I coach high school

Photo from 2019-20 Season

So the year of 2019 marked my first year of being a high school coach at New Kent high school. Coaching is something I have always been interested in doing but I never really saw myself being able to make that leap. Below is a series of events that made it a possibility.

I grew up out west and played high school basketball in SLC, UT. Now many of you will immediately discredit Utah as a basketball state. But in the last few years there has been a national champion and even when I played back in the 90s, there were two teams ranked in the top 20 nationally. It is a fundamental basketball state with church gyms on almost every corner that breed gym rats. I was one of those gym rats.

I was never an amazing player. Honestly, I was a key role player on a great team. As a senior, we won the 5A state championship on which we ended up having seven of our core eight kids go on and play collegiate sports. It was also our school’s second championship in four years. Playing and winning a state championship is something I will always be grateful for. Being part of a championship program is something I understand even more now how special that really was.

Basketball is what taught me so much about life growing up. From my relationship with my brother to the filling up of my time, keeping me out of trouble and teaching me to work towards something. It was therapy for a teenager’s life.

I played three years at Southern Virginia University. I was again a role player and played several years with health challenges and tough politics within the team. I had three different coaches in a very young program. I still loved playing. The practices. The road trips with teammates. The learning of Xs and Os and the psychology behind it all. After graduating, I would continue to play until my body pretty much shut me down in my mid-thirties.

I started coaching/teaching with the birth of my son Will. Two goals from the get go - to not live through him or make him be something he doesn’t want to be. But if he did want to play, I would find everything I could to be a better teacher for him in learning the game. My biggest frustration in playing the game is that I never really found anybody in my personal journey to really teach me the game. Today’s players do not understand how lucky they are.

The funny thing is that as my wife (yes, she is a basketball junkie too and played both HS and College) and I started working with our son, we soon found ourselves getting involved with the community as we were asked to teach a 3-5 year old basketball class. Now basketball was a way for us to connect with our local community. How great was that. Help kids succeed with a sport I love and help influence a community. Sounded like a win to me.

The challenge that we soon found was that we did not live in a basketball community. It used to be that way but now it clearly was not. So, we had a choice to make. Get more involved and help make a difference or hope someone else steps up or simply move.

When you feel like you are supposed to do something. You do it. The reasons why may not always make sense but if there is a conviction that what you are doing is right, a power and energy level will be there to push you through the tough times.

Ten years later, I believe we have helped bring basketball back to a community - or at least given it a bit of a jump start. We’ve grown a parks and rec basketball program. We’ve started a travel basketball program that now helps over sixty kids. We started a summer basketball camp with the first year having over seventy kids involved. Teaching skills was fun and coaching on the AAU circuit gave me a sense that coaching was something I am supposed to learn to do.

So when the job opened up at the high school, it only made sense to continue the journey. My wife said that somehow we’ll find a way but that we at least have to try and do our part.

I believe that this community is going to grow and help be brought together through the power of sports. I also believe that a great program will inspire many kids to try and become something more than they might have been.

I am grateful for this first year and the lessons I have learned. I look forward to the work that needs to take place in building a program that will be something the community will be proud of.