Harmony grad named WIU head coach

MACOMB, Ill. — Chad Boudreau had called his wife, Stacy, to let her know he had signed the contract to become Western Illinois University’s head men’s basketball coach.
A little while later, Stacy, who is the volleyball coach at Wisconsin-Whitewater and has an NCAA Division III national championship on her resumé, called her husband back with a message.
“She said, ‘Hey, congrats. I’ve got things going on. But I wanted to let you know that I’ve won between 500-600 games, I’ve won a national championship, I’ve been to Final Fours. Good luck catching me. Go get ‘em,’” Boudreau said, smiling.
Boudreau, a native of Farmington and a graduate of Harmony High School, was named the Leathernecks’ coach on Thursday, replacing Rob Jeter, who left after three seasons to become the head coach at Southern Utah.
Boudreau, who has been the Leathernecks’ associate head coach since Jeter was hired in 2020, could have joined Jeter at Southern Utah, but said the decision to stay at Western Illinois was simple.
“In the end, I wanted to be here,” Boudreau said. “It’s home. Home is important to me.”
That kind of attitude, athletics director Paul Bubb said, is why Boudreau was at the top of his list of candidates when Jeter called Bubb on Friday to tell him he was leaving.
“My question was, was he going to go with (Jeter) or could I convince him to stay here?” Bubb said. “I didn’t have to convince him, because this is where he wants to be.
“A lot of coaches look at jobs like this as stepping stones, whether they’re trying to get back into (coaching), get their careers going again, or jump-start young careers. To me, somebody who wants to be here, and doesn’t look at this as a stepping stone, but as a lifestyle, a place they want to be because they want the same pride they have in this area to be felt by everybody else, that is so important to me.”
The Leathernecks are coming off back-to-back 16-win seasons, the program’s best run since 2012-13.
“When I took this (in 2020), I got just as many texts as I got now, saying, ‘What are you doing?’ Boudreau said. “I said, ‘It’s home. I’m proud of where I’m from.’ And I think I’ve articulated that. I’m very proud of where I’m from. And because of that, that’s going to boil over to who I am as a head coach. I want to represent the Tri-State area. I want to win. I want to bring excitement. I want people in Macomb to be excited. I want everyone around us to be excited.”
The Leathernecks lost guard Trenton Massner, a first-team All-Summit League selection, but return starters Jesiah West and Quinlan Bennett along with key reserve K.J. Lee.
“I know a couple of them had opportunities to transfer, and still have opportunities to transfer, but they’re not going to,” Boudreau said. “The reason is, we are family.”
That kind of relationship, Bubb said, is important.
“I do believe the chemistry, the relationships he has with the players, that does exist, and he’s looking forward to keeping that moving forward,” Bubb said.
Boudreau was head coach at Highland College in Freeport, Illinois before joining the Leathernecks. He led the Cougars to three consecutive Arrowhead Conference titles, with undefeated conference records in 2019 and 2020. He earned Arrowhead Conference Coach of the Year honors all three seasons and was named NJCAA Region IV Coach of the Year in 2018 and 2020.
Boudreau was an assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee under Jeter from 2005-2016. Boudreau assisted Milwaukee to Horizon League championships in 2006, 2011, and 2014, and the Panthers qualified for six postseason tournaments during the 11 years. Before that, Boudreau was the lead assistant at Indian Hills Community College from 1999-2005.
Boudreau graduated from Hannibal-LaGrange College with a bachelor's degree in education in 1995 and from Southwest Baptist University with a master's degree in education in 1999.
Boudreau was a member of Harmony’s 1991 boys basketball team that reached the state tournament. He remembered having a chance to move to Quincy, Ill., when he was a sophomore to play there.
“I wanted to go the state tournament at Harmony High School, because it had never been done,” he said. “My senior year, we took a team to the state tournament. And it was amazing. Nobody expected us to do it. I expected us to do that then, I expect us to do that now.
“And I want to do something special.”