NFHS Coaches of the Year | Awards & Recognition | Resources | IHSA

NFHS Coaches of the Year

The NFHS annually honors a Coach of the Year in the top 10 boy’s sports and top 10 girl’s sports (based on NFHS participation numbers), as well as one “other” category that contains nominees from all other sports, from each member state. The NFHS then honors a National Coach of the Year in the 21 categories, with each of the state honorees being eligible for the distinguished national honor. 

A list of state Coach of the Year Award winners from IHSA member schools since 2003 can be found below by sport. The list on the righthand side of page contains all the national winners.


Please note that due to "other" status during certain years, some of the sports below do not contain winners for every year.

NFHS State Coaches of the Year by Sport

To see a historic list of the NFHS Coach of the Year winners from Illinois by season and sport, click here.

National COY

Baseball
2008-Jerry Rashid, Illinois Valley Central

Boys Basketball
1990-John Snyder, Mt. Vernon

Boys Cross Country
1995-Joe Newton, York

Football
1983-Gordie Gillespie, Joliet Catholic
1993-Bob Shannon, East St. Louis
1997-Frank Lenti, Chicago Mt. Carmel
2006-Ken Leonard, Sacred Heart-Griffin

Boys Soccer
1999-Joseph Waldron, Manteno

Boys Tennis
2015-Larry Faulkner

Wrestling
1998-Bill Weick, Chicago Mt. Carmel

Girls Golf
2009-Jodi Schoeck, Barrington

Girls Tennis
2007-Jerilyn Scardina, Hinsdale Central
2009-Tracy Waters Miller, Barrington
2016-Peggy Holecek, Glenbrook North

Girls Track & Field
1995-Nino Fennoy, East St. Louis

Girls Volleyball
1998- Nancy Pedersen, Mother McAuley

Spirit
2014-Tina Fortner, Fieldcrest
2017-Jeff Siegal, Buffalo Grove
2022-Linda Drust, Carterville