Nyla Milleson

The architect of the Drury Lady Panthers basketball program that established itself as a national power in NCAA-II, has returned to Drury University to lead its Athletics Department. Nyla Milleson, Drury’s first women’s basketball head coach, was named as the next Vice President and Director of Athletics by the university president, Dr. Tim Cloyd on Feb. 21, 2022. She will serve as a consulting director of athletics until June 1, 2022, when she will assume the full responsibilities of the department.

She is the first woman to lead an athletics department at any of Springfield’s collegiate programs, including Drury, Missouri State, and Evangel.

Milleson was the first head coach for the Drury women’s basketball program when the team launched in the 2000-01 season. She built the team into a national power immediately as Drury won 20 games in its first year and reached the NCAA-II championship game in just their fourth season. In seven years as Drury’s head coach, Milleson posted a record of 185-36, her teams appeared in five NCAA-II tournaments, won three conference championships, two NCAA-II Regional championships, and the 2004 team was the national runner-up. She was named Coach of the Year in the Heartland Conference four times and won the same award in the Great Lakes Valley Conference twice.