Men’s Basketball Assistant Coach
5th Season
University of Wisconsin

Matt Meinholz is in his fifth season as assistant coach for at Johnson County Community College. He has helped the Cavaliers to a mark of 98-23 (.810) over his four seasons on staff, and coached 11 all-conference and all-region performers and three All-Americans.

Last year, Meinholz helped guide the Cavaliers to an outright KJCCC D-II championship, a Region VI/Plains District Championship and a seventh-place NJCAA D-II National Tournament.  He also coached three all-conference performers, including conference MVP Tymer Jackson, who also became just the fourth player to be selected first-team NJCAA All-American and the 14th player in team history to score over 1,000 career points. 

In 2021-22, the Cavaliers raced out of the gate winning a school record 20 straight games. Johnson County opened the season ranked 11th but by mid-January his squad has moved all the way up to No. 2. JCCC eventually finished the season 28-4, ranked fourth nationally and finished runner-up in both the KJCCC D-II Conference and the Region 6/Plains District Tournament. Meinholz helped coached three All-KJCCC and Region 6 performers in Tymer Jackson, Desi Williams and Jayland Whitehead. Jackson also became the 21st player to be selected All-American. He also was named the conference Newcomer of the Year, and Whitehead was selected the Defensive Player of the Year for a second straight season.

In  2020-21, Meinholz helped lead the Cavaliers to a 16-6 mark, a tie for the D-II Kansas Jayhawk Conference title, a Region VI Championship and berth to the NJCAA D-II National Tournament in Danville, Ill.  The Cavaleirs were also ranked all season, reaching the No. 2 spot for two weeks, and closed out the year ranked No. 11.  He also helped coached three All-KJCCC and All-Region VI performers in Jaycson Bereal, Jaland Whitehead and Desi Williams.

In his first season, Meinholz helped coach the Cavaliers to a 25-7 record and runner-up finishes in the Kansas Jayhawk D-II Conference standings and the Region VI D-II Tournament. He also helped coach all-conference and all-region selections JaQuaylon Mays and Lukas Milner and assisted both in earning scholarships at the next level. Mays also was selected as an NJCAA All-American.

Meinholz  has several years of experience working at the NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA levels of men’s college basketball. He is be involved in all aspects of the program, including game preparation, recruiting and scouting.

Prior to joining the staff at Johnson County, Meinholz spent two seasons at a graduate assistant coach for Sean Dooley at Baker University.  The Wildcats posted records of 13-15 in 2017-18 and 10-19 in 2018-19. He also helped coach six Heart of America Conference performers and three Daktronics NAIA Scholar Athletes. He earned his Master’s Degree in the MSSM program for Sports Management. 

Meinholz also served as head coach of the MOKAN 9th grade basketball team from March of 2018 through June of 2018.

Meinholz graduated from the University of Wisconsin in May of 2017 with a Bachelor’s Degree in History with a certificate in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies program.  

While at Wisconsin, Meinholz was hired by head coach Bo Ryan as student manager in 2013 and worked for him for two and half years before associate head coach took over the program where he stayed on staff for the remainder of his undergraduate career. In his four years at Wisconsin the Badgers compiled a record of 113-35, advanced to the NCAA Division I National Championships Game in 2015, made two Final 4 appearances (2014, 2015), and won the Big Ten Conference Tournament Championships and regular season Big Ten Championship in 2015. Meinholz was also involved with the Coaches vs. Cancer at Wisconsin and served as a keynote speaker. 

Meinholz was born and raised in Middleton, Wis., and attended Middleton High School. At Middleton he played basketball, football and was on the golf team for one season. He played point guard for the Cardinals who were coached by Kevin Bavery and Jerry Raffel.