Hall of Fame
After two years at John Brown University, Terrie Dresh's plan was to transfer to Southwest Missouri State and play field hockey.
However, her plans changed.
"That didn't work out because I met Sallie Beard -- she was Sallie Roper then -- on the tennis courts, and she talked me into going to Missouri Southern," Terrie said. "I met her through playing on Ozark Athletics (softball team), and she also was a good tennis player. So both ways, she talked me into coming to Missouri Southern."
Terrie enrolled at Missouri Southern and became one of the school's first female athletes after Title IX changed the sports world.
It started when a small group of women went into Sallie's office and said they wanted to have a basketball team.
"I think there were at least three or four of us," Terrie said. "We went in there because the people I was associated with through softball wanted to play. I said sure, let's go do it."
After this "I'll-go-if-you'll-go" meeting with Sallie, a women's basketball program was started at Missouri Southern. More sports followed, and Sallie, who wasn't that many years older than the athletes, coached them all at some point.
Terrie also played tennis at Missouri Southern, and she was the player-coach her senior year.
"It was quite an honor to get things going," Terrie said. "I wanted the girls who wanted to play to have the opportunity that I did when I was in high school, to travel and to play other teams. I did play volleyball and basketball at John Brown ... I'd never played volleyball before."
Unlike almost all of her Missouri Southern teammates, Terrie played sports in high school. She graduated from Pitman (New Jersey) High School in 1972 and was a three-sport athlete.
"I was blessed because I got to play field hockey in the fall," she said. "Then in the winter it was basketball, and in the spring it was tennis. Back then, women's sports was big. We had a freshman team in basketball, a jayvee team and a varsity team. And it was the same thing for field hockey, a freshman team, jayvee team, varsity team. We had leagues -- we were in the Tri-County League -- and my coach, Mrs. Madelyn Chilmento, was known all over the state for being a good coach, and we were good. I learned a lot from her, how to work with kids, encourage them and discipline them when it needed to be done.
"Then I moved out here to Missouri, and there wasn't hardly any sports for girls. I was very, very surprised. Some of the girls I played softball with on Ozark Athletics never had a chance to do that. It was really kind of sad."
After college, Terrie was a teacher and coach for 40 years -- two years at Joplin Memorial, 17 years at College Heights Christian School where she helped develop the athletic success and 21 years at North Middle School. She coached volleyball and basketball at all three schools and added track and cross country while she was at North.
"This is quite an honor," Terrie said about her Hall of Fame induction. "I was blessed and fortunate to have all my jobs in Joplin. I loved all my kids, I loved all my athletic directors and the coaches who were in my building. I was fortunate and blessed. That was just part of my job is to be a coach to these young women and help them to like and enjoy playing sports, either volleyball or running track or playing basketball," Terrie said. "And I had good kids. They were hard workers. They wanted to learn, and they wanted to play."
Terrie is retired but still serves as a substitute teacher.
