Coaching staff
Dustin leochner
Head Coach
Coach Leochner grew up in Hutchinson Kansas and graduated from Buhler High School before attending Hutchinson Community College. Upon graduation from HCC, Coach Leochner attended the University of Kansas where he earned both his bachelors and masters degrees in middle/secondary education and curriculum and instruction. Coach Leochner began his coaching and teaching career at Southwest Junior High School in Lawrence Kansas where he led the 9th grade girls and 8th grade boys teams for two years. He then made the transition to Free State High School in 2003 as the junior varsity girls coach for 3 seasons. Coach Leochner helped turn a struggling program into a perennial Sunflower League contender and in his final year with the girls program they made their first of many trips to the state tournament under head coach Bryan Duncan. Coach Leochner then joined the boys program at Free State as the assistant head coach for the 2006-07 season. That year’s team finished 3rd at the Kansas class 6A state tournament. After a 5 year stint as the assistant head coach at Free State High School Coach Leochner took his first head coaching position at Baldwin High School in 2011. Coach Leochner took over a program that had seen recent struggles and led them to 3 consecutive winning seasons and a combined record of 45-19. In his final year Baldwin compiled an 18-4 record, winning the Frontier League. After a 3 year break to spend more time with his family, Coach Leochner became the head coach at Southwest in 2017.
Coach Leochner is married to Therese who is an applied behavior analyst, and they have a 10 year old daughter, Ava and a 6 year old son, Kellen.
RJ Palmgren
Assistant head coach
Coach Palmgren was born and raised in Olathe. After graduating from Olathe South High School, he attended Pittsburg State University where he studied Spanish Education. Coach Palmgren taught at Blue Valley West for the five years until moving to Southwest in 2019. Coach Palmgren started coaching under Coach Rabbitt and this will be his 8th year coaching at Southwest. He has coached at the Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior Varsity levels and this will be his first season as Assistant Head Coach. Along with being the Assistant Head Coach, he is the leader of our Wolf Pup youth program.
Coach Palmgren lives in Spring Hill with his wife, Courtney and their dog, Roni.
ROMAN PEARSON
VARSITY ASSISTANT
Coach Pearson grew up in Wichita, Kansas where he graduated from Bishop Carroll Catholic High School. He received his bachelor's degree from Wichita State University in Sports Management. His first coaching position was at St. Jude Catholic School in Wichita where he discovered his passion for developing young athletes. While coaching at St. Jude for three years, Coach Pearson began coaching club basketball for several teams including Kansas MTXE (7 years), Team Perry Ellis (2 years), and Wichita Padres this past summer. The last two years he has been an Assistant Boys Basketball Coach at Kapaun Mount Carmel Catholic High School in Wichita. During his time there, he lead the sophomore and freshmen teams, and assisted with varsity. Also while at Kapaun, he helped lead the team to a final four appearance at the 2020 state tournament before it was canceled due to Covid-19. Coach Pearson was the Sophomore coach last season and helped with the Varsity program as well. This season will be his first as Varsity Assistant.
Deron toliver
Junior Varstiy
Coach Deron Toliver was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He attended Lincoln College Preparatory Academy High School, where he was a member of the varsity basketball team since the end of his sophomore year. He was the captain his senior year, averaging 16 points per game and helping his team to win a district championship. After graduating from high school in 2012, Coach Toliver went on to study kinesiology at Avila University. He was a member of the basketball team there, but unfortunately dealt with many injuries that kept him sidelined for most of his career. He graduated from Avila in 2016 and started coaching basketball, using these experiences as motivators for the up and coming student athletes. Deron coaches youth basketball with a program called Kansas City Supreme, alongside former college teammates Keith Taylor, Josh Benford, Sedrick Johnson, and Jordan Davis. Coach Toliver is currently the job coach for the special education department of Blue Valley Southwest, assisting students in building job skills for life after high school.
Deron resides in Overland Park, KS and is blessed to have a son, Adyn Toliver, who is 2 years old.
JT HORSTICK
SOPHOMORE
Coach Horstick graduated from Central Heights High School and then from MidAmerica Nazarene University where he earned his degree in Athletic Training and Sports Management. His first coaching position was as the assistant girls basketball coach at Kansas City Christian School. He then went on to be the Head Coach for the same program. While at Kansas City Christian he also taught High School Personal Finance and Boys Health/PE. He will also starting his 4th season as an assistant coach for the baseball team at KCC this spring. He is currently the Kids Activities Assistant Manager at Lifetime Fitness in Overland Park, KS. Coach Horstick has coached both Freshman teams and this will be his first year as Sophomore coach.
He lives in Olathe, KS with his wife, Jessica Horstick, their dogs, Hosmer and Nala, and their daughter Andi.
Floyd Mathew
Freshman a
Coach Mathew is a native of Kansas City, Missouri and played his high school basketball at the Varsity level in Kansas City. Following high school, he received basketball scholarships from both Neosho Community College and Northern Arizona University where he earned his bachelor’s degree. He then continued his education at University of Missouri at Kansas City where he earned his master’s degree. During his playing career, Coach Mathew made All-Conference in the Big Sky conference at Northern Arizona University and was an NBA and ABA draftee in 1972. After his playing career ended, he has successfully coached at the AAU, middle school, and high school levels for over 30 years. Before retiring, Coach Mathew enjoyed a successful career in the financial and bank card industries for over 30 years.
He was married to his high school sweetheart Nancy Mathew for 38 years before God called
her home in 2016. Coach Floyd was blessed with four adult children and nine grandchildren.
Tyler Pierce
Freshman B
Coach Pierce graduated from Gladbrook-Reinbeck High School in Iowa and then went to Northwest Missouri State University to pursue his football career and study Physical Education. Coach Pierce played on a State Championship team his sophomore year of high school and placed fourth in the state tournament his junior year and then placed second his senior year of high school. He graduated from Gladbrook-Reinbeck High School in 2017 and will be graduating from Northwest Missouri State in December 2022. In the summer, he helped coach football and basketball camps around the Overland Park area.
Coach Pierce lives in Bucyrus, KS with his girlfriend Sophie.