Jack Keefer of Lawrence North and Donna Buckley of Noblesville have been chosen as Indiana’s nominees for the National Federation of State High School Associations national basketball coaches of the year.
Keefer guided Lawrence North to a 17-7 season that included a tie for second place in the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference and a runner-up finish to eventual Class 4A state champion Cathedral in the North Central Sectional. This was Keefer’s final year of 50 seasons on the sidelines, four at Oak Hill and the past 46 at Lawrence North.
Keefer completed his career with an 865-338 record – 61-26 at Oak Hill and 804-312 at Lawrence North. Included in those numbers are state championships in 1989, 2004, 2005 and 2006 as well as a state runner-up finish in 2021. Over the years, his teams also captured 19 sectional championships, seven regional titles and five semi-state trophies.
His Wildcats also won 10 Marion County Tournament crowns, three Hall of Fame Classic titles and, from 2005 to 2007, a state-record 50 consecutive games that included a 29-0 mark for a team that was ranked No. 1 nationally by USA Today in 2005-06. In addition, they won 17 league championships – seven in the Central Suburban Athletic Conference and 10 in the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference. His teams produced 17 Indiana All-Star players, one Mr. Basketball in Greg Oden and three top 10 NBA Draft picks in Oden, Mike Conley and Eric Montross.
Over the years, Keefer was honored as an IBCA District Coach of the Year in 1978 and 2006, a Marion County Coach of the Year on numerous occasions, a CSAC and MIC Coach of the Year on numerous occasions, a Ball State Alumni Coach of the Year and he was named National Coach of the Year in 2006 by USA Today, Sports Illustrated and the National High School Coaches Association.
Keefer was head coach of the Indiana All-Stars in 1992, coached in the McDonald’s All-American Game in 2005 and numerous other all-star games during his career. He served as an IBCA district representative from 1992 to 1994, and his school has hosted the annual IBCA Clinic each spring (except for 1991 and 2020, canceled; and 2021, moved to fall) since 1977.
Keefer was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 and into the Grant County Sports Hall of Fame in 2009. Also, the Lawrence North gymnasium was named after him in 2016, and he was named a Sagamore of the Wabash by then-Gov. Mike Pence in 2016.
A 1961 graduate of Oak Hill, Keefer earned 13 varsity letters as a high school athlete in basketball, football, baseball, track and cross country. Phil McCarter was his basketball coach at Oak Hill, and McCarter encouraged Keefer to go to college. Keefer went on to compete in one season of basketball and four years of track at Ball State, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in education and accounting in 1965. He later earned a master’s degree in education from Indiana University in 1967 and a master’s degree in school administration from Ball State in 1978.
Keefer began his coaching career at Frankfort, where he was an assistant coach to Phil Buck in 1965-66. He returned to Oak Hill as an assistant from 1966-72, then was head coach at his alma mater from 1972-76. He became the first boys’ basketball coach at the “new” Lawrence North in 1976, serving as the school’s only boys’ basketball coach for 46 seasons.
He has two adult sons, Joel and Jake, who each played for him. Keefer and his wife, Jan, reside in Indianapolis.
Buckley is nominated for the national award after guiding Noblesville to a 25-4 season that included the Class 4A state championship. Along the way, the Millers also won the Westfield Sectional, Marion Regional and Logansport Semi-State. She also was voted an IBCA District 2 Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season and the third time in her career in 2021-22. She previously was an IBCA District Coach of the Year in 2015 and in 2021.
Buckley has completed 14 seasons as varsity girls’ basketball coach at Noblesville and is 208-118 with the Lady Millers. In 22 seasons as a head coach, including stops at Fort Wayne South and Greenfield-Central, she has a 304-192 record.
The former Donna McCarty is a 1993 graduate of Clinton Central, where she played for Hall of Fame coach Linda Barnett and helped the Bulldogs to a sectional crown as a senior. She attended Taylor University, where she played basketball for two seasons and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1997 in physical education. She earned a master’s degree in health the American College of Education in 2022.
Buckley started her coaching career at South Adams as an assistant coach for three seasons. She then became the head coach at Fort Wayne South for one season in 2000-01 with a 10-11 record. She moved to Greenfield-Central, where her teams posted an 86-63 ledger in seven seasons, including a sectional crown in 2004. Her Noblesville teams have won three sectionals (2015, 2021 and 2022) as well as regional and semi-state crowns this season.
Buckley was an assistant coach for the 2021 Indiana All-Stars. She also was to be an assistant coach the 2020 Indiana All-Stars, but the 2020 All-Star games were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She previously was named a Junior All-Star assistant coach in 2014, but she was unable to take part in those games because of a death in her family. She also was the Hoosier Crossroads Conference Coach of the Year in 2015, and she was the Indiana Star Metro East Coach of the Year in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
Buckley is a teacher at Noblesville High School, where she teaches classes on avoiding substance abuse. She and her husband, Chris, live in Noblesville.
NFHS/INDIANA COACH OF THE YEAR HONOREES
2002 to Present (working to compile a complete list of honorees from prior years)
| Year | Boys | Girls |
| 2001-02 | *Jack Butcher
Loogootee | *Donna Cheatham
Southwestern (Hanover) |
| 2002-03 | Basil Mawbey
Lewis Cass | Mike Armstrong
Perry Meridian |
| 2003-04 | Tom McKinney
Bloomington North | Alan Vickrey
North Central |
| 2004-05 | Dave Omer
Washington | not available |
| 2005-06 | not available | not available |
| 2006-07 | **Jack Edison
Plymouth | not available |
| 2007-08 | not available | not available |
| 2008-09 | J.R. Holmes
Bloomington South | Stan Benge
Ben Davis |
| 2009-10 | not available | Scott Kreiger
Fort Wayne Canterbury |
| 2010-11 | Mike Hackett
Munster | Julie Shelton
Mt. Vernon (Fortville) |
| 2011-12 | Scott Heady
Carmel | Dave Miller
Fort Wayne Concordia |
| 2012-13 | Stacy Meyer
Greensburg | Steve Goans
Evansville Mater Dei |
| 2013-14 | **Pat Rady
Cloverdale | Terry Minix
Oregon-Davis |
| 2014-15 | *Bryan Hughes
Barr-Reeve | Pat McKee
Columbus North |
| 2015-16 | Jim Shannon
New Albany | Rick Risinger
Heritage Christian |
| 2016-17 | Mark James
Ben Davis | Rod Parker
Homestead |
| 2017-18 | Criss Beyers
Warren Central | *Kathie Layden
Northwestern |
| 2018-19 | **J.R. Holmes
Bloomington South | Chris Huppenthal
Hamilton Southeastern |
| 2019-20 | Al Gooden
Lawrence Central | Donna Cheatham, Scottsburg |
| 2020-21 | Marc Davidson
Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian | Jared Rehmel
Linton-Stockton |
| 2021-22 | Jack Keefer
Lawrence North | Donna Buckley
Noblesville |
*State and Section 4 winner. Section 4 includes Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin.
**State, Section 4 and National winner.
