McFall quits as Collinsville girls coach
- Paul Kopsky/STLhighschoolSPORTS.com | Steve McFall coached at Collinsville for 12 years.
COLLINSVILLE • After a long discussion with his wife Carol, Steve McFall, the winningest coach in Collinsville High girls basketball history, decided it was time for him to resign.
“Carol and I spent lots of nights talking about it,” he admitted. “But eventually you look in the mirror and you say ’the kids are getting younger and I’m not.’ She just said there has to be a time. Eventually you have to say ’you gotta walk away.’”
McFall, 63, coached the Kahoks for 12 years compiling a 215-124 record and winning three regional titles. Collinsville was 13-14 this past season.
McFall had been an assistant coach at Collinsville for the boys team with former coach Bob Bone before taking over the girls program from Paul Harrington beginning with the 1998-99 season.
“These guys (pointing to his assistant coaches Lori Billy, Kevin Robinson and Kelley Liljegren) made it tough (to resign),” he said. “Basketball is an eight-month job now and they are your closest friends. That made it tough.”
Although he re-affirmed his decision to leave while vacationing for a week in Florida (“I called Carol one night and said I’m at peace with it”), he did not tell any of his players or their parents during the team’s season-ending banquet Sunday night.
Instead he told his team he would meet with them at 3 p.m. Monday where he disclosed his plans. Most of the 19 girls on the varsity roster left the conference room in Vergil Fletcher Gymnasium in tears.
“It was hard (to tell them),” McFall said. “They were both (making the decision, and telling the girls) equally hard. You knew you were going to say good bye to good friends. But then walking in here today and looking at their faces, I guess that was disappointment.
“They were crying. That made it extremely difficult. I looked at them and you ache for them.”
While he felt compassion for the team, McFall said “eventually there has to come a time. I liked it all while coach. I liked the practices, the scouting, the preparation. I liked the people I competed against.”
He also had good praise for the officials.
“I even consider the officials my friends,” he said with a laugh. “I’m not sure they always considered me their friends. A lot of them are my friends.”
Finding a replacement for McFall, who will leave the coaching ranks after 40 years, won’t be easy. The job is up for grabs now and Billy, his junior varsity coach who has been with McFall since 1999, would be considered the front-runner for the job.
Before coaching at Collinsville, McFall taught and coached boys basketball and baseball at Dupo High and was an assistant men’s basketball coach at what is now McKendree University under longtime coach Harry Statham. McFall was also the baseball coach at Collinsville where he compiled a 294-191 record from 1990-2004.
“When I left the boys job, I thought that this was just kind of a bridge,” he said. “Well it turned out to be more than that. I was surprised how much I liked it.”
