LENNIES MCFERREN: NMCC COACH STRESSES DISCIPLINE AND DEFENSE

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- Adorned in a light brown suit, brown shoes and wire-rim glasses, the 51-year-old coach emerges from the locker room and calmly walks past his bench. He's been here hundreds of times. He is small in stature but intimidating. He looks experienced, intelligent and, more than anything, confident.

That's why he's so good, you say to yourself. He's a cool customer. Players just respond to his aura. He exudes confidence without saying a word.

Then you hear his voice. Deeper and louder than you would've ever imagined, his vocal chords overpower the gymnasium.

That's it, you say. That's why he's so good. It's that voice. No player could ever challenge the authority of that voice.

Then you take your eyes off the coach for a minute and watch his team play.

That's it. It's the defense. He gets the players to play great defense.

Just when you think you've made up your mind on why Lennies McFerren is one of the greatest coaches to ever pace the hardwood in the state of Missouri, you observe a practice. You notice that one of his players answers with "yes, sir" and "no, sir." You notice that no one talks, nobody, when the coach is talking.

That's it; he's a great disciplinarian.

You notice the attention to detail, the constant explaining, instructing and yelling. You notice how the players listen and how they react.

That's it; he's a great teacher.

Psychologist, teacher, motivator -- Lennies McFerren is all these things. And that's why after he retires at the end of this season, his coaching legacy will be remembered for generations.

The proof

Just how good of a coach is McFerren? In his first year as a head coach, in the 1977-78 season, the Charleston Bluejays took fourth in state. His second year they took second. In his third year, Charleston won the Class 3A championship. It would become the first of his eight state titles, which includes one last year at New Madrid County Central.

Charleston won a state title in 1996, the year after McFerren left, but many believe that great season was the result of the leftovers from his dynasty.

Since then, Charleston has fielded some talented teams, but the Bluejays haven't hoisted the hardware since.

Meanwhile, McFerren moved to New Madrid, where he was allowed to get into administration as an assistant principal. He says he feels fortunate, but now he realizes why many schools don't allow administrators to be coaches.

"It's taken its toll," McFerren said. "This is my last year coaching, and I think the administration position has made me get out of it sooner than I really wanted because it takes so much time. You have to be really, really strong to do both."

In his time in the dual role, McFerren has had a huge effect on New Madrid. Dub Prince, who owns a barber shop downtown, talks basketball and cuts hair on the side.

"The underclassmen, especially, talk highly of him," said Prince, who believes the main reason McFerren has been so successful is a tough schedule. "They hate it that he's leaving."

It took McFerren six years to win a state title at New Madrid, six long years for a coach so accustomed to those March bus rides to Columbia.

But after all that has transpired Charleston's descent and New Madrid's ascent it is logical to assume that McFerren is the difference; the difference between a talented team and a state championship team.

McFerren has won 526 games and has lost only 167. He has been named the Missouri Coach of the Year four times and is a member of the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Basic discipline

Discipline is as fundamental a part of McFerren's basketball world as dribbling and passing.

He'll yell at players, make them run, even throw a ball at a player. Then he'll make them run some more and yell at them again. And then he'll make them run some more.

It's all about striving for a specific goal and letting everyone know who's boss.

McFerren definitely uses intimidation; there's something about the man that demands respect. And despite the tirades, despite all the line drills, the pain and the work, his players love him.

"He's not hard to play for to me," said Dereke Tipler, New Madrid's junior point guard who is arguably the best point guard in the region. "He'll yell at you a lot but you got to look past that. He might even throw a ball at you or something, but he'll make you a better player."

Last year, right before New Madrid's improbable state championship run, the Eagles endured a practice they'll never forget.

When asked what was the toughest practice he ever endured, New Madrid senior Byron Minner shook his head side to side, put his hand to his face, sighed and said, "Right before districts last year, man. We had a bad practice that day. He just noticed everything, I mean if you turned your back one time ... We just put the balls up after a while. There was no shooting, no offense. All defense."

But Minner understood the discipline. He always understands.

"I've been starting since my sophomore year," he said. "Everybody says he gets on you too much and that nobody's perfect. But perfection isn't what he wants, really. He wants you to do what he knows you can do and he won't settle for less."

That's exactly what McFerren is trying to get across to his players.

"Discipline goes way farther than the basketball court," he said. "I feel discipline is the reason why, as a coach, I've been successful."

McFerren said his best disciplinary tool is sitting players on the bench. He said he'd rather have a less-talented player on the court doing what he's been taught than a more talented player ignoring his instructions.

At one point during his tenure at Charleston, McFerren grew frustrated with his team. "They were doing their own thing," he said. So McFerren just sat idly and let his team self-destruct.

Charleston lost that game a game McFerren said it definitely should've been won but the team learned an important lesson: Every vessel needs a captain.

"I'm all about trying to let them see who's in charge of this ship," he said.

Charleston didn't lose another game that year.

The second 'D'

If discipline isn't McFerren's trademark, then defense is.

McFerren's teams always play aggressive and tactical defense.

It's a philosophy McFerren learned from his playing days under Three Rivers Community College coach Gene Bess, who is still the coach at TRCC and is about to become the winningest junior college coach in history.

Like Bess, McFerren is a stickler for detail.

At a recent practice, the Eagles were practicing a full-court defense in preparation for a game the next day. If a player was even a foot or two out of position, McFerren would let him know it.

"I wanna show you how stupid y'all are thinking out there," McFerren bellowed, his voice bouncing off the dome ceiling. McFerren went on to explain why that extra foot was so important. After he explained it, it all seemed so simple and logical.

"Do you feel stupid?" he asked a player.

The player answered yes.

"I work very hard on defense and take a lot of pride in it," McFerren said. "I know more about defense than I know about offense. I struggle in trying to teach offense, so we work on defense quite a bit more."

Joe Bill Davis, a longtime respected referee in Southeast Missouri, has officiated several of McFerren's games over the years.

"They're so disciplined and play such good defense," Davis said. "He loves it when the game is in the 50s or even the 40s because he knows he's got a good chance to win it when they're like that."

Davis will never forget one game he called. It came several years ago when Charleston faced Vashon.

"They had the best defensive effort I've ever seen," said Davis. "It was a week or two before districts and Vashon was ranked first in 4A. At halftime it was 25-4, Charleston. They held the top-ranked team in the state to four points in the first half! I've never seen defense played like that in my life."

Charleston and Vashon both went on to win state championships that year.

A select few

Some coaches may see a big, tall, athletic kid strolling through the school's corridors and want him to play. The coach might talk to his parents and plead with the young man to go out for the basketball team.

Not McFerren.

He wants players who want to play for him, not the other way around.

"I really believe you have to get the right players and kids in the program," he said. "There are very few players and student athletes that I think can play for Lennies McFerren. The way I am personally, the way I communicate, there's not a lot of people who can take it."

One of those people was McFerren's mother.

"I guess I was so bad of a person on the floor, my mom said to me 'Boy, there's no way in the world I could play for you,'" he said. "Not being disrespectful to my mom, I told her 'Mom, I wouldn't want you to play for me. If you're telling me right now that you couldn't play for me, I wouldn't want you to play for me.'"

Mind over basketball

To get to an elite level like the state championship game, confidence, McFerren said, is just as important as talent.

"First of all, you have to have confidence," he said. "I think that's the most important ingredient in success. If you don't have the confidence that you can do it, you're not going to do it."

Mark Baker, a long-time friend of McFerren's who played basketball with the New Madrid coach at Southeast Missouri State University, rarely misses an Eagle practice. He has watched the Eagles' confidence grow over the years.

"Before he got here, they didn't believe they could win," Baker said. "We'd get beat by Charleston every year in district. There would be times where we had just as much talent as they did, but we played scared."

The Eagles play scared no more.

They've been through the battles with one of the best basketball generals this state has ever seen and they've tasted the highest success.

And for 27 years players have gladly gone to war for him, they've fallen on floors for him, they've run for him and jumped through hoops for him. Hundreds of players have given nothing less than their best for him.

And all things considered, that's what makes Lennies McFerren a great coach.

LENNIES MCFERREN

* Age: 51

* Education: Graduated from Three Rivers Community College then transfered to and graduated from Southeast Missouri State University.

* Career: Started coaching in 1975 at Charleston, serving as an assistant coach until taking over the head coaching position in 1977. Took a job as assistant principal and head coach at New Madrid County Central High School in 1994. Plans to retire from coaching after this season.

* State championships: 8 (seven with Charleston, one with New Madrid County Central)

* Record: 526-167 (.759 winning percentage)

LONGTIME COACHES

Southeast Missouri is home to at least five active high school coaches who have been working long enough and have been successful enough to earn more than 400 varsity wins.

* Lennies McFerrenNMCC boys 526-167

* Kirk ChronisterPoplar Bluff girls 492-126

* Paul HaleDexter boys 479-217

* Jim HallAdvance boys 472-292

* Ron CookJackson girls 424-125