Trimmer bringing changes to 'Cats

DEXTER -- With the hiring of Chris Trimmer, the Dexter Bearcats boys basketball team will be getting a head coach that has been around the coaching block in Missouri.

Trimmer, 46, comes to Dexter with over 280 varsity wins and 15 years of head coaching experience. He comes to Dexter from Ste. Genevieve, where he coached basketball from 1993-2000.

Since then Trimmer has not been a head coach, but he has assisted at St. Pius X in Festus. He then spent the last two years as an assistant coach at Crystal City. All of this while maintaining his teaching duties at Ste. Genevieve.

Trimmer had previous coaching stops at North Shelby, Windsor, Crystal City and Cassville. He led Crystal City to the state playoffs for the first time in seven years in 1991.

In addition, Trimmer spent time on the gridiron sidelines as defensive and offensive coordinators for 10 years.

Trimmer will be an assistant football coach for the Bearcats as well, coaching the offensive and defensive lines.

Trimmer, entering his 24th year as a Missouri teacher, will teach junior government at Dexter.

One of the things that attracted Trimmer to Dexter was the opportunity to play in a premier basketball conference.

"The SEMO Conference is one of the best conferences in the entire state of Missouri, I feel some of the best basketball in the state is played in that conference," said Trimmer. "The opportunity to play in that conference and coach at a school that has a strong basketball tradition is a good opportunity. I think Dexter did the right thing in joining that conference. You're seeing some of the best basketball teams and players in the state. I couldn't turn down such a wonderful opportunity."

So when asking Trimmer of his future goals at Dexter, it all started with making noise in the league.

"One of our goals is to be competitive in the SEMO Conference -- I'm a realist, I'm not saying we're going to go out and win the conference," said Trimmer. "But I want to be on the floor every night and be in the games. I want to be competitive and I think the first step in being a good basketball team is stepping up and meeting the level of competition you're playing and gaining some respect of those teams and let them know you're not one of those easy pushovers."

In addition to conference play, Trimmer hopes to use his team's tough regular season games and tournaments in hopes of preparing for an equally brutal district tournament.

"I like to be around on the final night of tournaments. I don't like early knockouts," said Trimmer. "I like to gain valuable experience and get prepared for that district, which is going to be awfully tough with Notre Dame and Sikeston. When you go into that district you're looking at incredibly tough competition. Our district is pretty much stacked. I would like to be competitive in our district and gain respect from those people."

Trimmer will also bring some new philosophies to Dexter, particularly on the defensive side.

"I'm a man to man defensive person first -- I really feel that if you can't play man-to-man then you'll have a difficult time winning at the state level," said Trimmer. "You might be able to slip by some teams with traps and zones at the district level but when you get to the best teams at state, if you can't match up and individually stop players then you'll have a difficult time. So that's one of the things I hope to bring to Dexter is strong, aggressive man to man defense. Pride, getting out and stopping your opponent."

Trimmer's offensive philosophies don't sound much different from Dexter teams of the past.

"I like to get out and move the ball and push it up the floor," he said. "I like the transition-type game. I know some years you can and some you can't depending on the level of athletes you've got. But if I can aggressively attack man-to-man and I can push the ball up the floor, I'm pretty much at home and comfortable there."

Trimmer, a native of Monett located in Southwest Missouri, graduated from high school in 1978 where he was a starting noseguard for Monett's state championship football in 1977 and a starter on the school's basketball team which lost to eventual state champion Nixa in the playoffs.

Dexter's basketball team is coming off a 10-16 season after experiencing a successful run of seven straight 20-win campaigns, including a district championship and final four run in 2004.

Trimmer will be replacing former coach Eric Sitze, who resigned after five years at the helm, compiling a record of 99-39

"The first year out is always difficult," said Trimmer. "I'll be asking the players to make a big change. Dexter has been traditionally the last several years a matchup zone team and I'm not a matchup zone guy. I think probably the most important goal to achieve in instilling a different program is getting everybody acclimated to the system and making sure everybody is comfortable and being as competitive as we can possibly be and build on that each year."