Jim Thomas, former Lexington Minutemen Boys Basketball Coach, who had a great deal of success as a coach at two different High Schools, is a member of both the Missouri Basketball Coach’s Association and the Lexington Athletic Hall of Fames. Jim was the Head Basketball Coach at Slater for 7 years and at Lexington for 16 years. His teams won a total of 338 games in his 23 years of coaching, had 9 District Championships, 9 State Sectional appearances, 3 State Quarterfinal appearances, and one second place State finish.

Talk about your early years at Slater as a Basketball and Football Coach.

I started out as an Assistant Coach at Slater for 3 years, and then during the 1975-76 school year, I became both the Head Football and Basketball Coach there. My Football team had winning seasons in each of my first two years, and my Basketball team had two great years.

Your Slater Boys Basketball Team won the District your first two years.

In 1975-76, we beat Centralia in a District Championship game, beat Unionville in a State Sectional contest, and then lost to St James in the Quarterfinals. In 1976-77, we again won our District, but we lost to a very strong Palmyra team in the first round of State. We started the same 5 players both of those years, as we had two All State players in Speedy White and Alan Falls, and our other starters were Keith Broyles, Rodney Soper and Tom Puester.

Your Slater Team finished second in the State in Class 2 in 1979-1980.

We beat a very strong Concordia team in the District Championship game, and then beat Butler and Smithville in our first two State games . In the Final Four at the Hearnes Arena in Columbia, we beat Willow Springs in a Semi Final contest, but we lost to a very strong Scott County Central team in the State Title game. Our star player was Joe Kleine, who was definitely one of the top players in the entire State in all classes. Two of our other starters were David Hayes and Terry Sullivan, both of whom were All Conference and All District players. The other two starters were Gary Allen and Mike Meyers. Our only other two losses that year were to Glasgow, who was the Class 1 State Champion.

What kind of Player was Joe Kleine, and what kind of Person is he?

Joe was a three time All State player in High School, scoring 1001 points his Senior year alone, and over 2500 points in his career. In College, he played one year at Notre Dame and three years for the Arkansas Razorbacks. He was 6’11, and played for fifteen years in the NBA with the Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls. Joe had great basketball skills, worked very hard, had a great attitude, was a good team player, and was very coachable. He was even a better person, as he is kind to all, has always stood up for the underdog, and has always been very humble as a person. Joe lives in Arkansas and has also had a very successful career outside of Basketball, and is a College Basketball Television broadcaster on the side.

In 1980-81, you started three Sophomores but again won a District Title.

We lost many good players from the year before, with Senior Gary Allen being our only returning varsity starter. Along with him we started three Sophomores, Walter Belcher, Craig McCoy and Chris Harper. We started out slowly but got better, as the year progressed. We were seeded fifth in the District Tournament, but we made it to the Championship game and we upset number one seeded Higginsville on their floor for the District Title. Higginsville had only lost two games all season before that.

In 1982, you left Slater and came to Lexington as Head Basketball Coach.

Lexington has always been my home, and I looked forward to coming back here to teach and coach. However, it was tough to leave Slater, because I had some good Basketball players returning, who went 55-3 over the next two years, and finished second in State Your 1988-89 Lexington Basketball team had a banner year didn’t they?

In 1988-89 we were MRVC Conference Tri-Champions, and we beat Higginsville for the District Championship at Holden. We lost our first round State game to Warsaw by one point on a buzzer beater in Sedalia. We were 25-4 that year, which is a school record for wins. Lexington also won a State Football and a Boys State Track Championship that year. Key players on the Basketball team were Chris Brooks, Ted Martin, Chad Buford, Shane Dickmeyer, Shane Weedman, Jim Pohle and Rodney Boland.

You also won a couple of District Tournaments in the early 1990s.

During the 1991-92 season, we beat Higginsville in the District Championship game at Salisbury, and then we lost our first round State game to Eugene at Sedalia. Our starters that year were Sean Kaullen, Kent Kaullen, Rick Kitchell, Terry Smith and Doug Long, and they were 17-12 for the year. In 1993-94, we beat Higginsville again for a District Title, but dropped our first State game to Fatima of Westphalia at Rock Bridge High School. Our starters were Kent Kaullen, Clifton Harris, Kyle Kaullen, Matt Sullivan, Adam Langdon, and sometimes James Worthington, and they were 23-6 overall.

Your 1994-95 Minutemen surprised many people and won a District Title.

We were not a real strong team during the regular season, but we peaked and were really good at the end of the year. We upset number one seeded Smithville on their court to win the District Championship. We beat South Harrison in a State game in St Joe, and then lost a quarterfinal game to Skyline of Urbana, who finished second in the State. Our starters were Scott Hall, Tim Morgan, James Worthington, Adam Langdon and Ben Houseworth, who were all good friends, and played very well together, and we were 1713 overall.

You were also an Assistant Football Coach on some very good teams.

I was an Assistant Football Coach, under Head Coach Gil Rector, for three State Championship teams including: the 1984 team that beat Berkeley at Arrowhead Stadium, the 1988 team that beat John Burroughs in Springfield, and the 1995 team that tied John Burroughs in Joplin, along with many other very good Football teams, and many outstanding players and coaches.

What does it mean to you to be a member of the Missouri Basketball Coach’s and the Lexington Athletic Hall of Fames?

I am very honored to be a member of the Basketball Coach’s Hall of Fame, because it feels good to be recognized by my coaching peers, from across the State, for doing a good job and being successful. I am also proud and honored to be a member of the Minutemen Athletic Hall of Fame, and to be recognized by coaches, former athletes and others from my Community. I owe being inducted into both of these Hall of Fames, mainly to the many athletes that I coached, as they are the ones who made our teams so successful.