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Head
Coach Jim Sykes
Phone: 712-274-5371
E-Mail: sykes@morningside.edu
 Jim Sykes has been a consistent winner at Morningside since he was promoted to the position of head coach in January of the 2003-04 campaign. Sykes has led the Mustangs to seven winning seasons in the last nine years, including four 20-win campaigns, three NAIA Division II National Tournament berths, three Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) regular season championships, and a GPAC Post-Season Tournament championship. He has a career record of 174-94 for a .649 winning percentage for the highest victory rate in school history.
Sykes guided the Mustangs to consecutive GPAC regular season championships in 2007-08 and 2008-09. The Mustangs repeated as GPAC champions in 2008-09 despite the graduation loss of seven seniors, including four starters, from a team that went 29-4 in 2007-08 to set a school record for victories and was ranked No. 1 in the nation for much of the season. He was named the 2008 GPAC Coach of the Year after he guided the Mustangs to the regular season GPAC title.
He has led the Mustangs to three NAIA Division II National Tournament appearances. Sykes guided the Mustangs to a 28-7 record, the GPAC's post-season tournament championship, and the Elite Eight of the NAIA Division II National Tournament during the 2005-06 campaign. The Mustangs reached the second round of the 2008 and 2009 national tournaments.
Sykes guided the Mustangs to a 20-11 record in 2004-05 for the college's first 20-win season since 1994-95.
He was named the Mustangs' head coach on March 29, 2004, after he led the Mustangs to a strong second half finish during the 2003-04 season while serving as the team's head coach on an interim basis. Sykes, who was in his third year as the Mustangs' top assistant coach, took over the program on an interim basis after former head coach Jerry Schmutte took a medical leave of absence.
The Mustangs posted
a 9-3 record under Sykes en route to an 18-13 finish and a
14-4 record in the GPAC to share the league's regular season
championship with Northwestern College. Sykes was named
the 2004 GPAC Coach of the Year for his efforts. The Mustangs, who
had finished 10-22 during the 2002-03 campaign, were the surprise
team of the GPAC after they had been tabbed for a 12th place
finish in the conference coaches’ pre-season poll.
He came to Morningside
from Waverly, Neb., where he had been a coach at Waverly High
School for 10 years. He was an assistant coach for Waverly's
varsity boy's basketball and football teams and was a junior
high school track coach. Sykes helped lead Waverly to a berth
in Nebraska's 1995 Class B state basketball tournament.
He graduated from
the University of Nebraska in 1989. Sykes previously attended
Hastings College, where he was a member of the Broncos' men's
basketball team for two years.
Assistant
Coach Anthony Elias
Phone: 712-274-5372
E-Mail: eliasa@morningside.edu
Anthony Elias is in his first year at Morningside after joining the Mustangs' coaching staff in the summer of 2012.
Elias came to Morningside from Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Ore., where he was hired as the school's head coach following the 2011-12 campaign.
Elias was previously the head assistant men’s basketball coach at GPAC rival Concordia University, where he was a member of the Bulldogs’ staff from 2006-12. Elias was the head coach at Mt. Pleasant High School in San Jose, Calif., and the head assistant coach at Cuyamaca Community College in El Cajon, Calif., earlier in his career.
Elias is a 2006 graduate of Concordia and earned a master’s degree from Concordia University-Chicago in 2009.
He was a two-year letterwinner at Concordia and averaged 10.6 points per game and led the Bulldogs with 97 assists during the 2003-04 campaign. Elias also played two seasons at Cuyamaca CC, where he set school records with 36 points and eight 3-point field goals in one game and earned All-Pacific Coast Conference honors.
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