National Champion Bill Armstrong

Link Year Academy Coach

(St. Louis, MO) – When you win the national championship good things happen. This week Branson, Missouri held a parade for Link Year Academy’s basketball team and head coach and national champion Bill Armstrong was named national coach of the year.

Link’s meteoric rise on the national prep scene has nothing less than miraculous. The Lions have competed in two high school seasons. Link founder Adam Donyes’ brainchild finished second at the Geico Nationals in 2022 and claimed the title this season.

Armstrong has an extensive collegiate coaching history and replaced last year’s coach Rodney Perry who is now a part of the staff at Kansas State. Armstrong says Donyes had a vision of becoming one of the nation’s elite high school athletics academies. He gives credit to Perry for laying a great foundation.

 

 

Link Academy’s Approach

National champion Bill Armstrong says Link’s culture and mission is central to everything they do. Clearly they need talented players, but he insists they have to fit a certain type of character. He says elite high school basketball programs are moving toward the European or ‘boarding school’ type of setting.

His players are uniquely prepared for college basketball because playing at Link is structured like a college program. They get used to living away from home, having to be responsible for many normal ‘life-style’ tasks and the Lions put in twelve hour days.

 

 

Link’s unique set up means Armstrong’s role is multifaceted. He is a coach, a mentor and a man that is specifically preparing his players for life in college basketball and life after basketball. Armstrong says part of Link’s passion is helping his players grow spiritually, emotionally and physically.

When players graduate from Link, they are more like sophomores than freshmen. Lion graduates are better prepared to contribute immediately than most incoming freshmen.

 

 

Armstrong’s Background

After a collegiate playing career at Alabama Birmingham, Armstrong quickly moved into coaching. Armstrong got his start in the junior college world and eventually spent sixteen years coaching in the Southeastern Conference (Mississippi and LSU).

Current UAB coach Andy Kennedy was a Blazers’ assistant during Armstrong’s playing career and hired him to his staff at Ole Miss. He held several positions during his eleven years in Oxford. He joined Will Wade’s LSU staff at 2017 and was fired along with Wade last spring. The school was notified of NCAA allegations of rules violations and the two were released. Armstrong is not allowed to speak on the matter because of the ongoing investigation.

During five seasons at Ole Miss the Rebels won at least twenty games in nine of eleven campaigns. During five years at LSU the Tigers won 108. While helping Mississippi to its first NCAA Tournament in eleven years (2013), guard Marshall Henderson was named the SEC Player of the Year and stirred national attention with his on-court theatrics.

Armstrong says he and Henderson have continued a very close relationship. In fact the Armstrongs have a fifth child because of Henderson’s basketball heroics.

 

 

National champion Bill Armstrong is preparing players for numerous outcomes. He maintains relationships with former players and those he’s coached with. You hear him speak of relationships more than anything else, but Link Year players are being signed by numerous power conference programs.

Past and Present Players

Missouri State’s Damien Mayo, Julian Phillips (Tennessee), Arkansas’ Jordan Walsh, Michigan’s Tarris Reed, the Wright twins (Southern Illinois Edwardsville) are just several of the Division 1 players that have come from Link. Armstrong tells us his six current seniors all signed early. Corey Chest (LSU), Ja’Kobe Walter (Baylor), Ryan Forrest (Memphis), Cade Phillips and Cameron Carr (both Tennessee) and Jacolb Cole (Oklahoma) will be toiling at power conference programs this season.

Junior Elliot Cadeau has already signed with North Carolina.

You can watch our entire interview on YouTube and you can listen to the entire conversation at Valley Hoops Insider Podcast.

Link Year Academy has taken its place among the highly touted high school academies. IMG, Military Hargrove, Sunrise Christian, Montverde, Mouth of Wilson are some of those historic names that Link has joined. There will be an outstanding Lion player participating on your favorite team or in your favorite conference soon.

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