Long-time college basketball coach returning to sidelines next season with Hannibal girls

HANNIBAL, Mo. — It has been seven seasons since Jack Schrader last walked the sideline as a basketball coach.

After coaching men’s basketball teams for 23 seasons combined at Truman State University and Culver-Stockton College, Schrader will be coaching at the high school level during the 2025-26 season. Clint Graham, athletic director at Hannibal High School, announced Monday that Schrader will coach the girls basketball team at the same school where he teaches Spanish.

“I enjoy the competition, but primarily I have some of the girls in class,” Schrader said when asked why he was getting back in the game. “They’re intelligent, and they have decent work ethic. Once I got my teaching schedule settled and (Hannibal) still had not hired a coach, I just asked to see if there was interest, and this is what happened.”

Schrader replaces Shawn Gaines, who announced on April 14 he was leaving Hannibal after six seasons to become the head football coach at Columbia Battle. Gaines coached the girls basketball team for three seasons, guiding the Pirates to a 15-11 record in 2024-25 and a three-year record of 49-31. Hannibal sported a 5-37 record in the two seasons before Gaines arrived.

The last time Schrader was on the bench was at Highland High School in Ewing, where he was the head boys basketball coach for the 2018-19 season.

“I don’t think I’ve changed much,” he said. “I do things my way, unless (the players) don’t work. Then I’ll change anyway. I’ve coached girls before, and I’ve had girls in (summer) camp. At the end of the day, everybody’s a basketball player.”

Schrader was fired at Culver-Stockton in February 2018, two days after his team lost in the first round of the Heart of America Athletic Conference tournament. His last three teams had losing seasons, finishing 12-19 in 2015-16, 1-29 in 2016-17 and 7-24 in 2017-18 despite having the conference’s leading scorer and Freshman of the Year.

He spent seven seasons at C-SC, compiling an 89-128 record. He took over a program that won two of 29 games during the 2010-11 season, and he led it to the NAIA national tournament in two years.

Schrader’s first team went 4-24, but the 2012-13 squad went 26-9 and qualified for the NAIA national tournament for the first time since 1959. The Wildcats won two games in Kansas City, the site of the NAIA tournament, to reach the quarterfinals before suffering an 86-82 loss to Georgetown (Ky.) College.

C-SC went 24-8 in 2013-14, losing in the semifinals of the Heart Tournament and in the second round of the NAIA tournament.

Schrader spent 16 seasons as the head coach at Truman State University before coaching at C-SC. He had a 165-274 record at Truman State, but in 1999, he led the Bulldogs to an NCAA Division II final four appearance. He was named the National Association of Basketball Coaches South Central Regional Coach of the Year in 1999.

“Jack has a wealth of knowledge,” Graham said. “He knows basketball. Talking to other staff members here at school and in his references and stuff, he just comes with glowing recommendations. He’s shown he can build relationships with players and even students in his classroom. Being able to, at one time, coach at Truman State shows he knows basketball. We’re excited to have him.”

Schrader came to Truman State, then known as Northeast Missouri State University, during the 1981 season while completing his master’s degree and serving as a volunteer coach under Willard Sims and Ben Pitney through 1985. He served as the head boys basketball coach at LaPlata High School and Kirksville High School before moving overseas to coach in Spain for eight years. He coached two teams in the top Spanish basketball league.

“My wife is from Barcelona,” Schrader said. “I enjoy teaching Spanish.”

He returned to Kirksville and replaced Ben Pitney as the full-time assistant coach to the men’s basketball program for the 1994-95 season, then replaced Sims as head coach in June 1995.