In 2004-05, Brad Lingafelter was hired as the Head Coach for the Lady Bears Women’s Basketball team. After a brief time away from Barclay College, he resumed his position as head coach in 2007 and maintained that position all the way to the present.  During his time of leadership, Lingafelter has grown the program immensely. He has amassed a record of 87-105 in those eight seasons and has made the program relevant in both the Midwest Christian College Conference and in the NCCAA Division II Southwest Region. Despite his successes leading the team, Lingafelter has decided it is in the best interest of both his family and the program to step away from coaching the Bears.

“I feel like it is time for the program to have a new face and voice. I respect the program and what we have built to just keep coaching. I realize I may not be the best guy for the job any longer,” Lingafelter commented. “I also had family obligations that I felt like I was missing out on. I plan on doing what the Lord has for me and being in the stands for all my kid’s games and performances.”

Lingafelter’s eight seasons as head coach have had many highlights and achievements. Among them was the 2010-11 season in which the Lady Bears had one of the greatest season’s in school history for a women’s program when they finished 15-9. However, Lingafelter remembers the 2012-13 season as one of his favorites. That team ended up winning 13 games against all odds. They came to together as one cohesive unit and worked so hard for everything and in the end it was very rewarding. They “maximized” their potential as Lingafelter remembers it.

“I was told that Barclay was a hard place to coach and not to plan on beating the Manhattans, Hillsdales, Ozarks, Dallas Christians, and Graces of the world… We beat all of them,” recalled Lingafelter with great pleasure. “Sure they beat us our fair share of times, but no one can say Barclay can not compete with the best our  association has to offer.”

“The girls that poured so many tears  into the idea that we were building a program, deserve all the credit,” according to Lingafelter. Getting to be a part of their lives and developing meaningful, lasting relationships seemed to be at the heart of Lingafelter’s coaching philosophy and is thing he most cherishes about his time working at Barclay College.

In his final remark, Lingafelter said, “I just want to thank God for all the people he brought to the program. I want to thank my wife for always being patient. I want to thank the great assistant coaches I have had over the years, Travis Ross, Marshall Ballard, Ryan Kendall, Marcus Mitchell and Josh Sanchez. Each one of them taught me more about the game than I would ever teach them. I want to thank the Barclay community for your support. I want to thank Dave Kingrey. He may be the greatest fan of Barclay and the women’s program ever!”