Neelyville cheer coach wins inaugural state Coach of the Year award

NEELYVILLE — The Missouri Cheerleading Coaches Association (MCCA) has never given an award for the best cheerleading coach before. And, in this first year of doing so, they recognized Neelyville Cheerleading Coach Brandi Lumby as the Coach of the Year.

“I’m so honored by this,” Lumby remarked. “But I know I couldn’t have done it without the help from a lot of different people.”

Lumby has been teaching history and working as a college and career advisor at Neelyville High School for 13 years, and she has been coaching cheerleading for 10 years.

“The first few years I coached, our squad wasn’t competitive,” she explained. “Four years ago, we decided to start competing and we won second place.”

In the past four years since the Neelyville cheerleaders have been competitive, they have won three second place awards and, last year, they won first place at state competition.

Lumby is a former cheerleader and elicited cheer from the crowds as a student at Neelyville High School and then at the College of the Ozarks.

“I have always been drawn to cheerleading and coaching, but I started my career with just the intention of being a history teacher,” Lumby said. “My attitude is that God will open doors for us, and this door opened for me.”

Lumby credits so much of what has been accomplished to the cheerleaders, their parents, and the assistant cheer coach, Jennifer Barker.

“When I tell you that these girls are committed, I mean that we drill during the summer in a hot gym with no air conditioning, and we practice every chance we get,” Lumby explained. “And these girls compete in other sports as well, and they all manage to keep their grades up. This group that I have right now has a team GPA of 3.8 out of 4. That is excellent and it shows just how hard they all work.”

Lumby said the supportive parents also make a significant difference.

“Being involved with this is such a big time commitment,” Lumby added. “There is some expense involved, but allowing that time with their children is the biggest sacrifice for them and I am so grateful.

“And of course I could do any of this without my assistant coach Jennifer Barker. She is here with me for all the extra practices and everything that we do to get prepared.”

Lumby will officially receive a physical award from the MCCA at the organization’s convention in the Lake of the Ozarks at the end of March.