Patrick Nee is the new head basketball coach for the ACC Red Devils.
If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Nee served as assistant coach for the Red Devils in 2021-2022.
Nee has served as a head coach and assistant coach around the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference as well as in Oklahoma and Texas for over 20 years.
Nee was assistant coach under former head coach Andy Shaw when Allen went to the NJCAA DII National Championship in 2021. That season saw the Red Devils secure their first KJCCC Conference title since 1989 and finished with an overall record of 28-7.
“The biggest reason I wanted to come back was because it’s such a family atmosphere at Allen and in Iola. I appreciate the feeling of the town where people are really looking out for you,” said Nee. “I thought that would be the case everywhere, but not every school works at it like Allen does.”
“When this job opened up, it was a no-brainer for me to come back,” Nee added.
Nee was most recently the head coach at Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa College.
“The Jayhawk is the best run junior college league in the country,” said Nee. “The thing that makes the Jayhawk great is every little town you go to in our league, it means something to those people.”
Nee said he hopes to continue some of Shaw’s strategies, including the goal of holding teams below 60 points.
“Andy’s (Shaw) extremely organized and I learned a lot from him and I think he learned a lot from me so we were a good team,” said Nee. “Just knowing how day to day operations work is going to help a lot.”
Nee began his career as an assistant coach at Central Florida Community College from 2002-03 and then coached at Hargrave Military Prep from 2003-04.
He joined the KJCCC when he assisted at Independence Community College 2004-06 before taking his first head coaching role at Highland Community College. Nee was at Highland for three years (2006-09) before going back to Independence.
“At this level I think winning is important but moving your guys on and building a program where players come in and do their job for two years is too,” Nee said. “They’re going to be rewarded with the scholarship on the back half and we want to be known as one of those programs.”
Nee took over as the head coach his second time back at Independence and stayed for four years. He then went to Seward Community College where he assisted for four years (2013-17) before departing for Garden City.
At Garden City, Nee spent one year as an assistant and two years as head coach.
