Blue Springs South football coach Greg Oder retires after 15 seasons

Greg Oder is retiring as a champion.

Blue Springs South's longtime football coach announced his plans to step down from his post during a meeting with his team Friday afternoon, three weeks after the Jaguars won the third Missouri Class 6 state championship in his tenure.

Blue Springs South defeated previously-unbeaten Christian Brothers College 37-28 on Nov. 28 in St. Louis.

Jon Oyler was announced as Oder's successor after spending the past three seasons as his assistant coach.

"I talked with my wife about (2014) being the last year, but we just didn't have much luck on the field with guys getting hurt, and I didn't want to retire with that frustration," Oder said. "We decided to give it one more year.

"And lo and behold..."

A fitting ending.

In a measure of leaving the program in a better place than he found it, Oder will walk away as the most accomplished coach in the school's history — and one of the best resumes in the Kansas City area over the past decade, too. In 2001, he took over a program that had never won a state title. He officially concluded his career Friday with a 119-47 record and 13 winning seasons in 15 years.

The past 10 seasons have included three state championships — in 2006, 2011 and 2015. No other school has lifted the Class 6 trophy more than twice during that time frame.

"A state championship was always the ultimate goal, as I think it would be for any team, but in 2001, that seemed like the moon — it was unreachable," said Oder, who will also retire from his teaching position. "But the 2006 team wasn't scared of it. I think once that happened, everybody else that followed realized it was obtainable. In that aspect, I think that year changed some things around here, and it's just been a lot of fun ever since."

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 3:05 PM with the headline "Blue Springs South football coach Greg Oder retires after 15 seasons."