‘That is going to leave a void.’ Mtn View basketball coach retires after 21 years
Jon Nettleton spent the past 31 years eating, sleeping and breathing basketball. But the longtime Mountain View boys basketball coach will begin a new chapter after hanging up his whistle.
Nettleton’s retirement marks the end of the 21-year run at Mountain View, where he was the longest-tenured basketball coach in the state’s top classification. He leaves the sideline with a 300-230 career record, and he led the Mavericks to 12 state tournament appearances in those 21 years, including a 2011 championship.
Nettleton, 52, still plans to teach for another seven years. But after decades grinding on the court, Nettleton said he wants to spend more time with his wife, Karen, and his son, Bryce, who will graduate from Mountain View this spring and stay in the Treasure Valley for college.
“You have all the other hats that you wear besides X’s and O’s,” Nettleton said. “Besides the 40 hours of teaching that goes with my normal schedule, there’s another 30 hours a week, easy, most weeks. I’m just getting tired.
“I wanted to have some more time with my family. My son is graduating this year. He’s going to stay local here and go to school. That gives me another five or six years where I can come home and say, ‘Hey, let’s go fishing.’ I don’t have to worry about do I need to be at a tournament? Do I need to be getting the next fundraiser ready, or watching film, or whatever the case may be.”
The Wisconsin native played NCAA Division III basketball and baseball at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, his hometown college, before coming to the Treasure Valley in 2003. He coached middle school boys and girls basketball in Caldwell for a season, before taking over the Cougars’ high school girls basketball program for a year.
That led him to Mountain View, where he made the Mavericks into a perennial contender and built a program from top to bottom. He hosted free youth camps, named elementary students as honorary captains and brought in a litany of sponsors to feed players and keep the program running.
“There are not a lot of coaches out there that want to do a free camp and give up three Saturdays in their season to host a kids camp,” Mountain View Athletic Director Dane Pence said. “And it’s the same thing in the summer.
“It’s just those little things that sometimes get forgotten. Gosh, you can’t do a camp now and not pay $100 to have your kids go do those things. That’s what we’re going to miss just because he’s so good with that.”
But Nettleton’s legacy isn’t limited to Mountain View.
He spearheaded a statewide coaches coalition that pushed Idaho to adopt a shot clock. He organized the conference all-star games and coaches vs. cancer fundraisers. And he grew the annual Stinky Sneaker rivalry game against Meridian — started by former vice principal Randy Fout — into an electric atmosphere others tried to emulate.
Boise coach Manny Varela said Nettleton long served as a leader for Idaho high school basketball, connecting coaches from around the state to help grow the sport.
“That is going to leave a void,” Varela said. “Someone has to take that on. And whoever takes it on, it’s going to be a little scary. We are all going to have to take a little bit of the responsibilities on.”
Nettleton can list a host of dramatic memories from his career at Mountain View. The 2011 state title comes to mind, but so does a buzzer-beating tip-in to win a Stinky Sneaker game and a 20-point comeback against Rocky Mountain to qualify for the district tournament last month.
But Nettleton said his favorite memories came away from the court.
“There are always going to be little things, but probably even bigger than that is a lot of relationships I’ve been able to develop and foster over the years with my former players,” Nettleton said. “I still talk to, probably once a year, 70 to 80 in the Valley, easy, and a few in Wisconsin, too.
“Those relationships trump anything.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2026 at 4:42 PM.
