Remembering Art Siebels: A coach and a friend

Our condolences to the family of former area college basketball coach Art Siebels, who died on Friday, April 23 in St. Peters, Mo. Siebels spent more than 20 seasons on the bench as the head coach at Missouri Baptist University, Columbia College and Lindenwood University.

 I had the pleasure of working for Art as his assistant coach at Lindenwood for three seasons. Not only was he an excellent coach, but he was an a wonderful man and great friend. He always cared about his players on and off the basketball court. I learned many things from Art during the years that I worked for him. Not only did I learn a lot of basketball, but the positive way in which he dealt with people.

 I really enjoyed my association with Art and his wife Connee over the years. She has been by his side through all the ups and downs of his successful coaching career and she was there for him as he battled his illness in recent years.

  Siebels began his coaching career at Missouri Baptist, where he led the program from 1970 to 1974. One of his top recruiting victories while at MoBap was getting former Sumner standout guard Travis Brown off that great 1969 Class L state-championship team. Brown enjoyed a Hall of Fame collegiate career under Siebels' guidance. He was one of the top players in Missouri Baptist history. Siebels, himself, was inducted into the Missouri Baptist Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005.

  "He was a great human being," Brown said. "He was instrumental in my development as an athlete and as a man. He was a coach, a Christian and a friend. He helped me in so many ways on and off the court and I learned so much from him. We remained friends forever."

  Siebels continued his career at Columbia College, where he was the head coach from 1977 to 1988. I was a player at Lindenwood during the mid-1980's when Art was still at Columbia. I remember having some great games between Lindenwood and Columbia during my four years. Art had some great players such as Michael Hayden, Tony Conway, Myron Horton and Verlon Timms during that span. All of our games went down to the wire. After 11 seasons in Columbia, he became the head coach at Lindenwood for the next six seasons. I spent three of those years with him as his assistant.

  After leaving the college basketball program at LU, Art stayed on at the school as the golf coach and in other various capacities. He was the Coach of the Year in the American Midwest Conference in 1996.

  Art is survived by his wife, Connee, his children Kathy Maupin and Michael Siebels and six grandchildren.

  Visitiation will be held on Tuesday, April 27 at Baue Funeral & Memorial Center (3950 West Clay) in St. Charles. The funeral service will be held on Wednesday, April 28, at Parkway Baptist Church (12465 Olive Blvd.) in Creve Coeur at 10 a.m. Another visitation serviced will be held at 9 a.m. before the funeral.