McPherson High School Announces Hiring of New Girls Basketball Head Coach, Clint Kinnamon

McPHERSON, Kan. – McPherson High School has found their new head Pup for the Girls Basketball team, Clint Kinnamon.

Kinnamon is a graduate of Hutchinson Community College and McPherson College. He has 32 years of head coaching experience, including making 15 state tournaments, winning four state championships, three runners-up, two third-place finishes and a final four in the COVID year. He has a career record of 520-240 while acting as the girl’s coach at Claflin and the boy’s coach at Arkansas City, St. John-Hudson, Wichita-East and Remington.

While at St. John, Kinnamon’s teams set multiple state records including highest winning percentage in the state tournament (18-4, 85.6%) and most consecutive wins with 63 (2013-15).

Kinnamon has coached multiple players that have played collegiately and/or professionally, including Jackie Stiles at Claflin and Dean Wade at St. John. Stiles graduated from Claflin in 1997 before playing collegiately at Southwest Missouri State (now known as Missouri State). In 2001, Stiles was drafted 4th overall in the WNBA Draft and was later named a WNBA All-Star and the 2001 WNBA Rookie of the Year. Wade graduated from St. John in 2015 and played collegiately at Kansas State. After four successful years at K-State, Wade went undrafted in the 2019 NBA Draft, however he is currently part of the Cleveland Cavaliers roster.

“We are very excited for Clint Kinnamon to lead the McPherson High Girls Basketball Program into the future,” Shane Backhus, McPherson’s Activities Director, said. “We did a state wide search, and had excellent applicants and interviews. Coach Kinnamon set himself apart through the interview process with his passion and knowledge of the game, experience, and ability to build great relationships with students and players. Our interview committee was extremely impressed with his desire to develop teams with high character and tough competitors. Coach Kinnamon has the experience and ability to lead our program into the future, and carry on the traditions of success, which were established by former coaches Scott Schafer and Chris Strathman.”

“Following two highly successful coaches is never an easy task,” Kinnamon said. “Coach Schafer and Coach Strathman both did an amazing job leading the Girls Basketball program for many years and have left it in great shape. I’m extremely excited to become part of the tradition that is Bullpup Girls Basketball and will try to continue and build upon their success. There is a lot of talent in McPherson and I am thrilled to get the chance to meet the high school, middle school and youth players to talk about my vision to lead the program for years to come.”

Kinnamon will teach in the McPherson Alternative Center starting next fall. He plans to immediately reach out to the McPherson girl’s basketball players to establish summer basketball activities.

Below is a list of Coach Kinnamon’s accolades