Kent Mueller is back coaching where his athletics career all began. 

A 1976 Freeman High School graduate, Mueller established himself as a coaching icon at West Central High School in football and basketball. Mueller stepped down as West Central’s head football coach in 2019, but in a full circle moment, he’s an assistant girls basketball coach for the Flyers. 

“It’s just been fun to have that connection to a community again, and being it was my hometown, it was really easy,” said Mueller, who is in second season coaching the Flyers. “All the opportunities I had prior to this would come back to me sitting on a bench or across the field from a West Central team, and after 30 years that just wasn’t going to happen.” 

Mueller, 65, was hired in Aug. 2022 to assist Freeman girls basketball coach Jenny Peters. He’s also an assistant coach for the Freeman/Marion/Freeman Academy football team. 

Mueller has also assisted with the Tri-State Ambush Basketball, a youth summer program run by his son, Josh. 

The coaching opportunities have rejuvenated his competitive juices and he gets the same rush as when he coached the Trojans. 

“I still get butterflies before games,” Mueller said. “I still get very intense. I have to just kind of bite my tongue sometimes during games. I think everybody would say, it’s kind of cliche, but if you lose those feelings then it’s probably time to walk away. I don't feel that way at all.”

Muller said he missed the day-to-day coaching grind and assisting with the Flyers fills that void. 

“I missed the day-to-day stuff where you actually get to see the growth and you get to see the improvement,” Mueller said. “You can kind of brainstorm how you are going to make things better if they need to be fixed or adjusted and so that part has been really good.”

Kent Mueller was an assistant coach for the Freeman/Marion/Freeman Academy football team this past fall. (Ryan Deal / 605 Sports)

Mueller brings a wealth of coaching knowledge and experience to the table. A University of South Dakota graduate, Mueller coached at Edgemont and Sioux Falls O’Gorman before joining West Central in 1990. 

At West Central, he helped the Trojans win 12 state football championships, including nine titles from 1996-2005. He was also head coach of West Central’s boys basketball state championship teams in 2000 and ‘01. 

Those championship experiences, along with building up teams, gives the Flyers a veteran coach with a different perspective. 

“The joy for me is I have been in a situation where you took over a program that was kind of down in the dumps and you had to build it,” Mueller said. “I have also been in a situation like with Jim (Uttecht) in football at West Central where we were pretty good. I can relate from both ends of that spectrum.”

At 6-foot-5 and with a booming voice, Mueller has a larger-than-life persona on the coaching sidelines. He also noticeably sports a cane during games, which stems from a broken neck three years ago. 

Mueller had a disc between his C3 and C4 nerves collapse and completely cut off his spinal cord. He spent a week in patient rehab and seven months undergoing therapy. 

The cane, Mueller said, is an insurance policy to help with his balance at times and when he gets tired. 

“It’s more of a safety precaution than anything else,” Mueller said. “At practice, I don't have it and I still get in an athletic stance.” 

Mueller and his wife, Lynette, have grandchildren in Colorado and Texas. The oldest grandson is a sophomore, while the rest are starting their athletic journeys. 

Mueller said when Lynette retires “the grandkids get first priority. But right now it just works out that this seems like a fun thing. Lynette had family in Freeman. She didn’t grow up there, but she had family there. So it’s kind of been a homecoming for us.”

The Flyers (13-5) will host Class B No. 1 Ethan on Tuesday and will play at Gayville-Volin on Thursday to close out the regular season.