Former Marquette Coach Cody Best Named Assistant Coach At Collinsville

COLLINSVILLE — Cody Best, former head coach of the Marquette boys basketball team, has been hired as the assistant varsity coach and sophomore coach at Collinsville High School. Best will lead the sophomore team while assisting with varsity coaching and scouting duties.

“I will be coaching the sophomore team as well as a varsity assistant. So I will have a team to coach on my own and I will be helping with the varsity and scouting,” Best said.

During his tenure at Marquette, Best compiled a 63-39 record and guided the Explorers to two Illinois High School Association Regional titles. The team finished the most recent season with a 16-17 record, following a 26-9 season in 2023 and a 21-13 finish in 2022.

Best’s hiring coincides with the appointment of Hank Mathews as head coach of the Kahok boys basketball team. Mathews’ hiring was approved by the Collinsville Board of Education at their regular monthly meeting on May 19, 2025.

Mathews succeeds legendary coach Darin Lee, who retired after last season. Lee ranks third all-time in Collinsville High School basketball history with 295 wins over a 36-year varsity coaching career.

“It is very exciting to work with coach Mathews in Collinsville. He is a younger guy like myself. It will be a good experience at such a large school and great history. Collinsville has a huge history with basketball and the support throughout the community is so strong. Everybody has been great to me and welcomed me. I am excited to wear purple and white,” Best said.

Mathews began his coaching career as an assistant at Columbia College in Missouri, where he stayed for three years. He then coached at Lincoln College in Illinois, leading the team to the 2021-22 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship for the first time in school history.

Prior to his appointment at Collinsville, Mathews had spent five to six years coaching at the collegiate level.

Before joining Collinsville, Best worked at Marquette as the head coach and before that at Highland High School basketball program as an underclassman coach and served as interim varsity boys basketball coach for 13 games last season.

He also spent three seasons as the Mt. Olive boys varsity coach, leading the program to its first winning season in 14 years. Best was named the 2018 West All-Star Rotary Club Coach.

In addition to his coaching roles, Best is co-founder and coach of the Southern Illinois Raptors AAU Club.

He played collegiate basketball at Lewis and Clark Community College for one year before transferring to MacMurray College, where he was team captain his junior and senior years.

“I am excited to work with Coach Mathews. He has been a college coach for the past five or six years and it will be good to get experience working with someone else,” Best said.

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