The Sedalia School District 200 Board of Education approved the hire of Ron Rhodes as girls basketball head coach and the promotion of Emily Ruckman to volleyball head coach at a special meeting on Thursday, June 8.

Rhodes was inducted into the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2015. Rhodes led his girls basketball teams at Cleveland High School of St. Louis in 1982-83 and DeSoto High School in 1987-88 and 1988-89 to Missouri state championships. He was women’s basketball head coach at Moberly Area Community College when the Lady Greyhounds placed fifth at the 1983-84 NJCAA Division I National Tournament.
Rhodes also was women’s basketball head coach at Jefferson College from 1995-2002, posting three 30-win seasons, two NJCAA National Women’s Basketball Tournament appearances and multiple Missouri Community College Athletic Conference titles. Most recently, Rhodes has led the girls basketball programs at DeSoto from 2002-09, Festus from 2013-15 and Climax Springs from 2019-21. In 2021, Climax Springs won a district championship. He will serve as a core enhancement teacher at S-C High.

Ruckman was the Smith-Cotton Junior High volleyball head coach before her promotion to lead the Lady Tigers varsity program. She has taught sixth grade English language arts at Smith-Cotton Junior High since the 2018-19 school year. She has been involved in volleyball for more than 16 years as both a player and coach.

Phoyos courtesy of Sedalia 200 School District.