in high school. That is where I start: Build your team, and build your program."
Last fall, Engelbrecht helped in a new intramural basketball program for Eugene elementary students, with teams coached by high school athletes. This year, Engelbrecht saw a young frontline of eight varsity players - six juniors, one senior and one freshman - rise to the occasion in the second half of their season with 15 wins and the Show Me Conference championship.
"We have a mantra in Eugene basketball: 'We play hard, we play smart, we play together and we play fast.' If you look at all those things, it all comes back to working together as a team but always giving your best," he said. "I instill that in the program, but I tell the kids, 'It is going to work in your life, too.' There is going to be a quarter where things just aren't working well, and there is going to be a time in your life where things just aren't working well. You just can't give up. You put one foot in front of the other and keep plugging ahead, eventually some things start working out."
Those relationships he has built with students and athletes have shown they don't give up in life. Many former students coach beginner basketball teams, act as referees for student sporting events, and have taken his words to heart as they grow their careers, families and lives. He often sees them at school events, in the community and most recently at a 25th anniversary celebration of the 1992 basketball team's second-place finish in the state championships during this year's Homecoming game in January.
His whole family has seen the success of education at Eugene. His wife is now the director of the Eldon Career Center. His son and a 2014 graduate, Christian, is a paraprofessional in Eldon, and his daughter, Katelyn, a senior, played basketball and decided to attend the same university as her father to pursue speech pathology.
For Engelbrecht, he is thankful for teaching and coaching in the area he grew up in.
"God has taken care of me, and I've had very good support. As you can tell, you don't win these kind of games without great people and great players to keep these things going," he said. "It is so good to keep track of these guys. They come to watch the games and they have a son or a daughter playing, and I can talk to them. After the Homecoming game I was able to talk to them, see their families and know they were doing well. Maybe they learned something from this little time you had with them in their lives."