Apollo’s Willis McClure has seen a lot of games at Apollo High School during his career and more at other stops along the way but Saturday’s home victory over Owensboro Catholic was the last game he’d coach inside the gym he helped put on the map.
McClure is retiring from the game he loves after 50 years of coaching basketball.
From the beginning, he loved being on the sideline.
“Just like any young person, I started coaching when I was 21, right out of college,” he said. “I wanted to be a coach from the get-go. From the time I graduated from high school, I wanted to be a coach. I’m getting to do something I like to do. I’m young. I get out there, I can do drills with them, I can play games with them. I can do all that kind of stuff. I thought it’s always going to be this way. It’s not. Those years go by pretty quick and all of a sudden the things I could get out there and demonstrate to them, I no longer can do very well.
“Looking back, there’s been so many great moments that this game has afforded me. I have been lucky to have some really good players. My last 12 years here at Apollo, before I left the first time in 2000, we strung together 12 straight years of 20-win seasons. That’s almost impossible to do.”
E-gal head coach Natalie Payne was one of those players that stood out for McClure and for her, he was a lot more than a coach.
“He’s been like a second father,” she said. “Playing for him was special. I always knew I wanted to play for him because I followed him when I was young. Watching Laurie Townsend play, who was Miss basketball, and Kim Baughn, those kids that came before me. I knew he would help me ultimately to get that highest level of playing Division I basketball and he did. We went to the state tournament three years in a row, my sophomore, junior and senior year.
“He built this dynasty in the 90s. We were a dynasty. To be able to coach alongside him for a few years at Daviess and then come back home, he had a lot to do with us being able to come back together here. It’s just special because he’s devoted so much of his life and his time away from family. You don’t find too many guys that genuine and that committed.”
Years after Payne’s playing days, McClure accepted a job across the river at South Spencer.
When Payne was named the head coach at Daviess County, she went back to the one that gave her so much and asked if he’d help. After a year at South Spencer, McClure joined Payne at DC.
“I intended to help her just a couple years to get her on her feet,” he said. “We were having so much fun together and so much success together then Apollo’s program was stalling out a little bit and they wanted to make a change.”
McClure made the move first and after a position in the school opened up, he knew he needed to make Payne a E-gal again.
“I said ‘hey do you want to do the same thing here that we did over there.'”
McClure said it was the right move and he’s glad it’s worked out but he didn’t play on staying at Apollo as long as he has been during his second stint.
“I really hadn’t intended on coaching this long but when you get a senior dominated group like this, I thought well I’ll see them through and see what we can do with them,” he said. “This is the perfect time. 50 years … It’s been 50 years, a labor of love. I’m going to miss it big time.”
When Apollo takes the court next week at the Owensboro Sportscenter for the 9th District Tournament, McClure will take his spot on the bench next to Payne and give it all he’s got during his final postseason ride.
