Three Rivers College’s 2026 Raider of the Year is legendary baseball coach Stacey Burkey, who led the Raiders for 27 years before retiring in 2020 with 604 wins. While at Three Rivers, Burkey also served as an assistant baseball coach, assistant women’s basketball coach, intramural program director, adjunct instructor, athletic dorm manager, student manager for the men’s basketball team, and is currently a bus driver for the Athletic Department.
“What an honor it is to be selected as the Raider of the Year. Three Rivers College has been an incredible part of my life,” Burkey said. “My wife, Sharon, and I both received our Associate of Arts degrees from TRC, as well as our two sons, Josh and Noah. When I came here out of high school in the fall of 1982 to play baseball for head coach Roger Pattillo and assistant coach Dave Jarvis, I certainly had no idea at that time it would have such an impact on my life and that I would one day come back to coach here for 33 years.”
Previous Raider of the Year winners include Francie Spurgin McBride and Dusty Dinkins. The Raider of the Year Award is presented to a former Raider athlete who has achieved success beyond their sport and time at Three Rivers. Nominees remain involved on the athletics scene in their respective careers or volunteer efforts and are well-respected amongst their peers and in their communities.
“The volume of student-athletes who have come through here, I didn’t think about me being in such a small group as this,” Burkey said of being the third Raider of the Year honoree.
After 33 years with the baseball program, six as an assistant, and 27 as head coach, Burkey has stayed involved in Three Rivers athletics as a driver, and gives youth baseball lessons in his spare time. His son Noah, who was 17 when Burkey retired, is in his first season as an assistant baseball coach with Three Rivers.
Since he enrolled as a freshman in the Fall of 1982, there have been three years where Three Rivers wasn’t a part of Stacey Burkey’s life.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to win 604 games, but more important than that, I’ve been able to develop relationships with a little more than 500 players that I’ve coached. Billy Graham once said that a coach will impact more people in one year than the average person will in an entire lifetime, and that’s something that I’ve never taken lightly,” Burkey said in 2020.
More than 90% of Three Rivers sophomores who played for Burkey from 1988 through 2020 went on to four-year programs, 40 signed professional contracts, and four — Matt Palmer, Alan Mahaffey, Bobby Bevel, Jeff Pohl — reached the Major Leagues. Former Raider Marcus Pattillo made his debut as an MLB umpire in April 2014.
“I’m proud of what our baseball program has turned out to be. I’m not going to single out players because I’ll miss some, but I’m so proud of the kind of student-athletes we’ve turned out here at 3R,” Burkey said. “I’m proud of the men that these student-athletes developed into, and proud of their accomplishments. I had 12 great assistant coaches. Nine of them played here. The players and coaches wove an atmosphere of trying to do things right and being first class, having success on the baseball field, academically, and after graduation.”
After graduating from Three Rivers, Burkey earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education from Southwest Missouri State and played professionally for the Long Island Whalers in the Long Island Independent League in 1987. While there, he was a key member of the Empire State Baseball League Championship team in Long Island, New York. He then returned to Three Rivers as an assistant and drove back and forth to Arkansas State to earn his master’s degree in physical education.
A native of Springfield, Missouri, Burkey compiled a 23-9 pitching record over two years at Three Rivers and two years at Missouri State. He earned the Andrew J. McDonald Award for Academic and Athletic Achievements in Physical Education in 1987 from Missouri State.
