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Rick Insell found the address, drove to Franklin and marched to the front porch.
The former Middle Tennessee State women’s basketball coach held up his college degree when he reached the door of his former Woodbury High School coach, Jay Cole.
I don’t know if you’re smart enough to go to college.
Cole’s words years earlier “burned me to my core,” Insell said. After graduating, Insell looked Cole up so he could show him what smart looked like.
“He kind of laughed and said, ‘I knew you would (graduate).’ I knew I had to do something to motivate you,” Insell said. “And he did. He knew how to light my engine. He knew how to stoke that burn in my gut.”
Insell credits Cole with inspiring him to become a coach. Basketball fans in Tennessee know what happened next.
Insell, 75, went on a 49-year run at Shelbyville High School and MTSU before retiring after the 2025-26 season with 1,280 coaching wins. He is the recipient of The Tennessean’s 2026 Fred Russell Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes a Middle Tennessee area individual for their lifetime contribution to sports.
“I guess the most important piece of strategy that I got early on was my very first year,” Insell said. “I was winning and losing, winning and losing. I was trying to be three or four coaches that were friends of mine. Finally a guy by the name of Robert A. Harris (former Woodbury/Cannon County coach) said, ‘You know, you can't be all these guys. You gotta be you. You gotta be Rick.’
“Well, that night I went home and I sat down and I kind of wrote out what I wanted to do with our basketball team and that's kind of the direction I headed in.”
Insell’s golf game is improving.
He’s posting rounds in the low 80s despite missing his pinkie toe on his lead left foot. Insell was forced to have the toe amputated nine weeks ago when doctors found melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer.
That was 10 months removed from Insell’s first cancer diagnosis. Inoperable and incurable neuroendocrine tumors, a rare form of cancer. Doctors discovered he had it in August 2025 after a scare on the golf course.
Only a handful of close friends, co-workers and players knew of Insell’s diagnosis during his final season. He still led the Lady Raiders to 17 wins and a berth in the WNIT.
Insell didn’t retire because of cancer. He said the NIL and transfer portal era of college basketball wasn’t for him. Too much change, too fast, and better for his son, Matt, to handle as MTSU’s next coach.
Insell will still maintain an office at MTSU for a new role that is still being defined.
He approaches cancer like he did basketball, focusing on what he can control, so much so that besides his monthly treatments, he doesn’t think about his disease much at all.
“I don’t know the name of the cancer that’s inside of me,” Insell said. “But one of my doctors told me: ‘I can pretty much guarantee you that, you know, if you die, you're going to die of something besides cancer. Where we're at right now with this, I can give you 10 or 15 years.’ Well, I said, well, hell, I'm 75 years old. You can give me 15 years, that'd put me 90, so, you know, I'll take that.”
Insell's stubborn, never-lose attitude goes back to wooing his wife of 51 years, Deb.
“We met each other on September 28, 1974. And 10 days later, on my 18th birthday, October 8, he told me I was going to marry him,” Deb said. “And on March 28 (of that following year), I did.”
Three years later, Insell began a generational run as Shelbyville Central High School’s girls basketball coach. He went 775-148 and won 10 TSSAA Class AAA state championships, earning four national coach of the year honors.
He was a renowned coach on the AAU circuit, becoming lifelong friends with former Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summit. Shelbyville became one of the first high school girls programs to schedule games nationally — from Santa Barbara, California, to Miami. He was one of the first high school coaches to sign a team apparel deal with Nike in 1985.
In 2005, he broke the stigma that a high school coach couldn’t translate their success to the college level. He was hired at MTSU and became the winningest basketball coach in school history with 505 victories in 21 seasons, 21 consecutive postseason appearances and 12 NCAA Tournament berths. He was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.
“When I took the job at MTSU, I felt like I was carrying a big burden. And I'll tell you why. It was because of Gerry Faust at Notre Dame,” Insell said. “He was a high school coach, and he took the Notre Dame football job and failed. Not only did I feel like I had to make it, for myself and my family, but I had to make it for the other high school coaches around the country that maybe were not gonna get the opportunity because the ADs might look back and say, 'Well, look at Gerry Faust.' ”
Deb found out quickly what Insell was capable of after they married. Not once did he schedule a Division II, Division III or NAIA opponent.
He thrived in business management in their early years. But unhappy with work, he told his wife he'd quit his job to return to school so he could teach and coach. The Insells went from making about $30,000 a year to $8,000.
But Deb believed.
“Rick is not nurturing and cuddly,” she said. “But he somehow has the unique ability to make people reach down inside themselves and find the best in them. He’s done it over and over and over again with his players. And he did it with me. He’s done it with our boys. It’s just a real unique ability.”
Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at [email protected] and on the X platform,@tpalmateer83.
He also contributes to The Tennessean's high school sports newsletter, The Bootleg.Subscribe to The Bootleg here.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Rick Insell's lifetime achievement honor recognizes decades of success
Continue reading...
The former Middle Tennessee State women’s basketball coach held up his college degree when he reached the door of his former Woodbury High School coach, Jay Cole.
I don’t know if you’re smart enough to go to college.
Cole’s words years earlier “burned me to my core,” Insell said. After graduating, Insell looked Cole up so he could show him what smart looked like.
“He kind of laughed and said, ‘I knew you would (graduate).’ I knew I had to do something to motivate you,” Insell said. “And he did. He knew how to light my engine. He knew how to stoke that burn in my gut.”
Insell credits Cole with inspiring him to become a coach. Basketball fans in Tennessee know what happened next.
Insell, 75, went on a 49-year run at Shelbyville High School and MTSU before retiring after the 2025-26 season with 1,280 coaching wins. He is the recipient of The Tennessean’s 2026 Fred Russell Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes a Middle Tennessee area individual for their lifetime contribution to sports.
“I guess the most important piece of strategy that I got early on was my very first year,” Insell said. “I was winning and losing, winning and losing. I was trying to be three or four coaches that were friends of mine. Finally a guy by the name of Robert A. Harris (former Woodbury/Cannon County coach) said, ‘You know, you can't be all these guys. You gotta be you. You gotta be Rick.’
“Well, that night I went home and I sat down and I kind of wrote out what I wanted to do with our basketball team and that's kind of the direction I headed in.”
Rick Insell still active after cancer diagnosis
Insell’s golf game is improving.
He’s posting rounds in the low 80s despite missing his pinkie toe on his lead left foot. Insell was forced to have the toe amputated nine weeks ago when doctors found melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer.
That was 10 months removed from Insell’s first cancer diagnosis. Inoperable and incurable neuroendocrine tumors, a rare form of cancer. Doctors discovered he had it in August 2025 after a scare on the golf course.
Only a handful of close friends, co-workers and players knew of Insell’s diagnosis during his final season. He still led the Lady Raiders to 17 wins and a berth in the WNIT.
Insell didn’t retire because of cancer. He said the NIL and transfer portal era of college basketball wasn’t for him. Too much change, too fast, and better for his son, Matt, to handle as MTSU’s next coach.
Insell will still maintain an office at MTSU for a new role that is still being defined.
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He approaches cancer like he did basketball, focusing on what he can control, so much so that besides his monthly treatments, he doesn’t think about his disease much at all.
“I don’t know the name of the cancer that’s inside of me,” Insell said. “But one of my doctors told me: ‘I can pretty much guarantee you that, you know, if you die, you're going to die of something besides cancer. Where we're at right now with this, I can give you 10 or 15 years.’ Well, I said, well, hell, I'm 75 years old. You can give me 15 years, that'd put me 90, so, you know, I'll take that.”
Rick Insell’s first win was proposal to wife
Insell's stubborn, never-lose attitude goes back to wooing his wife of 51 years, Deb.
“We met each other on September 28, 1974. And 10 days later, on my 18th birthday, October 8, he told me I was going to marry him,” Deb said. “And on March 28 (of that following year), I did.”
Three years later, Insell began a generational run as Shelbyville Central High School’s girls basketball coach. He went 775-148 and won 10 TSSAA Class AAA state championships, earning four national coach of the year honors.
He was a renowned coach on the AAU circuit, becoming lifelong friends with former Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summit. Shelbyville became one of the first high school girls programs to schedule games nationally — from Santa Barbara, California, to Miami. He was one of the first high school coaches to sign a team apparel deal with Nike in 1985.
In 2005, he broke the stigma that a high school coach couldn’t translate their success to the college level. He was hired at MTSU and became the winningest basketball coach in school history with 505 victories in 21 seasons, 21 consecutive postseason appearances and 12 NCAA Tournament berths. He was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.
“When I took the job at MTSU, I felt like I was carrying a big burden. And I'll tell you why. It was because of Gerry Faust at Notre Dame,” Insell said. “He was a high school coach, and he took the Notre Dame football job and failed. Not only did I feel like I had to make it, for myself and my family, but I had to make it for the other high school coaches around the country that maybe were not gonna get the opportunity because the ADs might look back and say, 'Well, look at Gerry Faust.' ”
Deb found out quickly what Insell was capable of after they married. Not once did he schedule a Division II, Division III or NAIA opponent.
He thrived in business management in their early years. But unhappy with work, he told his wife he'd quit his job to return to school so he could teach and coach. The Insells went from making about $30,000 a year to $8,000.
But Deb believed.
“Rick is not nurturing and cuddly,” she said. “But he somehow has the unique ability to make people reach down inside themselves and find the best in them. He’s done it over and over and over again with his players. And he did it with me. He’s done it with our boys. It’s just a real unique ability.”
Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at [email protected] and on the X platform,@tpalmateer83.
He also contributes to The Tennessean's high school sports newsletter, The Bootleg.Subscribe to The Bootleg here.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Rick Insell's lifetime achievement honor recognizes decades of success
Continue reading...
