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July 26, 2010

JUCO MEN'S BASKETBALL: Meeks takes helm at Wallace State

New Lions coach led Louisburg to NJCAA tournament last season

Staff Reports The Cullman Times

HANCEVILLE — John Meeks has accepted the position as men’s head basketball coach at Wallace State, President Vicki Hawsey announced this week.

 “I am confident that Coach Meeks will continue to move our program forward, building on the outstanding success of Coach Allen Sharpe,” Hawsey said.

Meeks joins Wallace State from Louisburg College, where his overall record since 2008 was 51-15.

During the 2009-2010 season, the Hurricanes were NJCAA Region X Tournament champions, and advanced to the Final Eight of the NJCAA Tournament.

With a record that year of 29-7, Meeks was named 2010 District 15 Coach of the Year.

“Allen did a great job and left some major shoes to fill,” said Meeks. “Wallace State has a first class program in athletics, academics, and in the community. The sky’s the limit to what we can accomplish here.”

Sharpe took over as head coach at Arkansas-Monticello in May after five years at Wallace State. During his tenure, he established a 136-30 record and led the Lions their first NJCAA National Tournament appearance, where they finished fifth. The Lions enjoyed a perfect season in 2008-2009 and were ranked No. 1 in the nation.

Meeks said he’s already hit the ground running, working on recruiting players to fill available slots on the team. Ten of his former players advanced to professional participation, and a number have received All-American, All-Conference and All-Region honors.

His experience has included instruction, and he considers himself not only a coach but also a teacher, stressing that student-athletes remember the reason for attending college first must be academic preparation leading to a degree.

Meeks said the elements he believes are necessary to create a winning team are an intolerance of selfishness, team, loyalty, sacrifice, motivation, effort, discipline, enthusiasm, pride and confidence.

In his “Guidelines for Success”, Meeks’ states: “The difference between true confidence and cockiness is hours of hard work and practice. We will gain confidence as the season progresses at a faster rate than anyone else because we will outwork them every day.”

Meeks said he asks his players to “exude a passion for perfection” but “not to play with fear of doing something wrong”, rather to “play with confidence and enjoy the feeling.”

Prior to Louisburg, Meeks served three years as an assistant coach at NAIA Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn. During his final season there, the Flames finished 33-2 with a Southern States Athletic Conference Championship and an Elite Eight finish at the NAIA National Tournament.

Meeks experience also includes serving as assistant men’s basketball coach at Martin Methodist College and as assistant men’s basketball coach and  head men’s junior varsity basketball coach at Bluefield College in Virginia.

In eight years of collegiate coaching he accumulated more than 200 wins with six national tournament appearances.

Meeks holds a master’s degree in education from the University of Houston, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Bluefield College.

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