Bio
Coach McKinney is by all accounts the grandpa ( Great Grandpa) of travel softball. Coach McKinney is entering his 45th year of coaching travel ball, and as of the start of the 2022/2023 season has over 4000 games coached.
Denny started playing fastpitch softball in 1957 at the age of 9 years old in southwest Wisconsin. Denny was taught much about the game by his uncles who were farmers by day, and ball players on the weekend. He thought for the first years of playing the standard softball uniform was a pair of bib overalls and work boots. To this day he will tell you some of his greatest memories are traveling from one small Wisconsin town to another on Sunday afternoons playing the local town team.
Denny put away his playing gear around his 50th birthday, and as he said there were just too many softballs flying past his head that he just did not see. Denny coached his first fastpitch game back in 1978 when in his words he gave his daughter no choice but to play.
Along with coaching travel ball Denny coached at Hononegah High School with Head Coach Steve Stromquist from 1987-90. Denny was part of the only Hononegah High School team to advance to the IHSA state finals in 1989. Denny returned to Hononegah high school in the spring of 2022 as the varsity head coach where his team compiled a 26-4 record while winning the conference and regional championships.
Denny tells you in his words that he has had the privilege of being part of three Class A National Championships. He will always follow that if the ball bounced one way or the other at times in every one of them the team would have finished in 10th. Denny defiantly understands the softball gods have to give you a hand in any successes your team enjoys.
Coach Denny is rather old-school in his style. His philosophy is how you teach the game to be played is more important than how you swing a bat or throw a ball. When Denny is asked what he feels has contributed the most to any of his successes he will tell you it always comes back to three things. 1. Good players-2 Good Coaching- & 3 Good Parents. He says if you are missing any one of those three you are playing uphill and using mirrors.
