The last time the Twin Rivers Royals won a district title in basketball, Seth McBroom was a senior guard.
Fifteen years later, McBroom is the newest coach at his alma mater.
"That's a big part of it, being able to come back to your hometown and give back to the community with a great group of kids," McBroom said. "I missed being around the game and this is a great opportunity for me to get back into it."
McBroom, who helped the Royals win a multitude of games and two Ozark Foothills Conference Tournament championships as a player, was recently hired to lead the Royals.
McBroom replaces his good friend and cousin Dustin Benson, who took a position as the Senath-Hornersville Junior High School principal after a seven-year coaching career that included 105 wins, three consecutive OFC Tournament titles and four OFC Coach of the Year honors.
McBroom already has a leg up on his new job title. He served as some of the player's principal at Qulin Middle School and has built relationships with the former coaching staff and its returning players.
"That's all thanks to Coach Benson who I've known for years," McBroom said. "I was fortunate to get to know them a lot last year through Coach Benson, and you could tell he's done a great job with them."
Though he won't be there next year, McBroom said he will likely lean on Benson for advice throughout the season.
"There's no doubt he knows what he's doing and he's been great," McBroom said of Benson. "With us being buddies we always talk basketball and share ideas, so I know that he's going to keep giving me insight on whatever I need whether it's insight on kids, philosophy or opponents."
Being from a hometown with such a rich basketball tradition -- the Royals have five district titles and have 16 OFC titles -- McBroom has had some other great basketball minds to learn from.
First being his former coach Scott Kruse, who coached the Royals to 97 wins in five seasons. Kruse was ranked No. 2 on the school's career win list until Benson passed him in his final season with the Royals.
McBroom also reflects on the friendships he made with some of his talented teammates. He played along side Steve Deken, Matt Thurmon and Lucas McInnis, and was also named to the Class 2A District 1 all-region team in his final season.
"I've just really built a lot of great relationships through the game over the past 10 or 15 years and it started in high school," McBroom said. "There are former players and coaches I still reach out to and am really good friends with, and that's why basketball has been such a special thing to me."
One of McBroom's fondest memories of his playing days was the district championship win in 2002.
"I remember the girls and guys won a district title that night, which made it even better because we were all such a tight-knit group and good friends," McBroom said.
But the game didn't come easy for the Royals, who were facing a Hall of Fame coach and a deficit late.
"We were down nine with three minutes left to a Jim Bidwell coached Portageville team so it was kind of odd that we came back from that because not many teams come back when he's coaching," McBroom said. "I was fortunate to play with some really great guys, we're all still great friends and we had a lot of success."
Twin Rivers went on to win 53-48 to claim their first district title since 1995 and fifth overall. The Royals finished 24-5 that year, losing a 67-63 overtime heartbreaker to state powerhouse Charleston in the opening round of the state playoffs.
While the loss still stings, McBroom prefers to focus on the good times.The Royals also won the OFC Tournament championship by the slimmest of margins in 2002, beating Clearwater 48-47 to claim back-to-back titles and their conference record eighth since 1985.
"It was just great, it was fun," McBroom said. "Being a part of a team and being a part of something much bigger than one's self is what it's all about and I hope to instill that in my players."
After high school, McBroom attended college and served three seasons as an assistant coach at Willard High School in southwest Missouri. Willard, a state basketball power in Class 4, reached the state semifinals twice during McBroom's tenure at the school.
In his return to Southeast Missouri in 2007, McBroom took over the head coaching duties at Holcomb, wherehis teams finished with an overall record of 80-67 and improved their winning percentage every season over a six-year span.
Holcomb went 2-20 during the 2007-08 season, 2-16 in the 2008-09 season, then notched its first winning season in nine years when it improved to 12-11 during the 2009-10 campaign.
The Hornets set the bar higher, moving to 18-9 the following season before winning the Tri-County Conference Tournament for the first time in 12 years during its 23-win 2011-12 season.
The Hornets repeated as conference tournament champs the following year, won 23 more games and took home the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament championship for the first time in school history.
McBroom was voted as the Tri-County Conference basketball Coach of the Year twice in his tenure with Holcomb and is looking to keep the winning tradition going at Twin Rivers.
"Mr. (Jeremy) Siebert had enough confidence in me to see how it goes," McBroom said. "We're going to do our best and I'm excited to get started."
Despite losing six seniors to graduation, including four starters from a team that went 16-9 and lost in the OFC Tournament championship game,Twin Rivers will have some depth and experience when McBroom takes the court for the first time as coach at his alma mater.
Hayden Thomas, Jamie Robards and Zach Hargraves will return as the most experienced players for the Royals while a wealth of players from the junior class will be added to the mix, according to McBroom. The veteran coach has also added Dalton Freshour to the program as an assistant.
"We've got some really high-character guys that are determined to go out there and compete every night to give ourselves a chance to win, and I'm happy to be here," McBroom said. "I think that we do have a good chance to win some ballgames and I know that we've got the kids that are going to go out and bust their butts every day."