Matt Bolger joined the Missouri State staff as Director of Operations prior to the 2016-17 season. Among his duties as director of operations, Bolger oversees Missouri State’s film exchange and equipment operations, coordinates team travel arrangements and operates Lady Bear basketball camps.
“I believe that Matt Bolger is a terrific fit with our staff and program,” head coach Kellie Harper said at the time of his hiring. “First and foremost, he is a wonderful person. In addition, Matt was a very successful coach at the high school level and will be able to bring many of those winning attributes to our program. My staff and I are looking forward to working with Matt.”
Bolger comes to Missouri State after spending the last two seasons as head girls basketball coach at Regina High in Iowa City, Iowa, guiding his team to a 46-5 record over that time. He earned three separate Coach of the Year honors in 2016 after leading Regina to a 25-1 record and state semifinal appearance.
Prior to his time in Iowa City, Bolger served three seasons as an assistant coach at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he was the lead recruiter and mentored one All-American while coaching the team’s post players.
Bolger made two additional high school coaching stops before joining the college ranks at Mount Mercy, beginning with a three-year stint as head girls coach at Bishop DuBourg High in St. Louis from 2008-11, where he engineered a turnaround that saw the team win 45 games in his three seasons after just 10 victories the previous three years.
His coaching career began with four seasons as the head girls coach at Iowa Valley High in his hometown of Marengo, Iowa, where the team went from a 1-21 record in 2005 to a 19-3 mark in 2008, and won the school’s first conference and district title in 22 years with a 19-5 record in 2007.
Bolger graduated from Drake University in 2003 as a double major in elementary education and radio-television, and earned his Master of Arts in education and innovation from Webster in 2012. He and his wife Holly, have two daughters, Averie and Harper, and one son, Bennett.
