Story by Wyatt Ebersole
After the separation of one of the most successful head/assistant coach duos in recent Jayhawk Conference history, the split has blossomed into one of the nation's best head-to-head rivalries. When Kyle Fisher left Coffeyville to become the head coach men's basketball of the Butler Grizzlies, he sparked the birth of one the most entertaining rivalries in junior college basketball.
Kyle Fisher spent seven very successful seasons as Jay Herkelman's top assistant at Coffeyville from 2012-2019 where the Red Ravens went a remarkable 179-55 in the Herkelman/Fisher era. The Red Ravens made four appearances at the NJCAA National Tournament over that same time, including a final four appearance in Fisher's last season at Coffeyville.
Kyle Fisher left Coffeyville after the 2018-19 season to take the head coaching job at Butler where he quickly developed the Grizzlies into a top-tier junior college basketball program. A team that plays as a unit and one that prides itself on discipline and defense, much like Herkelman's Coffeyville teams.
Fisher's Grizzlies and Herkelman's Red Ravens clashed for the first time on February 1st, 2020, at the Power Plant in El Dorado. The game would serve as a preview of the gritty, competitive games that would define this rivalry. In the first meeting between the now rival coaches, but still very close friends, it was Fisher's crew that came out on top, 71-64 behind 17 points from Javaunte Hawkins and 16 from Shawn Hopkins in a game that outside of the personal impact for the two coaches, had big implications on the conference standings. Coach Fisher had this to say at the time of the win, "When that final buzzer went off, I felt relief," said head coach Kyle Fisher after Butler's win over the school he spent the last seven seasons at. "It was weird. The last few days had been weird because we are really good friends, really competitive and I know those players really well, but I didn't want to make this about me or coach Herk (Herkelman), it was about our players and a big conference game with playoff implications."
In the first game of the rivalry, Kyle Fisher took a 1-0 advantage.
The next game was a dramatic one, the return of Kyle Fisher to Nellis Hall and the house that Jay Herkelman had built in Coffeyville. Fisher's return to the Red Raven Hall was not a successful one as the Red Ravens enacted some revenge on the Grizzlies collecting the 77-73 win to close out the 2019-20 regular season.
Their next matchup, however, would be their biggest one yet.
The Grizzlies and Red Ravens would both fight their way in dramatic fashion all the way to the Region VI Championship where the teacher vs student battle would enter the spotlight on the biggest stage. The game was once again very close, a back-and-forth storybook game that quite literally came down to the final play. In a tie game at 81 with 1.9 seconds on the clock and the ball, coach Herk drew up a masterful lob play to the Jayhawk Conference Player of the Year Meikkel Murray that Murray was able lay in to win the Region VI Championship for the Red Ravens of Coffeyville, the fourth consecutive title for the Ravens, but the first they had won without Kyle Fisher since 2010-11. To this date, this is the only postseason meeting between Butler and Coffeyville in the Fisher/Herkelman era.
In the second year of the rivalry in the 2020-21, coach Herkelman's Red Ravens were nearly unstoppable. Coach Herk and the Red Ravens would defeat the Grizzlies in both of their matchups this season, winning the first game in El Dorado, 76-66 and the second game at Coffeyville 81-68. These two games have the largest margin of victory for either team in the Fisher/Herk era and are the only two games to be decided by double-digit points. Coffeyville would ultimately go on to achieve the ultimate glory this season, winning the NJCAA National Championship 108-99 over KJCCC rival Cowley to capture the programs first ever national title. In addition to the national title, coach Herk held a 4-1 advantage over his former assistant Kyle Fisher in their already fiercely competitive head-to-head series.
In their next matchup on December 1st, 2021, it was Fisher's crew who would come out on top. The Grizzlies would hold Coffeyville to their lowest scoring marks in the Fisher/Herk series at just 52 points in the Grizzlies 61-52 victory in the Power Plant. Butler's Eden Holt scored 26 points in this game, making six of the Grizzlies seven threes in the game. Eden's 26 points scored in the game are the most scored by one player on either side in a single game in this series.
Two months later, on February 7th, Kyle Fisher would achieve something he had not done to this point in his career. Pick up a win as a head coach on the road in Coffeyville. The Grizzlies would overcome an eight-point halftime deficit to earn a 67-59 victory and the first by Kyle Fisher at Nellis Hall in his head coaching career. It was the first win by Butler at Coffeyville since 2017.
Earlier this year, the most recent battle of these two friends and rivals took place at Coffeyville on December 1st. The Grizzlies would pull out a miraculous win, overcoming an 18-point second half deficit to stun the Red Ravens and coach Herkelman on their home floor. It is the only loss that Coffeyville has suffered at home this season
The ninth and series tie-breaking installment of this cutthroat and ferocious rivalry will take place at the Power Plant in El Dorado on Wednesday night with a tipoff scheduled for 7:30. The winner will take sole possession of first place in the ultra-competitive Jayhawk Conference and the victorious coach will take a 5-4 lead in the Kyle Fisher and Jay Herkelman rivalry.
