When Mitch Munda talks about basketball and his vision for Geneseo’s program, his first thought is not about what type of offense the team will run or how to defend the Rock Island Rocks.
He talks about toughness. About diving on the floor for loose balls. About teammates picking each other up. About packed gyms, relentless energy, and a program where effort is a given.
“The X’s and O’s will come,” Munda said. “But if you don't have that structure, that toughness, that attitude within your program, you won’t have a winning culture.”
That is the mentality Munda will rely upon as he takes over as Geneseo’s new boys’ varsity basketball head coach. The hire is pending formal approval by the Board of Education at its June meeting.
“We are excited to welcome Mitch as the next leader of our boys' basketball program," said GHS Athletic Director Joe Nichols. "He brings energy, passion, and a clear vision for a culture centered on toughness, accountability, and relationships. Coach Munda has already positively impacted our school community through his work as a teacher and a coach, and we are confident he will build upon last season's momentum and growth.”
For Munda, coaching has never been tied to one sport.
“There has never been ‘basketball's my favorite or football's my favorite,’” he said. “Coaching is my favorite. I'm a coach, that's my title. I'm not just a basketball coach. I've been developing this for the last 10 years. I'm ready.”
Munda grew up in Gurnee, Illinois, and attended Warren Township High School, where he was named the school’s Athlete of the Year as a senior. He described the school’s diversity and competitiveness as major influences on his life.
“I loved my high school experience,” Munda said. “It was a melting pot of a community. Some suburbs are not very culturally diverse, but we had international students, Black, white, and Hispanic, and that showed in sports.”
He played against future NBA players in Jalen Brunson and Fred VanVleet, and helped Warren Township to the 2011 Class 4A state championship game before losing to Chicago Simeon and Jabari Parker.
After high school, Munda attended the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, where he played football, earned four varsity letters, and became a team captain. He graduated in 2017 with a degree in physical education and later earned a master’s degree in educational leadership from the American College of Education in 2021.
Munda then spent eight years at Antioch Community High School teaching physical education and health while adding to his coaching resume.
“Antioch is where I established myself as a coach,” said Munda, adding that many of his foundations came from Jim White, Antioch’s long-time head basketball coach.
Munda served as the sophomore and freshman basketball head coach from 2017-21, winning two conference championships. He also worked as the school’s strength and conditioning lead while assisting in football and track and field.
One of the people who influenced him most was Antioch’s football coach, Brian Glashagel.
“He taught me how to be a professional, a teacher, a good coach, and a family man,” Munda said. “You have to be involved.”
Munda also credits former Warren Township coach Chuck Ramsey and UW-Platteville coach Ryan Munz for their impact on him. His father, Mike Munda, remains one of his biggest influences.
“He was a coach, and I was always out practicing growing up, so I was always in a coaching setting,” Munda said.
Those experiences shaped the culture-first philosophy he now brings to Geneseo.
“I feel like I can fit in any sport you put me in, because I understand the building blocks of building culture,” Munda said. “I've seen it, I've played in it, I've coached with it.”
Munda, along with his wife, Tess, and their two-year old son, Mack, came to Geneseo in the fall of 2025 to teach physical education and health at the high school. He also serves as an assistant varsity football coach. He believes that being visible in classrooms, hallways, and other sports will help him establish trust and build relationships.
“When coaches talk about family, you’ve got to be around,” said Munda. “The visual of students seeing me in the hallways and seeing them in the classrooms is important.”
Munda recently met with Geneseo’s returning basketball players during the final week of school and focused heavily on accountability and trust.
“I hope I got through to them that I'm going to be a stable figure for them, and I will be in the building,” he said, emphasizing that team chemistry starts long before the season begins. “If we are going to put it together during the season in the winter, that starts now in the summer."
Summer workouts and open gyms will be among the top priorities in the short-term.
“You think you're getting better with skills during the season, but it's too late at that point,” he said. “The biggest thing right now is I need to get our players into the gym so they can start trusting me.”
Munda strongly supports multi-sport athletes because of his own background in football and basketball.
“Multi-sport athletes are a little easier to coach because they understand the grind of multiple things that you have to balance,” he said. “Sometimes when you focus on one sport, you get burnt out. So I’m a big proponent of doing whatever you can. Ride all the rides.”
Munda describes his coaching style as energetic and demanding.
“I’m very energetic and very player-focused during games,” he said. “During practices, my players are probably going to view me in a different way. I’m in your face. But when the lights come on for a game day, it is all support. We want effort and we want enthusiasm.”
As for the style of basketball Geneseo fans can expect, Munda repeatedly returns to one word: toughness.
“The style I'm looking for, the first year especially, is toughness,” said Munda. “We're going to be in your face, but we're also going to be team-oriented. We're not giving up easy buckets. I think the toughness factor is going to be there this year with how we take on opponents, how we set screens, how we put our bodies in the way for a teammate.”
He believes the excitement surrounding the program is already growing and credited former head coach TJ Lacey for helping build momentum last season.
“Coach Lacey did a great job of doing that,” Munda said. “Whether it was the Leaf Pile or others from the community who hadn’t been coming to as many games, he got them out again. He got the students and the players excited, and I really want to build off that.”
Munda added, “It's super important, because it's not as fun playing in a gym that's quiet. You want our gym to have that feeling. You want that gym to feel like it’s 100 degrees. You want there to be standing room only. Hearing your classmates and the people in the community get behind you, that gives you the extra juice.”
Despite competing against larger schools in the Western Big 6 Conference, Munda believes Geneseo can become a consistent contender.
“I love our conference,” he said. “Do we play bigger schools? Yeah. But it gives us a real read of how good we are.”
He sets a clear expectation for where he wants the program to go.
“We want to be a top three team in the conference,” Munda said. “I feel like we can do it with the pieces we’ve got, and with the amount of athletes we have in this school.”
Munda’s goal is for opponents and fans alike to notice the difference sooner than later.
“We're going to keep building up what we did last year, but everything is going to be earned,” said Munda. I want people to get excited with the things we're doing on the court. If it's not on the scoreboard, it's with our effort and our excitement. That is what gets me going, just thinking about the little things we're going to do in practice that I hope will show up quickly during the season. I want to see a different mantra, a different kind of way of how we even walk out of the locker room.”
