Truman State University (Mo.) Head Football Coach Gregg Nesbitt will be inducted this weekend into the Missouri High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. The 1980 Truman graduate was the head coach at both Columbia-Hickman and Hannibal High Schools and just completed his first year as coach of the Bulldogs.
Nesbitt began his high school coaching career in his native Hannibal in 1984 where he led the Pirates to three straight state playoff appearances from 1987-1989. In 1990, Nesbitt returned to Truman to join Eric Holm’s staff as linebackers coach and defensive coordinator of the Bulldogs.
During his three year stint with the ‘Dogs, Truman was 23-9 and made two NCAA Division II playoff appearances (1990 & 1992).
Nesbitt left in 1993 to take over one of the state’s premier high school programs at Hickman. Over the next 13 seasons, the Kewpies would rack up six Missouri Class Six playoff appearances and the 2004 state championship. In 10 of those 13 years, Hickman was ranked in the top 10 in Missouri’s largest football class with 95 students receiving college scholarships and 42 named to Missouri’s all-state teams.
He was named the 2004 Missouri Coach of the Year by the Associated Press, the National Federation of High School Sports regional coach of the year and was a nominee for the NFHS National coach of the year award.
In 2006, Nesbitt moved back to the collegiate ranks as defensive coordinator and secondary coach at Central Methodist University and the next year went to the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg where he was until last December when he returned to Truman to lead the Bulldogs.
Nesbitt’s staff at Truman features his oldest son Kellen and Jed Paulsen, who both played for the coach while at Hickman High School.
The 2010 Bulldogs posted a record of 4-7, which was a two-game increase from a year ago.
The Missouri High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame was started in 1992 and has 112 current inductees. Along with Coach Nesbitt, Larry Burchett from Cass-Midway and Alan Spencer of Monett will make up the 2010 class.
The ceremony will take place as part of the Hall of Fame Banquet at the MFBCA State Convention on Friday, Dec. 3rd at The Resort of Port Arrowhead in the Lake of the Ozarks.
