nylaweb

Nyla Milleson

Nyla Milleson, the architect of the Drury Lady Panthers basketball program that established itself as a national power, returned to the University to lead its athletics department in 2022 and will complete her fourth full year as Vice President and Director of Athletics this spring.
 
When Milleson was named to the post in February 2022, she became the first female to lead any of Springfield's collegiate athletics departments, including Drury, Missouri State, and Evangel.

In her first four years as director of athletics, Milleson has led a remarkable turnaround within Drury Athletics, both on and off the playing surface. Under her guidance, DU has experienced unprecedented growth in both student-athlete enrollment and revenue generation, while continuing to display the standards of academic and athletic excellence that have defined the Panthers and Lady Panthers for more than a century.

Milleson's Achievements as Drury's Vice President and Director of Athletics:
  • 17 Drury student-athletes selected as CSC Academic All-Americans
  • 8 GLVC team championships and 32 NCAA postseason appearances
  • Record-setting fundraising efforts in four-consecutive Champions Challenge campaigns, including 2025 effort that generated over $463,000 for DU Athletics
  • All Drury NCAA and non-NCAA programs registered at least a 3.0 team GPA in 2025 
  • Oversaw 42-percent growth in student-athlete enrollment from 2022-26, including the addition of two sport programs
  • Led hiring efforts for 13 head coaching positions
The 2024-25 academic year saw 10 Drury programs compete in NCAA postseason events, including men's and women's swimming, which swept Great Lakes Valley Conference titles and placed among the top three Division II teams nationally at the NCAA Championships. Additionally, softball captured a share of the conference's regular-season crown before finishing as NCAA Saginaw Regional runner-up.

Academically, the Panthers set a department record with 293 Academic All-GLVC honorees, with 14 teams earning Academic All-GLVC team honors in 2024-25. Furthermore, a Drury athletic department record eight student-athletes earned CSC Academic All-America recognition.

Milleson also piloted Drury Athletics through a department-wide restructuring that included the addition of two senior-level administrator positions and several additional full-time athletics staff members. Under her leadership, DU enjoyed another record-setting fundraising effort, with the 2025 Champions Challenge generating $463,647 in revenue for athletics.
 
In Milleson's second season leading the department, both DU swimming and diving squads captured NCAA-II runner-up finishes, with the women's team claiming a GLVC championship as well. Additionally, both the men's and women's cross country squads turned in their best-ever finishes at the GLVC Championships. 

Coaches hired by Milleson saw success as well, with women's basketball head coach Kaci Bailey leading the Lady Panthers to 25 wins and a national tournament appearance in her first season at the helm. Men's and women's track and field head coach Luke Karamitros produced four provisional national qualifiers -- the most-ever for a Drury team -- including the first men's track and field All-American in program history. First-year softball head coach Brooke Gajewski led her team to a 17-9 mark in the GLVC and 30 overall wins, the fourth-most in program history. 

In her first year as Drury’s athletic director, Milleson saw the women’s basketball and the men’s swimming and diving teams win GLVC championships and a total of nine Drury programs advance to NCAA Championship competition. She also oversaw the launch of six non-NCAA sports in 2022-23.  
 
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 Division II national championship game in just its 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 finished as national runner-up. She was named coach of the year in the Heartland Conference four times and won the same award in the GLVC twice.
 
In addition to their performance on the court, Milleson's teams and players earned numerous academic honors, and the Lady Panthers were ranked in the top 15 in attendance at the Division II level. Since the opening of the O'Reilly Family Event Center in 2010, the Lady Panthers have ranked in the top 10 in NCAA-II women's basketball attendance each year. 
 
Following her stay at Drury, Milleson spent 14 years as a head coach at the NCAA Division I level. She led Missouri State to three straight 20-win seasons and guided the Lady Bears to a Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship in 2012. Milleson became the head coach at George Mason in 2013-14 and, in five years, took a program that won just eight games in her first year to a team-record 24 wins and the club's first national postseason appearance in 14 years.
 
Milleson stepped down from her position with George Mason at the end of the 2020-21 season to return to the Ozarks and served as the director of athletics for the Hollister R-V School District in Hollister, Mo., for the 2021-22 academic year.
 
Milleson originally arrived in southwest Missouri in 1992 when she was named the head coach of the girls' basketball program at Glendale High School in Springfield. In seven years, she posted a record of 157-39 while guiding the Lady Falcons to two state semifinals appearances and the 1996 Class 4A state championship.
 
In 2016, Milleson was inducted into the Drury Athletics Hall of Fame, and she was inducted into the Springfield Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2018 and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2025.
 
Milleson and her husband Brent have two sons, Barrett and Caylor. A native of Goodland, Kan., she earned a pair of degrees from Kansas State, including a bachelor's degree in psychology and education and a master's in education administration.
  
Nyla Milleson Career Highlights
  • Named Drury’s Vice President and Director of Athletics (2022)
  • Missouri Sports Hall of Fame (2025)
  • Springfield Area Sports Hall of Fame (2018)
  • Drury Athletics Hall of Fame (2016)
  • Led George Mason to a program-record 24 wins and first national postseason appearance in 14 years as women's basketball head coach in 2017-18
  • Coached George Mason's first-ever All-American and first-ever WNBA draft pick (Natalie Butler in 2017-18)
  • Guided Missouri State women's basketball to a Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title (2011-12)
  • Led Drury to three conference titles and five NCAA-II postseason berths and two Regional championships
  • Guided the Lady Panthers to an NCAA-II national runner-up finish in 2004
  • Two-time Great Lakes Valley Conference Coach of the Year (2006, 2007)
  • Four-time Heartland Conference Coach of the Year (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005)
  • Missouri Girls 4A Coach of the Year – Associated Press, Missouri Basketball Coaches Association after guiding Glendale High School to state title (1996)