Published on April 29, 2026 6:52 am
Last Updated on April 29, 2026 6:56 am
Tyler Niebrugge with his family, wife Sydney, son Jackson and daughter Sloan.
BY MILLIE LANGE
A former St. Anthony student was named head girls basketball coach at . . . St. Anthony High School. Tyler Niebrugge will take over the duties for Coach Bart Wiedman and assistant coach Craig Carr next season.
Niebrugge attended St. Anthony through the fifth grade. He then attended Effingham grades six through his junior year before graduating from Altamont High School in 2006.
“I played both basketball and baseball my senior year at Altamont,” said Niebrugge. “When I attended Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, I fell in love with basketball. I joined the scout team for the Southern Illinois University/Edwardsville women’s basketball team.
“I bounced around from one job to another where I finally decided that I wanted to get into coaching basketball at the high school level. During the 2017-18 season I was hired as the freshman/sophomore basketball coach at Altamont and learned a lot about coaching basketball from John Niebrugge.
“From there, my wife and I moved to Sullivan and I took up coaching eighth-grade basketball at Central A&M Junior High School. After a two-year stint at the junior high level, I was asked to join new boys varsity head coach Mike Greer as his freshman/sophomore coach.
“Mike taught me a lot about how to handle adversity and overcome challenges that happen outside the basketball court. Lastly I was the junior varsity coach for the current girls varsity head coach Mitch Cloe.
“Between my time coaching with Mitch and my classroom, I learned that my teaching and coaching style was more effective with girls than it was boys. I found myself to be a better girls coach than a boys coach.”
When asked about his coaching style, Niebrugge said:
“I don’t necessarily have a style of offensive play that I am dedicated to. The offense a team runs will usually be dictated by the talent and skill sets the team has. Success for our team will be to take care of the basketball, play aggressive defense, and limit the number of good possessions our opponents have.
“That seems cliche to say, but those are things that take 0% talent and 100% hard work and effort.
“To me, a successful team is one that competes. What I mean by compete is to give every game 100% effort and leave everything we have on the court. Competing is giving ourselves a chance to win every single game simply because we refuse to give up.”
Along with coaching baskeball Niebrugge recently took a job at W.E.T. Pools & Spas in Effingham.