Nearly five months after Hastings College Bronco Men’s Basketball Head Coach Lance Creech announced he would step down at the end of the 2012-2013 campaign, the search for Creech’s replacement is complete.
Effective June 1, 2013, Bill Gavers ’88 will return to Hastings College to serve as Head Coach for Men’s Basketball. The Omaha, Neb.-native has spent the last 22 years as Head Coach of the Grand Island (Neb.) Central Catholic (GICC) Boys Basketball team, amassing a 421-127 record, including 12 trips to the state tournament, a state championship title in 2000, a runner up finish in 2008 and 19 top ten finishes.
“First let me say thank you to Coach Creech for his 13 years of service to Hastings College. We will miss him. I’ve long admired Bill’s program at GICC, but when one of his former college teammates expressed to me how much Bill’s leadership on the court and in the classroom at Hastings College had meant in his life, I knew Bill was our next coach,” said Jerry Schmutte, Athletic Director at Hastings College. “He works with young men on the fundamentals of basketball and life. We value such work at Hastings College.”
Schmutte continued, “Bill is a legend at Hastings College and the right choice to build on our storied men’s basketball program.”
During the 1986-87 and 1987-1988 seasons, Gavers played for then-Bronco Head Coach Mike Trader, who also had coached him at Omaha (Neb.) Bryan High School. The 1987-88 team was inducted into the Hastings College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997. Gavers also played on the Bronco Men’s Tennis team and was named Academic All-American for tennis in 1987.
In 2005, Gavers was named Hastings College Alumni Coach of the Year – a recognition not only of the basketball program he has built at GICC but also his work with the school’s tennis program. With Gavers as the tennis coach, GICC has earned five state championships and four runner up finishes.
Prior to his tenure at GICC, he was an Assistant Coach for the Hastings College Bronco Men’s Basketball team (1988-1991) while also teaching and coaching tennis at Hastings (Neb.) High School.
In addition to earning his B.A. in social science education at HC, he earned a Master of Education and Curriculum from Doane College in 2002. His wife Jody teaches at Central City (Neb.) High School.
