Doug Creel Resigns As Rams Head Basketball Coach
By Randy Olson-AreaSports.net

Fresh on the heels of a dramatic Elite 8 post-season run, the Doug Creel Era has come to an end.  Creel submitted his resignation over the weekend as the head coach of the Mount Vernon Rams Boys Basketball team.  He will remain at the school in his duties as the full-time Athletic Director for both the boys and girls athletic programs.  His resignation was submitted to Superintendent, Terry Milt and announced during a press conference on Monday.  Milt indicated that the process of finding a new head coach will begin immediately and will involve a search that will be both internal and external.  You can watch the actual media announcement on video below with comments from both Creel and Milt.

Creel has guided the Rams basketball program to a combined career mark of 240 wins and 130 losses (66% winning percentage) over a 13-year career as head coach.  He passed legendary coach Stanley Changnon in career wins earlier this season.  Creel is second on the all-time list at Mount Vernon behind Howard Ross, who coached for 15 seasons from 1921-1936.    Creel also spent 9 seasons as the JV coach under Lee Emery, so he has spent a total of 22 years along the Mount Vernon coaching box.

During his 13-year tenure as head coach, Creel had only two losing seasons.  His teams won 6 Regional Titles, 4 Sectional Championships, and made two appearances in the Elite 8.  His squad in 1999 won 28 straight games and was nationally ranked by USA Today.  The magical run by this year's squad into the Elite 8 was unexpected by many, but especially rewarding to Creel.  The Rams finished this season at 18-12, after starting the year at 0-4.  Along the way they won the Regional Tournament, Sectional Tournament, and got to within 1-point of Champaign Central with :34 seconds left during the Super-Sectional game at Springfield.  He also coached two players (E.J. Randolph and Truvanty Badger) who were both voted to the First Team All-Conference squad this season in the South-7 Conference.  One of them (Randolph) was also the unanimous MVP of the league.  The dramatic post-season run this year all began with perhaps the greatest comeback in Rams post-season basketball history when Mount Vernon rallied from 16 points down with 6:11 to play and won in double-overtime against Marion at the Marion Regional. 

Despite all the success he enjoyed, Creel was not blessed with a bounty of Division 1 players during his tenure in Mount Vernon.  Kent Williams (SIU) and Jon Knoche (UNLV) are the only former Ram players that logged Division 1 minutes after high school basketball under Creel in Mount Vernon.  Knoche played for two seasons at Vincennes before transferring to UNLV, where he saw limited playing time for the Runnin' Rebels but did get a taste of Divison 1 basketball.  Williams graduated from Mount Vernon and immediately became a star at SIU Carbondale with the Salukis, leading them in scoring all four seasons, and ranking #2 in career scoring while leading SIU to an amazing NCAA Tournament run to the Sweet 16.  "Doug helped me take my game to the next level," said Williams.  "He pushed me in the weight room and on the court which developed a strong work ethic for me that stayed with me into college.  He taught me so much about motion, reading screens, and moving without the ball that I was ahead of the game when I arrived at SIU which allowed me to play right away."  Williams said he feels that Creel is stepping aside for all the right reasons.  "Coach Creel bleeds orange and black and has given up so much of his time for a program and for a town, now he can sit back and let someone else keep it going while he can enjoy time with his family," said Williams.  "At the end of the day, basketball is only so important and I think we've all had to take a look at ourselves after seeing what Gus Gillespie and his family are going through and realize that there's much more to life than wins and losses in basketball games."

Many who have coached against him, give Creel high praise including Belleville Althoff coach, Greg Leib.  "It took me four years to beat him," said Leib.  "Doug is a great coach and in fact I've tried to use some of his out-of-bounds plays but we always seem to hit a cheerleader or something.  He is great friend and I will miss him along the sideline...it has always been a challenge to compete against a Doug Creel coached basketball team."

Rams super fan, Ron Marlow, has witnessed all 240 of Doug Creel's coaching victories over the past 13 years.  "I am sad and a little depressed, I think the world of Doug and I hope this decision is the best for him and his family," said Marlow. "I think that Doug is one of the finest coaches in Illinois, he takes players of limited size and limited talent and gets the most out of them, and this season was a perfect example of that."

Randy Odle has been the official scorekeeper for the Rams throughout the tenure of Doug Creel.  He has been close to the action at every game and has admired the success of Creel's basketball program.  "Nobody prepares their team for a game better than Doug Creel," said Odle.  "He usually knows what the other team is going to do before they do.  It's been a lot of fun watching him mature and grow as a coach through the years."

Even opposing fans acknowledge the ability and accomplishments of Coach Doug Creel.  We asked Centralia Orphans Super Fan, Butch Border, for his reaction to the resignation.  "Mount Vernon would not have had the success they had this year without Coach Creel at the helm," said Border.  "Some people might criticize his style of play, but he always gives his team a chance to win and the accomplishments of his team this year were remarkable.  As an Orphan fan, I always look forward to the Centralia-Mount Vernon games and it won't be the same without Doug Creel."

What is your reaction to the announcement?  Do you have some comments you would like to submit?  We have created an exclusive "Comment Form" which enables fans, former players, parents, other coaches, referees, other media or anyone an opportunity to weigh in on the career of Coach Doug Creel.  We encourage you to click the link and give us your comments.

Creel was also a former player at Mount Vernon High School, a graduate of 1978.  He went on to play basketball at Rend Lake College, where he became the Warriors all-time leading scorer.  He is a member of the Rend Lake College Hall of Fame.  After Rend Lake, Creel also played college basketball at Jacksonville State in Alabama.  Prior to returning to Mount Vernon, he started his prep coaching career with a brief 2-year stint at Thompsonville High School.  In all, Creel has spent 24 years (half of his life) in high school coaching.  You can also watch the Announcement to the Media by Coach Creel in our Broadcast Archives.  According to Superintendent Terry Milt, Creel will be very involved in the selection process for a new coach, both in his role as the Athletic Director as well as an Administrator at Mount Vernon High School. Some of Mr. Milt's comments are also on the video clip.

Other Comments Recently Submitted by our Website Visitors:

"I am sad to hear of the stepping down of Coach Doug Creel. I have watched him coach since I was in the 7th grade. Then when I got into the 8th grade I was ready to graduate grade school and hopefully play for a great coach. I got that chance when I made the rams team my freshman year. I was thrilled that I could say that I was going to be coached by the greatest coach in the world. To me Coach Creel was the best coach that I have ever seen and worked with. He helped me develope my game. I was smaller than most post players in our league and out of our league. But Coach Creel taught me how to play hard nose defense to stop them from scoring and how to move around the basket to score around the taller more athletic athletes. I appreciated everything that Coach Creel ever did for me as a student, athelete and and a friend. I will never forget him or what he did for me. I give Coach Creel all my respect for his decision on stepping down from coaching. Rams games will not be the same without hearing his voice call the plays from the sideline. Therefore, I can at least tell my kids that I played for the greatest coach that I thought ever coached the game of basketball."
Tony Fitzpatrick

"No coach ever outworked or out-prepared Coach Creel. During the 2005 Salem Tournament vs. Edwardsville, Coach told Brian Deaton where the Edwardsville player usually hit the opening tip. Brian easily stole the tip and laid in an uncontested shot during the first few seconds of the game. I can't imagine any team being more prepared than the Rams under Coach Creel."
Mark Shelton

"I have been an assistant coach at Champaign Central High School for 11 years and have witnessed many of Coach Creel's teams play at the Centralia Holiday Tournament. His teams have always been very competitive, very tough and well disciplined. Coach Creel is a class act and will certainly be missed by all in the state of Illinois."
John Woods