
Micheal Mosley was in his first season as Bloomington High School’s head basketball coach. It wasn’t going well.
“I was 0-16 at the time,” Mosley said.
Yet, one day he went to his mailbox and found comforting words. Twenty years removed from his graduation from Peoria Manual High School, Mosley heard from his former basketball coach, Dick Van Scyoc.
“I was like, ‘How did Coach Van even get my address?’” Mosley said. “He wrote me a handwritten note. He encouraged me and said he’s following us, that he’s seeing we’re progressing every day and that he was proud. I still have the letter.”
As much as it meant in that 2011-12 season, it means more now. An icon in Illinois basketball and, especially, in Peoria, Van Scyoc died last week at 98. He leaves a legacy of victories … a good many on the court (826), countless others off it.
For Mosley, he instilled values and expectations that served him well in eight years as BHS’ head coach — a 142-91 record and a 2017 Class 3A third-place state finish — and in his ongoing role as Information Security Manager at State Farm Insurance Company.

Bloomington basketball coach Micheal Mosley talks to his team during their Big 12 Conference game in 2019.
Mosley was a ball boy in the Manual program before becoming a player, graduating in 1991 with stars Howard Nathan and Derrick Booth. His connections to Van Scyoc included living in the same West Bluff neighborhood of Peoria.
“He was my ride to school, my ride home a lot of the time,” Mosley said. “He kind of filled that gap (between home and school). I used to come to basketball camps with him. My dad (also Micheal) was like, from a basketball perspective, ‘He’s yours now.’ That shows the type of confidence people in our community had in Coach Van as a person.
“He was always present, whether it was coming to see kids play outside games, pickup games, in Peoria to making sure that kids could get to school, get to practice, get to your job. He opened my eyes to those things as well as to volunteering … going into elementary schools, reading, mentoring, serving as a teacher’s assistant.”
A Eureka native and Illinois Wesleyan graduate, Van Scyoc had strong ties to the Pantagraph area. Yet, after two seasons as coach at Armington and 15 at Washington, including a state tournament berth, he became a legend in 28 years at Manual.
His final win was the 1994 Class AA state championship game, giving Manual the first of its four straight titles. He retired as the state record-holder for career victories and now ranks fifth.

Van Scyoc coached Manual to fourth in the state in 1972, third in 1986 and 1988, and second in 1991 before winning the 1994 championship.
Beyond the numbers, the former IWU star left-handed pitcher and World War II veteran was a man who connected with students — not just players — and was willing to be whoever they needed him to be.
In 1994, when he was three wins shy of setting the state record, Van Scyoc told me how his role changed after moving from Washington to Manual.
“In Washington, parents were involved in everything with their offspring. At Manual, so many kids only have one parent and that parent is busy working,” he said. “This is where a coach takes on some extra duties.
“You have to be kind of a sociologist, psychiatrist, doctor, lawyer … a little of everything. That’s why I never wanted to get into administration. I’d rather work with the kids than the adults.”
Mosley saw it firsthand. Van Scyoc headed a vocational program at Manual and became an Uber driver before we knew what that was.
“You would see his car with four or five kids in it and he was driving them to work in the middle of the day,” Mosley said. “He dropped them off, he’d come back and would swim, he’d go pick them up and then come to practice.
“It was amazing to see his investment in us, in the game of basketball and in the school. I think that’s what made him such a bigger person than just Manual basketball. He was embraced in our city, he was embraced when we traveled to Pontiac (for the holiday tournament), when we traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio (for a shootout).”
Mosley’s rides to Manual with Van Scyoc came early. Mosley was in an honors math class that met at 6 a.m. On days Mosley did not have class, Van Scyoc would pick him up before 6 anyway and they’d go to the gym, where a young Mosley tossed basketballs to ‘Coach Van,’ who then fed them to Manual’s big men in the post.
It was all part of the discipline and organization Van Scyoc brought to Mosley’s life and so many others. Mosley marveled at his former coach’s ability “to connect with everyone and make everybody feel valued.”
Mosley sought to do the same at Bloomington and has carried it over to the workplace. The lessons from Van Scyoc live on for the former BHS coach, who completed his dual Ph.D in computer science and decision management in 2020.
Would that have happened without Van Scyoc’s influence? No way to know.
“We respect and appreciate everything he brought to each one of us, to our city and especially to our school,” Mosley said.

PHOTOS: Former Bloomington coach Micheal Mosley

Bloomington basketball coach Micheal Mosley talks to his team during their Big 12 Conference game against Peoria Notre Dame in February at the Robert Frank Sports Complex. Mosley said Friday he has resigned after eight years as the Raiders’ coach highlighted by a third-place finish in the 2017 Class 3A State Tournament.
Bloomington High School’s Colton Sandage and head coach Micheal Mosley talk after the Purple Raiders came back from a deficit to defeat Springfield Lanphier in the Class 3A third place game Saturday, March 18, 2017, at Carver Arena in Peoria.
Bloomington head boys basketball coach Micheal Mosley calls a play during the Purple Raiders’ Big 12 Conference game against Normal Community on Friday, Jan. 25, 2019, at BHS’ Robert Frank Sports Complex. Normal Community slipped past Bloomington, 61-56.
Bloomington head basketball coach Micheal Mosley makes a point to his team in a timeout during a Big 12 Conference game against Champaign Central on Friday, Dec. 14, 2018, at BHS’ Robert Frank Sports Complex.
Bloomington head boys basketball coach Micheal Mosley gathers his team in a timeout during the Purple Raiders’ 67-48 victory over University High in the Intercity Boys Basketball Tournament on Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018, at Shirk Center.

Greg Patton (center) holds the 2017 Class 3A regional championship plaque while surrounded by the Bloomington High School basketball coaching staff, including head coach Micheal Mosley (second from right). Patton, a highly respected teacher and coach, died unexpectedly in August.

Pantagraph sports editor Randy Kindred, left, talks with then-Bloomington High School head boys basketball coach Micheal Mosley after the Purple Raiders fell to Normal West in 2017. Kindred, who has announced his retirement, was sports editor of The Pantagraph since 2012 and part of the sports staff for almost 42 years.

Bloomington coach Micheal Mosley, lower left, talks to his team before the start of the second half in Friday’s Big 12 Conference game against Peoria Richwoods at the Robert Frank Sports Complex. BHS won, 73-52.
Joe Deacon
Bloomington High School basketball coach Micheal Mosley takes a defensive stance on the sidelines as Rayquon Fuller, left, guards Normal Community’s Dishon Hall during a Jan. 19, 2018 game at NCHS. Mosley has resigned after eight seasons as BHS coach.
Bloomington head boys basketball coach Micheal Mosley talks to his team during a timeout on Friday, Jan. 12, 2018 at the Robert Frank Sports Complex. BHS emerged victorious over Champaign Centennial, 59-45.
Bloomington head boys basketball coach Micheal Mosley yells out to his players as a timeout is called during the Purple Raiders’ 66-58 loss to Danville on Friday, Jan. 5, 2018 at the Robert Frank Sports Complex in Bloomington.
Bloomington head basketball coach Micheal Mosley signals a play during the Purple Raiders’ Big 12 Conference game against Normal West on Friday night, Dec. 8, 2017 at the Robert Frank Sports Complex in Bloomington.
Bloomington High School head boys basketball coach Micheal Mosley walks through a corridor of students Thursday, March 16, 2017, as the Purple Raiders depart for the IHSA Class 3A state championship tournament in Peoria.

The style of play preached by Bloomington basketball coach Micheal Mosley has been pleasing to fans and players alike. The 26-4 Purple Raiders will display their up-tempo system in the Class 3A state semifinals at 11 a.m. Friday at Peoria’s Carver Arena.
Dan McNeile
Bloomington basketball coach Micheal Mosley hugs guard Chris Pugh (5) after the Raiders defeated Marengo 69-46 in the Class 3A super-sectional Tuesday at the Northern Illinois University Convocation Center in DeKalb.
Bloomington guard Dazon Farris, right, gets instructions from coach Micheal Mosley during their Class 3A sectional championship game Friday against Washington at Bradley University’s Renaissance Coliseum.

Bloomington coach Micheal Mosley, lower left, instructs his team during a timeout in the second half of Friday’s Big 12 Conference game against Urbana at the Robert Frank Sports Complex. The third-ranked Purple Raiders suffered a 78-74 overtime loss.
Joe Deacon

Bloomington High School coach Micheal Mosley gives instructions to his team between the first and second quarters of Wednesday’s Pontiac Holiday Tournament first-round game against Warren.
Dan McNeile

Mosley

Bloomington High School basketball coach Micheal Mosley motions to his team during a game Dec. 3, 2011. Mosley’s Purple Raiders have a 7-2 record and have won five straight games heading into this week’s Pontiac Holiday Tournament. (Pantagraph/CARLOS T. MIRANDA)

Bloomington’s Coach Micheal Mosley takes a time out with his
players during the game against West at BHS Tuesday evening,
January 31, 2012. (The Pantagraph/LORI ANN COOK-NEISLER)
Bloomington coach Micheal Mosley yells at his team during their game against Washington Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011, in Bloomington. (Pantagraph/CARLOS T. MIRANDA)
Randy Kindred is a columnist and retired sports editor at The Pantagraph.
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