Three high school coaches earned coach of the year honors for their respective 2021-22 seasons.
Head softball coach Bill Finucane was named the Kansas High School Softball Coach of the Year, head track and field coach Joe Pickett was named the 4A Girls Track Coach of the Year and head cross-country coach Jim Barnard was named the 4A Girls Cross-Country Coach of the Year.
Finucane’s recognition comes fresh off the Cardinals’ 23-2 season that saw them deliver the first state softball title in the school’s history. He said the personal honor was a nice surprise.
“The first thing that comes to my mind is it’s humbling,” Finucane said. “That was something that I never really expected. So that was actually quite a surprise when I got that news.”
But Finucane said the honor shows the overall success of the program as a whole.
“The recognition is very nice,” he said. “But I take it as kind of a reflection on our program at Eudora High School in regards to the commitment by the assistant coaches, the players, the managers, administration, and all of them backing what we’re trying to do as coaches.”
Finucane also said being a model representation of the community through the softball team in every aspect gives him the greatest satisfaction as head coach.
“Hopefully we’re doing something right at Eudora and shows through when we compete on the field, when we get off the bus, when we load up the equipment after the game,” Finucane said. “People see that we’ve got a good program going, and we want to maintain that. That gives a sense of pride for not only the school and the players, but for the community.”
Finucane originally became a volunteer softball coach in support of his two daughters’ respective playing careers at the recreational level. He continued to coach his daughters at greater competitive levels until they finished playing before he took off a few years of coaching. He came back when the opportunity to coach at Eudora arose.
Pickett began coaching in 1998 when he began working for Eudora schools. Over the past 25 years, he’s coached basketball, football and track and field at the middle and high school levels. He became the head high school track and field coach in 2019 and led the girls’ team to a second-place finish at state in 2022.
Pickett said he was honored by the award, but also said it was a greater representation of the overall effort that everybody involved with track and field has put in.
“It means we as a group have achieved something,” Pickett said. “Someone has to be the guy that they hand the award to. Of course, I take on a role with some responsibilities that go above what I have done as an assistant, and there is a lot of time involved in those types of things. But it’s absolutely a team effort in terms of the coaches teaching their event and making each of their kids reach their potential. And you have to have talented kids.”
He said his goal as a head coach is to make it a good experience for student-athletes and seeing that come to fruition down the road is what gives him the most pride.
“Make sure that it’s a positive experience, something that they look back on and feel positive about,” Pickett said about his goals. “I think that validates that we were successful. If it’s something where I see them talking to one of the coaches and being excited to see a coach that they haven’t seen for a year or two, it just validates that we’re on the right track.”
Barnard previously coached cross country at Riley County High School for 11 years before coming to Eudora.
Now with six years under his belt as the Cardinal cross-country coach, Barnard’s past two seasons have seen high levels of success. After a state title in 2021, Barnard led them to back-to-back 4A Girls cross-country state championships with another state championship in 2022.
Like Pickett, Barnard said the award was more of a reflection of the work that’s been put into the program to achieve the high levels of success that have become commonplace.
“I’m not a person that looks for the spotlight or the limelight, I don’t need that,” Barnard said. “I think it just reflects on the fact that we have kids that work hard. But I feel like it’s more of an award that kind of is a reflection of the whole program and not just me.”
Barnard said making a difference in student-athletes’ lives is an aspect he focuses on as a coach.
“Knowing that we’ve impacted their entire life, and we’ve given them something that they can do for the rest of their life, that gives me a lot of enjoyment and a lot of pride,” he said.
Reach reporter Nathan Swaffar at [email protected].
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