Dunlap tabs Metzger as new girls basketball head coach

Kevin Metzger. Photo via Illinois Central College Athletics

DUNLAP — Dunlap girls basketball didn’t have to go far in finding their next girls basketball head coach.

The school announced on Thursday that Kevin Metzger is set to become the program’s next head coach, pending approval at the June 18 school board meeting. He replaces Rebecca Fulkerson, who resigned from the position in May after two years. 

Metzger has over four decades of coaching experience, most recently as a Dunlap assistant and helped the Eagles to a 20-13 mark in 2024-25. 

He was the head coach for East Peoria’s boys basketball team from 1991 until 2004, accumulating 212 wins, six Mid-Illini titles and three consecutive regional championships from 1995 to 1997. 

From 2007 until 2017, Metzger was the head coach for Limestone’s girls basketball team and led them to eight winning seasons in that span, including the program’s most recent regional title in 2013. Metzger currently teaches at Limestone. 

Metzger, a 1974 Peoria Woodruff graduate, was an assistant under head coach Todd Hursey at Richwoods in 2018 when the Knights won a Class 3A state championship. He has also coached in an assistant role for Illinois Central College’s successful girls basketball team. 

Metzger was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2023 and has won a total of 380 games as a high school head coach.

The Eagles are set to return their entire varsity roster from last season, including rising sophomores Keyaira Haywood, Keniya Todd and Amiyah Gulley and fellow starter Campbell Vrabel. The team is one of many in Central Illinois that are currently competing in ICC’s summer league.