DICK SHILTS

Athletic Director
Basketball Coach
Golf Coach

Kalamazoo Valley Community College head basketball coach, Dick Shilts, enjoys teaching basketball fundamentals to young players as much as he enjoys coaching at the college level.

Shilts served as the State Commissioner of Junior Pro Basketball in Michigan for two years and set up the State's Junior Pro Tournament. Since 1970, Shilts has headed his own summer camp programs, first at Western Michigan University and now at Kalamazoo Valley.

Shilts is a native of New Paris, Ohio, and as a freshman at Wittenberg University played under Ray Mears, the highly successful former head coach of the Tigers and later Southeastern Conference champions, Tennessee Volunteers. Shilts' coach the next three years at Wittenberg was Eldon Miller, the man he was later to replace as head coach at Western Michigan University as Miller moved on to Ohio State University, and following 10 successful seasons there, moved on to guide the rebuilding project at the University of Northern Iowa.

Shilts started his coaching career in 1965 at Wadsworth High School in Ohio where he also served as an English teacher. After coaching the junior varsity team to a winning season, he moved up to the head job and inherited a team that had previously won just 4 of its last 38 games. Without a returning starter, Wadsworth went undefeated in league play and won the Chippewa Conference in Shilts' first season as head coach. The Grizzlies tied for the championship the following year.

In 1968 Shilts moved on to The University of Akron where he earned his Master’s Degree in Secondary Education, majoring in Physical Education and minoring in English. While at Akron, Shilts served as a graduate assistant the first year and full time assistant the second year while guiding the junior varsity team to two successful developmental years.

Shilts moved to Kalamazoo in the fall of 1970 to assist his former coach, Eldon Miller, at Western Michigan. The 1975-76 Bronco squad captured the school's first ever undisputed Mid-American Conference basketball title and advanced to the NCAA Mid-East Regional before bowing to number two ranked Marquette, 62-57. Shilts was in charge of coaching the defense on this record-setting team which finished the year ranked 10th nationally.

In April of 1976 Shilts was promoted to head coach at WMU. A 14-13 season gave way to 7-20 and 7-23 years as the Broncos fell on hard times against the toughest schedules in the school's history. Shilts was replaced in 1979 and accepted the challenge of being Athletic Director, Basketball Coach, and Golf Coach at nearby Kalamazoo Valley Community College. In his first season at the helm his Cougars won 19 games, 6 more than they had won in any of their previous 11 year school history. Continuous winning seasons have followed, including a 22-8 year in 1982-83, a year in which they shared a league title and finished as runner-up in the MCCAA State Tournament, a spectacular, record shattering 30-6 season in 1986-87, and an equally impressive 1988-89 campaign that resulted in the best record in the state and another conference and state championship. The short, but hot-shooting 1986-87 Cougars won the Western Collegiate Conference with a 12-2 record, and went on to claim the school's first-ever State Championship by defeating eventual national champion Oakland Community College, 107-101. This unique collection of Cougars finished the year averaging 100.3 points per game in spite of being out-rebounded on the season. In 1993-94 Shilts’ Cougars won their third MCCAA State Championship while compiling the best record in the school’s history, 30-2. KVCC finished the season ranked number one of all NJCAA Division II schools in the nation. Back-to-back MCCAA State Championships were still to follow in the 1996-97 and the 1997-98 seasons.

In recent seasons, Coach Shilts has received the Michigan Community College Coach of the Year award a fourth and fifth time, and in both the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons he received the Western Conference Coach of the Year award for the sixth and seventh times by guiding the Cougars to identical 22-8 season and 11-3 league records, tying each year for the Conference Championship.  In 2002-03 two wins over Lansing gave KVCC the No. 1 seed in the conference.  His Cougars advanced to the Regional final by defeating two teams that had previously beaten them.  In 2002-03 an overtime loss to Mott CC in the Regional Championship game prevented the Cougars from advancing to the NJCAA National Tournament, and in 2003-04 a 61-64 loss to Mott in the Regional Championship game again thwarted the Cougars' advance to the Nationals in Danville, Illinois.  Mott won the National Championship in 2003 and was runner-up in 2004.

In October of 1997, Coach Shilts was inducted into the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan (BCAM) Hall of Fame. Present at the gala affair was one of his former college coaches, the legendary Ray Mears. Shilts' entire family and several assistant coaches were in the audience to honor him.

In 1977 Shilts' book Teaching Basketball Fundamentals was published by WMU's New Issues Press. Since that time over 8000 copies have been sold. The book has been used as a textbook in several college coaching preparation classes as well as an instruction manual for aspiring young players. Dick also has had his article "Worldly Success vs. Spiritual Success: the Christian Coach's Dilemma" published in the 1979 March/April issue of The Christian Athlete, and in February of 1989, Decision magazine printed Dick's article entitled "Beginning Again" in which he shares his story of how faith can bring triumph out of adversity. Dick has served a two year term as Vice-President and a two year term as President of the Michigan Fellowship of Christian Athletes. After serving as Dean of 10 FCA National Conferences held in Michigan, he now serves as an advisor to the KVCC FCA, and a frequent motivational speaker at various FCA functions.

In May of 1990 Dick was selected by his peers in the Michigan Community College Athletic Association as their first recipient of their Athletic Director of the Year honor. He also has served twelve years as MCCAA President.

Shilts and his wife, Carol, are the parents of four daughters: Cherie, 42, Teri, 39, Mindy, 33, Bridget 30, and one son, Ricky, 26. They have ten grandchildren, Kelsey Nicole Skinner, 14, Adam Scott Middleton, 14, Jack Alan Middleton, 10, Nickolas Paul Middleton, 8, Colby Allen Skinner, 6, Kira MacKenzie Freng, 5, Brianna Barnes, 8, Jasmine Barnes, 7, Audri Grace Freng, 3, and Carter Lee Skinner, 3.