News Where are they now? \'89 Vinton grad Cress earns 300th collegiate coaching win

        Jill (Rector) Cress, a 1989 graduate of Washington High School, is having so much fun at her job that she didn’t realize how successful she’s been.

     Cress is the head women’s basketball coach at William Jewell University, where she recently won her 300^th game as coach.

     “I didn’t even realize it was my 300^th,” she said, adding that a head coach’s success depends on “surrounding yourself with good people.”

     And one of those good people is her high school basketball coach, Harold Shepherd.

      Cress played three years for Shep – as he is called by virtually all of his players --  from 1986-87 through 1988-1989.

     She recalls how Shepherd and other Vinton coaches had set up a system that taught the players from seventh grade on what to expect when they got to the high school level.

     “He expected to win. He had high expectation and we knew what was expected of us,” Cress recalls. “He never threw out a lot of compliments, so you know if he gave you one, he meant it.”

     Cress and Shep “always had a good relationship,” recalls Cress.

    Always, that is, after Shep called her aside after practice on day her sophomore year.

     “I kind of had an attitude that year. He told me, ‘I don’t care how good you are – you are never going to play for me unless you change your attitude,” Cress recalls. “I changed my attitude the next day. I went in and apologized to him.”

    Shep taught Cress the importance of discipline as well as a team philosophy.

    “We all had to wear the same color t-shirts and white shoes in practice,” she recalls.

    And the coach left her in the game if she had minor injury like a jammed finger or when she was bleeding a little.

     “He used to say that you aren’t hurt unless you can’t play,” she recalls. “Once I came to the bench and told him I was bleeding. He said, ‘Oh, I don’t care.”

     Cress was a member of two conference championship teams; the Vikettes went to State her senior year, losing to eventual State Champion Muscatine.

    Having Shep for a coach inspired Cress to become a teacher and coach herself. She went to college at Northwestern and then took the job at William Jewell. She’s been there 15 years, long enough to see her players go on to become coaches themselves.

     “When I went to Northwestern and told them I was from Vinton, everyone knew Shep or the reputation that Vinton had for basketball,” she recalls.

William Jewell

     Cress spoke to Vinton Today while driving to the college campus, where the Cardinals have a game today. She is full-time faculty member at William Jewell, a liberal arts college with 1,200 students a very good academic reputation – the average ACT score of students is 26. Cress teaches health and wellness, perceptual motor development and has taught tennis. Soon she will teach a class called Lifetme Team, Activities.

     Next year, William Jewell will up to NCAA Division 2 – mostly because of its academic successes, said Cress. The change will bring many opportunities as well as the challenges of traveling to all of the other 15 teams in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, including to colleges in Kentucky and southern Indiana.

Coaching with Shep

     For two years, Cress had a very rare and special opportunity that few high school players dream of: Having their coach be one of their assistants.

     Shep was an assistant coach at William Jewell for two years before returning to Iowa last year.

     “My players loved him,” she said. “It was a great fit. He knew how to get me fired up. He was great with people and great with the players. It was hard to see him go. A lot that I do as a coach I learned from him.”

     Cress speaks to her former coach once every week or two.

      “I think people were wondering how that would work, but it was a great fit and I still miss him. It was hard for his family life when he was here and they were in Iowa, so he needed to make a change. I think if you would ask both of us we would both agree those two years were pretty special,” said Cress. “It was a lot of fun and it as a great experience for me.”

     Shepherd is coaching at the high school level again, this time at West Delaware (Vinton-Shellsburg does not play WD this year, although they are both in the WaMaC Conference).

Family life

     Cress said she had an opportunity to take a job at Upper Iowa, which would have brought her closer to her parents, Harold and Dru Rector, and her twin sister, Megan Rickels. But she said she is at home at William Jewell and plans to stay there for the foreseeable future.

     “I have four kids and all of them went with me to work in their first year of life,” she said. “The college was very good about that.”

     Cress met her husband Rex, also a Vinton native, in Hawaii.

     “I was friends with his brother in high school and when our team went to Hawaii, I asked him for Rex’s number so he could show the team around,” she said, explaining that Rex was stationed there with the U.S. Army. “Rex and I had a really great time in Hawaii.” The couple now have four children.

2010 season

     In addition to coaching without Shep, Cress lost three seniors to graduation, her post player transferred to another school, two players were injured and another declared ineligible.

   Despite those challenges, the team is 6-3 on the season.

Former players are now coaches

     Like Shep, Cress has been coaching long enough to see some of her players become successful teachers and coaches, as well.

    “I received three text messages today from past players, wishing us good luck for the game tonight,” she said. “I have many former players who are now coaching and teaching. One of them coached the high school state champion in Columbia, Mo, a couple years ago. A couple more are coaching on the college scene.”

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Below is the press release from William Jewell after Cress's 300th win:

  A 1989 Washington High School graduate reached a collegiate coaching milestone with the William Jewell College women's basketball team's 70-55 victory over University of Missouri S & T on Monday, November 23.

     Jewell head coach Jill Cress recorded her 300th victory at William Jewell. Cress, currently in her 15th season at Jewell, has compiled a 300-166 (.643) coaching record during that time and is the school's all-time leader in career wins for women's basketball. 

     In her tenure at Jewell, Cress has helped make the Cardinals one of the consistent front-runners in the competitive Heart of America Athletic conference, considered one of the strongest NAIA conferences in the nation. The Cardinals have been to the National Tournament seven of the last nine years, including three "Sweet 16" appearances. During her tenure at Jewell, Cress has had the opportunity to coach 8 All-Americans (14 selections) and 16 Academic All-Americans (31 selections).

     A native of Vinton, Iowa, Cress has compiled a current 311-173 (.642) career coaching record in 15 and a half seasons within the collegiate ranks that included a half-season stint at Ottawa University.

     Jill and her husband Rex have four children, Addisyn, Tyson, Leighton and Rylan, and reside in Blue Springs, Mo. 

   See Jill's coach's page on the William Jewell web site HERE