Mike Hilmer earns national coach of year honor from NFHS

CEDAR RAPIDS - He’s not a basketball coach right now, but the legacy he left in the profession is mammoth.

Mike Hilmer has been named one of 24 winners of a National Coaches of the Year honor by the NFHS Coaches Association. The NFHS is the National Federation of State High School Associations.

“The NFHS, which has been recognizing coaches through an awards program since 1982, honors coaches in the top 10 girls’ sports and top 10 boys’ sports (by participation numbers), and in two “other” sports – one for boys and one for girls – that are not included in the top 10 listings.

This year, it was a “Spirit” coach, an “Adapted/Allied/Unified” coach, a boys’ ice hockey coach and girls’ field hockey coach. The honors are for the 2023-24 school year.

Hilmer led North Linn to the 2024 Class 1A boys’ state basketball championship.

“It would be an understatement to say that Mike Hilmer built a boys’ basketball dynasty at North Linn High School in Troy Mills, Iowa,” said a release from the NFHS. “Since 2015, Hilmer’s teams have won 234 games and lost just nine. Since 2018, North Linn has reached the Iowa High School Athletic Association Class 1A state championship every year – an amazing seven consecutive seasons – winning a state title three times, including in 2024.

“In 33 years of coaching, Hilmer – who left North Linn at the end of last year to become the superintendent of Bellevue (Iowa) Schools – has a career record of 525-239 and has been named State Coach of the Year six times. At the state level, Hilmer was on the Board of Directors of the Iowa Basketball Coaches Association for 10 years and the IHSAA Boys Basketball Advisory Committee for six years. In addition to basketball, Hilmer coached boys’ and girls’ golf and softball during his coaching career.”

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