Anderegg steps down at Jasper

July 05, 2008 01:15 am

— By Anvil Welch
awelch@joplinglobe.com
Kent Anderegg, head boys basketball coach at Jasper High School for the past 10 seasons, is scaling back a bit at the Spring River Valley Conference school.
Anderegg is stepping down but is remaining in athletics with duties at the junior high level in basketball and football. Anderegg, in football, will assist good friend David Osborne (who had been his assistant in basketball).
Chad Harris, Anderegg’s replacement as head coach, is familiar to many in the Jasper community.
Harris, a 1995 Jasper graduate, has been at Sarcoxie, also a member of the SRVC, for the past seven years. The Missouri Southern graduate assisted Mike Arnold for one season as girls coach before moving into position as head coach.
“I just got tired of the grind. It’s four months of your life (each season),” Anderegg, who also teaches social studies, said on Friday. “I love basketball and working with kids. I still will be involved. I’m taking it one year at a time.
“I can’t complain at all,” Anderegg said of his years as head coach. “The last seven years have been wonderful (the Eagles have finished with winning records during that span). The administration overall has been very supportive.”
Anderegg, 35, assisted Bill Hodge — the current Jasper principal — for one season before assuming the reins.
Anderegg is a graduate of Labette County High School and Pittsburg State. He began his coaching career by helping Brad Smith at LCHS for one year while attending PSU.
The coaching change should allow Anderegg to spend more time with his family — wife Julie and daughter Marla, 16 months. The former Julie Fisher, from Joplin, teaches at College Heights Christian School.
Anderegg, who played a year of tennis at Labette Community College of Parsons, guided Jasper to a SRVC title and a Class 2 district title in 2006-07.
Harris, who will be 31 on Sept. 17, is married to the former Candace Holder of Miller. They have a son, Jake, 2.
Harris started two years at Jasper under Steve Hummel as a junior and Brent Cooper.
“I’m extremely excited,” Harris said. “The Eagles really have come on in basketball and Coach Anderegg has built a strong program.
“We’ve had our team camp and we’ve gone to the Reeds Spring Shootout,” Harris said. “We have some talent among the several lettermen. We should have quickness and depth. The players are basketball savvy. You can tell they’ve been competitive. Throw a ball out there and they get after it.”
Harris said his assistant, Dustin Young, a graduate assistant in baseball at Evangel, also will replace Rich Adkins as the Eagles’ baseball coach, Adkins is returning to PSU as a graduate assistant in football.