(Omaha) Guthrie Center native Jim Flanery is the head women’s basketball coach at Creighton. We tell his story this week on “Why I Coach.”
Flanery played for Creighton and was a philosophy major. He initially planned on going to law school, but…”I was thinking I was going to go to law school. I had kind of decided that was the path I was going to take and I couldn’t quite commit to it. I said ‘I’ll take a year and figure it out’ and I got into some volunteer coaching and put off law school a year. I just couldn’t quite commit to it again and got this volunteer coaching thing and did it another year and that’s sort of where I took off.”
His first paid coaching position was on the women’s staff at Loras under Connie Yori. Offered $3,500 per year as a graduate assistant in 1990, he jokes now that he couldn’t turn down that kind of money. “I was there a couple of years and ended up coming back to Creighton. I always enjoyed sports and thought I would maybe do something in sports, but I didn’t know I would coach until I was maybe 24 or 25.”
That philosophy background has been useful in coaching. “Trying to win games can absorb you and you invest so much in it. When you lose it can be pretty traumatic sometimes in the moment. The philosophy part of it is an hour later or a half day later whenever you decompress you can place it in context. And I also think it gives you a chance to relate to you players off the court and be able to place what sport and a game is in the context of their larger life.”
Flanery admits he loves the creativity of coaching basketball, enjoys the way working around young kids helps keep him young, and of course the competitive nature of the gig. “It’s tough to win at the level we are trying to win at the Division I level. Everyone is recruiting at the highest level they can and they are putting resources into their facilities and their training. It’s competitive. I think that appeals to me to, because I had a bit of a temper growing up and I think it was most often manifested in sports. So I think that competitive side is something that was appealing in the beginning and it still is appealing.”
Flanery’s path to the head coaching job at Creighton included 10 years as an assistant under Yori before she moved on to Nebraska and Flanery received the promotion. That was 20 seasons ago. Flanery has won 379 games and has gone to the NCAA Tournament five times. Despite all of the success, Flanery take perhaps the most pride in his program’s retention rate. “We’ve been really good at retaining players. To me that’s a function of what a great school Creighton is and what a great college experience is provided by the university, but it also is a reflection of how we treat our players and how we set up things and what our culture is. Do we match the expectations that we set in recruiting? I think it’s really easy to promise a lot during the recruiting process and then under deliver when they get hear and treat them differently, but we went 13 years from 2008 to 2021 without losing a kid to a transfer.”
The Bluejays turned heads this past season with NCAA Tourney upsets over both 8th ranked Iowa and 10th rated Iowa State. “That was a lot of fun.” Flanery says, “To come back in front of 15,000 screaming Hawkeye fans was an unbelievable experience and a great win for our program. To go on and be able to beat Iowa State in a Sweet 16. We have a lot of respect for both of those programs.” He adds, “Just a tremendous couple of weeks for our players and the program as a whole. We hadn’t ever been that far and we had so many alums show up in Greensboro for our Iowa State and South Carolina games. That was really neat.”
https://soundcloud.com/hyoach/jim-flanery-why-i-coach
Previous Coaches
(Click to listen)
John Kesselring, Adair-Casey alum
Eric Maassen, (AHST grad) Sheldon
Jerome Hoegh, Atlantic grad (West Sioux)
Gaylord Schelling, Atlantic and Tri-Center
Dick Strittmatter, Atlantic native
Chad Klein, Audubon Native (Kuemper Catholic and Boone)
In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Monte Riebhoff)
In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Steve Ahrendsen)
In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Scott Weber)
In Memory of Bob Monahan, Audubon (Curt Mace)
Steve Pelzer, Cumberland-Massena
Andy Hensley, Cumberland-Massena grad (Tri-Center)
Jason Mehrhoff, Anita Native (Carlisle)
Eric Hjelle, Elk Horn-Kimballton grad (Underwood)
Brett Watson, Elk Horn-Kimballton alum (Waukee Northwest)
Warren Watson, Elk Horn-Kimballton
Chris Stimson, Elk Horn-Kimballton
Scott Yates, Elk Horn-Kimballton
Jan Jensen, Elk Horn-Kimballton alum
Seth Poldberg, EH-K grad and Guthrie Center coach
Marc Bierbaum, Griswold grad and Iowa Western track/cross country assistant
Trevor Gipple, (Griswold grad) SW Valley
Jim Flanery, Guthrie Center alum (Creighton women’s basketball)
Curt Schulte, Harlan graduate (Glenwood)
Liz Stein, Harlan graduate (Audubon and Underwood)
Angie Spangenberg, Harlan and Red Oak
Eric Stein (Harlan grad) Iowa Central
Darrell Burmeister, Nodaway Valley
Lanny Kliefoth, Nodaway Valley
Dan Schleisman, Shelby-Tennant and Treynor
Chad Harder, (Walnut Grad) Tri-Center
Josh Abel, (Walnut grad), Tri-Center
Kevin Suhr, (Walnut Grad) Blue Valley High School, KS
