Accomplished, according to Websters Dictionary, is something, or someone that is established beyond doubt or dispute. In the eyes of many in the Nebraska high school girls basketball world, former Sandy Creek girls basketball coach Russ Ninemire could certainly be termed as an accomplished coach.
But in the eyes, and heart of Coach Ninemire, he feels accomplished because of the many student-athletes, and coaches that he’s had the luxury of coaching, and coaching with.
Ninemire has reached many milestones in his 45-year coaching career, and his most recent milestone came Tuesday, Jan. 2, when his Douglas County West girls earned a 54-48 win over Logan View-Scribner-Syder. It wasn’t just any win, it was his 639th career win, putting him at the top of the list of legendary coaches in Nebraska Girls Basketball history, as his team’s Jan. 2 win put him one win above another legend of the girls game, John Larsen, who coached at Lincoln Southeast, before retiring from the game in 2022 at Crete High School.
Ninemire, when asked, what his most memorable highlight of his storied career still goes back to when his 1991 Sandy Creek girls basketball team won the first of 10 eventual state championships in his 40-year career as the head coach at Sandy Creek.
“That state championship started something magical at Sandy Creek. But more than winning the state championship that year, it began a time frame in my career that developed some amazing young ladies careers in the real world,” Ninemire said.
“When I started coaching at Sandy Creek in 1977, girls basketball wasn’t the best. We struggled for the first 12 or 13 years, but when the 1991 team won the state title, our program took off.”
Sandy Creek was, in fact, 78-149 during Ninemire’s first 13 seasons at the helm, but from the 1991 season, until Ninemire left Sandy Creek in 2017, closing out his career at Sandy Creek with 583 career wins, 10 state championships leading the Cougars.
His 500th career win was a 57-44 win over Fillmore Central, which occured Dec. 17, 2011.
HALL OF FAME CAREER
Ninemire was inducted into the Nebraska High School Hall of Fame in 2018, but his story runs much deeper. He was nominated twice as the national coach of the year in girls basketball. He earned a national championship while coaching the 1997 National AAU team to the national title.
Ninemire has served as president of the Nebraska Coaches Association, an association that in 1997 named Ninemire as the coach of the year. That same year, “Coach Nine” was also tabbed as the coach of the year by the Omaha World-Herald, the Lincoln Journal-Star, and by Huskerland Preps mastermind, Bob Jensen.
He also earned coach of the year honors in 2011 by the NCA, and in 2012 by Huskerland Preps.
The summer after Ninemire retired at Sandy Creek, he also had the luxury of being the head coach in the McDonald’s All-American team in 2017, where he coached 12 of the 24 elite girls basketball players in the United States that season.
But in the end, as Ninemire shared in an interview with the Clay County News, Thursday, Jan. 4, “what I think is the best of the best in my career is the kids and coaches that I’ve been blessed to work with, and most of all, my wife Jodi. Without her, and my kids, this life wouldn’t be near what is has been.”
“Wins are wins, but getting to this point of my career wouldn’t have been nearly as possible without the support of my wife, my kids and certainly my mom Jean, who at 92 years young is still going strong,” Ninemire said.
“THE GAS TANK IS STILL FULL” For the past five seasons, Ninemire has been in rebuild mode with his Douglas County West girls team.
“When I took over the DC West program, we basically hit the restart button to the program. We’re still working on things, but we’re getting better day-by-day, week-by-week.”
Ninemire’s 2022-23 team finished the year with a 15-11 record and reached the Class C-1 district final round, where they ran into a buzzsaw, Bridgeport, in the C1-2 final, losing 71-41 to the eventual Class C-1 third place team in the 2023 state tournament.
The 70-year old Ninemire shared, “as long as my health is good, I plan on coaching and teaching, so the gas tank is still full, and Jodi and my family still support me doing what I love, working with kids.”
Ninemire added, “my wife told me that when the day comes that I do decide to retire for good, that I’m not just going to sit around and watch television, so why should I even entertain the idea of retiring when I love what I do for a living, and my health still allows for me to do what I love doing.”
“A lot of people don’t give my wife a great deal of credit, but I tell you what, she and I have had a lot of talks over the course of my career, and she tells me what she’s thinking, whether or not I like what she’s telling me, or not. She is my rock, and everything that I’ve accomplished in my career as a coach and teacher is in large part, because of her,” exclaimed Ninemire.
STANDOUT PEOPLE For Ninemire in reflection about his career to this point, he goes back to the successes that his players, and fellow coaches have. “It’s far more than just wins for me. I’ve been so lucky to coach, teach, and work with some amazing people. That 2000 team had five academic all-state players.”
Ninemire named a few of the successes his players and fellow coaches have had, including Carrie (Hoffstetter) Eighmey, who is currently the head coach at the University of Idaho.
“My daughter, is the Senior Associate Athletic Director of Athletic Performance and Physical Therapist at the University of Nebraska- Omaha. Gosh, look at Amber (Shaw) Dolliver, she’s a principal and very successful volleyball coach. Brittney Price is a principal, and Abbie Onken is a doctor. I could talk hours and hours about the characters of players that I’ve coached, and it is character that is truly the backbone and highlight of my career. The wins are nice, but to know that I had a small part of building the character of so many student-athletes, that’s the milestone and highlight of my career so far.”
Ninemire went on to share that coaches like Jeremy Borer and Matt Swartzendrueber are like his own sons. “Jeremy and Matt were both at the game at Logan View to watch me get my 639th win, and that meant the world to me, but those guys are like my own kids.”
Ninemire added, “I feel they’ve done phenominal work at Sandy Creek, Jeremy’s work with the digital media is like no other digital program in the state and the kids that he’s guiding in that program certainly have a great one in their corner. Matt as the athletic director has done some amazing things for Sandy Creek as well. Cougar Nation is lucky to have those guys in their corner.”
