The first championship...

Stephen Rogers was a 6’8’ wing with superb skills, who had played on a great Mesa Mountain View state championship team in 2005. Stephen had signed with the University of San Diego and then gone on an LDS church mission for two years. While he was gone, USD had fired their coach and the new staff did not seem as interested in Stephen as the old staff was. That was incredible, because Stephen was a player- a big time player. He then ended up at Arizona State University, who had tried to recruit him out of high school. They characterized Stephen as “soft”, but Mike Grothaus had played some city league with him and said that he was anything but soft. ASU decided to redshirt him for a year, and Stephen became disenchanted with that program. Mike had gotten to know him and immediately pitched the idea of coming to Mesa. It turned out that Salt Lake City Community College had gotten wind of Stephen’s desire to leave, and they also got into the mix. SLCC is a perennial top ten Division 1 junior college program, who could offer a full ride that included room and board. Mike was relentless and eventually Stephen committed to us.

Even though we had a strong returning group and now had Stephen Rogers, we were picked to finish 7th in the coach’s poll. More locker room material. We opened the season in, of all places, Salt Lake City. We beat Snow College the first night, then lost to Salt Lake the next night. I know some of their coaches were looking at Stephen like “dude, you should have come here.”

Stephen was definitely a difference maker. In only our second year, we beat Arizona Western all three times we played them, and went 25-7 overall while playing an all D1 non-conference schedule, which included going 19-3 in the ACCAC. We lost to Cochise College twice by one point during the regular season, but beat them 72-69 at their place for the Region 1 championship. That was Mesa’s first region championship in men’s basketball since the splitting of the colleges into divisions- about twenty years earlier. The long bus ride back from Douglas was one of the most memorable things in my coaching career. In the old pre-division days, that victory in the championship game would have been good enough to earn a trip to the National Tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas. I really felt like we had a team that was strong enough to contend for the national championship. Since the Arizona league had six Division 2 teams in it, the NJCAA would no longer offer a bid to go straight there from the region tournament. We had to go through Region 18- which had teams from Utah, Idaho, and Colorado. It was a very strong region.

Three days after beating Cochise, we were tasked with going to Salt Lake City to play their region championship team, which was the College of Eastern Utah. I remember walking in to the gym at SLCC and seeing the Salt Lake CC coaches, who had earlier questioned his decision to go to MCC. Stephen Rogers walked by them kind of looking proud to be a T-Bird. Eastern Utah was coached by Chris Craig, which is another whole story in itself; and had the nation’s leading rebounder in Michael Glover. Glover would go on to Iona University, where he led the NCAA D1 in rebounding. Their entire front line were NCAA Division 1 commits, so we knew this was going to be tough. It was a great game, but we lost by one point in overtime, which was devastating. If this was the NCAA, we would have gone on as an at-large pick, but that's what makes the NJCAA D1 tournament so hard to win. This had been such a fun team to coach, and they would never be together again. CEU went on to reach the national semi-finals in Hutchinson, and was actually leading Howard College of Texas by 16 with 4:30 left in the game. I was watching the game back in my office in Mesa and saw Howard put on the obligatory, down 16 press, and then sat amazed as CEU self-destructed and lost. This was followed a few months later by Chris Craig self-destructing, which made a big story in Sports Illustrated.

There were other side notes from that 2009-10 season. One of the goals that we had coming in the door was to resurrect the old Mesa Rotary Shootout, which for a time, had been the best junior college holiday tournament in the nation. We went to the Rotarians in Mesa and made a pitch, but evidently they had ended their relationship with MCC on bad terms and were really not interested in our pitch about tradition. We plunged ahead anyway and put together a tournament that year which did not have a major sponsor. MCC did not pay for these types of tournaments- they just let us use our gym. We had to come up with money for all tournament costs, including room guarantees for the out of state participants, which proved to be substantial and a major headache. It was obvious that we were going to have to find a major sponsor for this event if it was going to continue. We would. More on that later.

Also, Stephen Rogers was named the conference player of the year, as well as becoming a Division 1 All-American. He was technically a freshman, but was being actively recruited by every major conference in the country. ASU never contacted us about him- I guess he was still too soft for them. There was a glimmer of hope that he liked us coaches so much that he would return to Mesa, where we gave him an unbelievable $325 per semester, but that was crushed when BYU came calling. BYU had an excellent team with a great player named Jimmer Fredette, and it turned out that Stephen’s father had been the one to convert the Fredette family to the LDS church when he was on his mission in New York. So, Stephen got to play with Jimmer and was a starter on a team that reached the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. But, we were blessed to have gotten to know Stephen and his family, and being able to be around him as a player was amazing, as was the whole 2010 team. I’ll never forget walking with Stephen’s Mom through our gym lobby one day and she said to me “you guys must not have much pride in your athletic program”. She was referring to our trophy case, which, in fact, was a mess. There was massive dust, people had tucked candy wrappers into some of the openings, some trophies were either knocked over or broken, and some of the neon lights were flickering or out completely. To be honest, it was one of those things that we expected someone else to be in charge of, so we just kind of left it alone. After the season, I spent part of everyday for almost a month fixing it up. Eventually, the school completely overhauled it, so perhaps there will be no repeat of Mrs. Roger’s comment.

Another side note from 2010, was that as conference coach of the year, I was tabbed to be the head coach the Arizona team in the first (and only) Arizona vs. the United States junior college all star game in Las Vegas. The game would be held at the Orleans Arena in conjunction with the Nike Basketball Coaches Clinic, which was the largest coaches clinic in the world at the time. Our team and MCC coaches were also invited to the NJCAA Coaches Hall of Fame banquet at the same venue. Now, I’m not sure who came up with the idea of pitting Arizona’s all star team against the rest of the nation, but knowing what we knew already about what was out there, it didn’t seem like the fairest of match ups. Only sophomores were allowed to play by NJCAA rule, so right off the bat, our conference player of the year was ineligible, because he was technically a freshman. We had some pretty decent players, but only a handful who were NCAA Division 1 commits. The United States team was loaded with D1 commits, including national player of the year Jae Crowder from Howard College. Am I setting you all up for the story of a real massacre? We practiced for three days and then drove vans to Las Vegas. The USA team guys all flew in. We were actually leading at the half, 52-48. I told my son Jordan to take a picture of the scoreboard- we could say we won to people back in Phoenix and show them the picture. I mean, no one in Arizona even knew this game was happening, right? The second half, the USA team, and especially Jae Crowder and Michael Glover asserted themselves and won handily. But, we gave them a go. From then on, the game would be a traditional East-West affair.

Next time: the Fiesta Bowl Junior College Shootout is born...

It's big game week for me! After games at Corona del Sol, Skyline, Campo Verde, Casteel, and Sunrise Mountain (most of which I was the only media there), I'm heading out to Chandler and the Southeast Valley for the big tilt between Liberty and Basha. One of these 0's has got to go.

Liberty (4-0) has back-to-back marquee games as it just defeated Saguaro 26-17. The Lions are outscoring their opponents 175-31 and are averaging almost 44 points per game. QB Navi Bruzon (who was 12-of-13 in last year's Open game vs. the Bears) is completing 81 percent of his passes with 13 TDs and no picks.

Basha (5-0) blanked Cactus last week 58-0. The Bears are outscoring their opponents 255-52 and haven't been tested in their four games against Arizona schools. Demond Williams Jr. (who I will be seeing for the first time in a varsity game) is completing 71 percent of his passes with 14 TDs and just one interception.

Looking forward to the atmosphere of this one. With Hamilton and Chandler still on the Basha schedule, I think this one is more important for the Bears to win. Liberty can probably stamp at least a top 4 Open seed with a win here.

So now that it took me 100 days to finish
what does it look like just for 6A?

Login to view embedded media Hoophall West is back in the Valley once again and today they officially released the programs that’ll be playing this year. (Games will be announced tomorrow)


Although you can find some of the matchups on the AIA website (Brophy/St Mary’s, Perry/San Ysidro amongst others) it’ll be interesting to see how they schedule the teams and games.

If the Friday games are good enough, I might choose those over the 4A/5A championship games for football. I’m excited to see McCain and Centennial as well as Holland and Demmings from Duncanville who return after last season’s buzzer beater over Montverde. As a Chicago native I’m happy to see Simeon make it out this year and I hope for a Notre Dame/Gorman or Centennial/Gorman matchup

On the girls side, it’ll be nice to see Desert vista get even more attention because that’s an AAU team playing at a public school

The ACCAC...

Before continuing, I just read a book called "Black Market" by Merl Code, about the recent FBI investigations into college basketball. The book led me to an HBO documentary called "The Scheme", which was the same story, but told by Christian Dawkins. All I can say is WOW- I recommend both to this audience.

Back to MCC...

Although picked to finish 11th in the conference, we ended up finishing third at 15-7, 19-8 overall. Let me say right here that the ACCAC night in and night out is a very tough conference. You have to be ready to play every night, or you will lose. When we first got there, it was kind of sorting itself out down the stretch with the D1’s at the top, but on any given night you could get beat, even then. Over the years of my tenure, the D2’s got stronger. I firmly believe to this day that all the basketball teams in Arizona should go D1 for a few reasons. First, it may force the various districts to look at more creative ways of funding their programs for excellence, and not just participation. I say do them for excellence or don’t do them, which is the attitude we faced in the Midwest and South. Second, the NJCAA would then take our region winner to Hutch every year, as they did in the old days. Third, the national tournament in Hutchinson is THE tournament for juco’s, I don’t care what anybody says. It is an experience like no other, played in a 10,000 seat arena which also serves as a museum for junior college basketball. An Arizona team hardly ever goes, because we have to fight through Region 18 to get there, and has never won it.

No one ever seemed to learn much from how we finished in 2009, as we were routinely picked to finish in the middle or lower end of the conference every year I was at Mesa. We made the Division 1 playoffs that first year- it was always the top four teams that went. What helped was that we talked Connor Isley into coming back to college basketball. He had been a point guard for us at Mountain Pointe on a final four team, and knew our system backward and forward. He was definitely the "coach-on-the-floor" that you hear about. We were also very fortunate to have a young man named Clint Hamilton from Texas walk into the gym one day and want to try out. He was leaving a small Division 3 NCAA school after his freshman year, because he thought he was better than that. He was what people in the profession refer to as a "tweener", because at 6'5" with his skill set, he was both a guard and a big-man, while at the same time being neither. But, he was exceptionally skilled and could play anywhere on the court. Plus, he had a real nose for the ball and would end up leading the conference in rebounding. He had three games during the season where he had more than 20 rebounds, which is exceptional. For any young coaches reading this, Clint helped me realize that rebounding is one of the most overtaught skills in the game. Some guys just have a knack for it and some don't, so don't overdo how much time you spend on that.

Everyone was right about Arizona Western being the cream of the crop, as they beat us both times we played them in the regular season. Our first playoff opponent was Eastern Arizona, which had a very talented team that included the conference player of the year and future NBA player Mike James. It was a fantastic game and we hung in there until the last two and half minutes, suddenly finding ourselves down by seven. But this was a resilient group and we ended up scoring the last nine points of the game to win 92-90. It was an improbable comeback, finished off by a three point play by Josh Deane with three seconds left. His finishing play was notable because we had worked on jump hooks with the right and left hands the entire year, but Josh had never executed a left hand jump hook in live action all year. At that moment, he executed it perfectly- got fouled and made the free throw. We were tied 69 all with our next opponent, Cochise, with 58 seconds left, and at the line shooting two. We missed both, and Cochise went down and scored a bucket. We missed our next attempt from the field, and went to the offensive glass hard, leaving ourselves vulnerable for a break out going the other way- which is exactly what happened. Cochise scored a layup and we were called for an intentional foul and ended up losing 75-69. All things considered, we had a great year.

The immediate downside to the first year was that half of our coaching staff could not continue working for free. There is no upside to that. We did not get one word of encouragement from our administration, and all attempts to go to bat for coaches getting paid or getting on campus jobs failed. I even had one VP tell me that they were “just coaches”, so what could they really do, after all. These were men with Master’s Degrees who were labelled “just coaches”. This would plague me my entire career at Mesa.

The upside was that we had a strong group of returning players. This was before the era of “I didn’t get to play, so I am transferring”. This was the era of “now it’s my turn.” If we were going to beat Western, however, we were going to need that special player who could get you buckets when needed. Those guys were always hard to find, especially when you basically had no scholarships to offer. The offer was coaching, getting better, and improving your situation at the next level.

That player would appear in the form of one Stephen Rogers.

Next time: the first championship...

We're coming up on the halfway point of the season after this week's games (for those that haven't had a bye yet). After going to Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert, and Queen Creek over the first 4 weeks, I'm finally going West and will be heading to Sunrise Mountain to see the Mustangs against Boulder Creek. This will be the first meeting between the 2 schools.

Boulder Creek (3-1) has won 2 straight and scored at least 21 in each game (37 ppg). Junior Rowan McKenzie had 4 TD passes last week to give him 11 on the season. Dylan Niemeyer has been reliable and has a TD catch in each of the Jaguars' games. I see in the box score that Sinjin Schmitt, BC's leading rusher, didn't play last week. Sophomore Karsten Cornell stepped in and had 15 carries for 102 yards. So, we'll see who's in the backfield on Friday night.

Sunrise Mountain (3-1) has also won 2 straight (on the field). The Mustangs have scored at least 31 in their last 3 games after the opening night shutout against Liberty. The offense is waiting for a pair of transfer QBs to become eligible (in its next game). In the meantime, it's been run, run, run. Sunrise is averaging less than 7 passes per game (162 run plays, 27 pass plays). Senior Rex Underhill leads the team in rushing with 312 yards and 4 TDs. Micah Johnson, a receiver, is also getting it done on defense as he had a pair of picks last week, bringing one back to the house.

Looks to be a good one out in Peoria on Friday night. Both teams are heading into a bye week on Oct. 7, so I'm sure they'll leave it all out there.

NOTE: Sunrise Mountain's record has been corrected to 3-1 as the AIA has awarded them a forfeit victory in Week 2 over Millikan. The California team had to forfeit its 4 wins due to an ineligible player. The Rams are now 1-5 after winning last Friday night (58-54).

So, off we went to Missouri for our first two games as a staff in junior college. Moberly College had a beautiful facility to play in- the Cotton Fitzsimmons-Maury John Arena. This was going to be a great way to kick off our careers, or ruin them. Our first opponent was Missouri State University-West Plains, ranked 15th in the Division 1 pre-season poll. Being ranked 11th in our own conference poll meant, of course, that we had no standing nationally. We upset MSU West Plains 65-59, in a very hard fought and physical game. It was notable to us, because late in the game we ran our spread offense. Most people told us that we would never be able to use the four corner in college because of the shot clock, which was then 35 seconds. I thought “you never know”, so we put it in to our practices anyway. At the time, I was thinking end-game scenarios. Little did I know what would happen next. After our game, we all went into the stands to watch #2 ranked Moberly play a pretty talented college from Kentucky. Moberly pressed the entire game and gave their opponents a pretty good beating, easily scoring over a hundred points. As we watched, we became convinced that a similar fate awaited us if we played Moberly straight up. It was decided that as long as they pressed us, we would spread them tit-for-tat. We thought they would be committed to the press at the beginning, but then might waiver if we started running the shot clock down and from time-to-time getting some easy baskets. As it turned out, they stayed committed to the press for the entire game, which caused us to stay committed to the spread offense the entire game. That is literally all we ran. We did play pretty good defense, too. We controlled the tempo the entire game and ended regulation tied at 61. We then outscored Moberly 11-6 in overtime to win 72-67. I’ve got to admit that it was one of the most satisfying wins in my entire career. The team was waiting for us in the locker room and the coaches got doused with water pretty good.

I think the most memorable moment for me came a little bit later when we were eating pizza provided to us by Moberly after the game. We were up at the mezzanine level of the arena, in a conference room. The door suddenly popped open and some old guy who we didn’t know popped in and said “now that’s how you play basketball.” He turned and walked out without saying anything else. He didn’t need to. There we were in Fitzsimmons-John Arena, where we had just played the winningest junior college program in history and had prevailed. We had arrived. Over the years, we played in Missouri, Kansas, Texas, and Iowa in the midwest, and the people in those areas seemed to have an understanding and appreciation for basketball and its history that was lacking in our home state. Another interesting result of the Moberly game was that very few people in Arizona would ever know what happened there that night. When I walked in to work on Monday morning back in Mesa, the athletic secretary asked me “hey, how did you guys do this weekend?” That tells you all you need to know about junior basketball in the Phoenix area.

Next time: The ACCAC...

Setting the tone...

We found out that by having summer PE classes for basketball, that we could double the amount of contact time we could provide to our players. The NJCAA rule was similar to the NCAA rule of eight hours per week. Those eight hours included any meetings, conditioning, or weight room workouts. The loophole in the rule was that if you had a PE class, those hours didn’t count against the eight. The only downside was that the class had to be open to all students, so there were always a few guys enrolled who were not going to be on the team. Regardless, these classes became one of the foundations of our teaching fundamentals to our guys, and a whole bunch of regular dudes became better city league players as well.

First impressions are always important, so this first group set the tone for our future at MCC. We gave them copies of our basketball/life philosophy and made sure that we adhered to it. If you don’t come in the door that way, it can never be recaptured. That is one of the biggest mistakes young and/or new coaches make coming in. We had to concentrate totally on that first group. We had to assume that they knew nothing, so the old line of “this is a ball” became an inside joke among the coaches. So, the first year was really about establishing our core program beliefs and figuring out the level of Division 1 NJCAA. As we were making our schedule, we had to figure out a way to play nationally prominent Division 1 schools in the non-conference portion. It quickly became apparent that it would be difficult to get teams from around the nation to come play us at Mesa. There was so much good competition in the southern and mid-western portions of the country that teams did not want to pay to come and play Mesa and maybe a couple of other Valley D2’s. So, if we were going to see what was out there, we would have to travel. Our recruiting budget was $0, and so was our travel budget for out-of-state games. That meant if we were going to go anywhere away from Arizona, we were going to have to raise money to do it.

We looked on the NJCAA website for teams who were having pre-season tournaments and advertising for participants; quickly finding one in Moberly, Missouri. The name rang a bell for me, because I knew that Cotton Fitzsimmons, a former Phoenix Suns legendary coach, had coached there. So, we figured they must be pretty decent. Little did we know that they would appear in the pre-season rankings later at #2, and were, in fact, the winningest junior college in history. Another aspect of junior college travel that we were not aware of were guarantees for tournament participants. Moberly was offering hotel rooms and cash, which was fantastic. That would ultimately be the way we were able to attract so many great teams to our Fiesta Bowl Junior College Shootout. All we would have to do is get to Missouri somehow.

Our athletic director that first year was Jeff Fore. He was an ex-coach out of Missouri, so when we came to him with our idea of getting out there to Moberly, he was all for it. Problem was, we had no money. and, as mentioned, the out of state travel budget for MCC was $0. Curiously, there is a line item in the budget that lists an amount for out of state travel, but coaches are forbidden to touch it. My guess is that it is used for something else. For the first and only time in my career at Mesa, the AD said he would spot us the cash with the provision that we would have to raise it along the way and pay him back. Can you imagine that level of trust? We did pay it back, but Jeff only lasted one year and we were never given that opportunity again. He got fired, but is now the AD at Park University in Gilbert. We really liked Jeff, because he was a visionary, which most high school and urban junior college AD's are not. They are more of the bureaucratic ilk, which means "don't bring me any problems". Money, and where to get it was an example of the problems they do not like. I think Jeff Fore is already doing great things at Park. It was a big loss for MCC, but he wanted to move much faster than they did. He brought problems, if you understand my meaning. We would have to raise the money for travel first from then on, even though we had honored our commitment.

Going in we had a very limited sense of the ACCAC, just like most people. When I had coached at Yavapai College in the 80’s, there was only one level of junior college athletics and there were over 400 participating colleges. In the 90’s, the junior colleges split into three divisions which mirrored the NCAA. In Arizona, the urban college basketball programs almost immediately dropped into division two, with one exception- Mesa. MCC for many years had been the flagship for athletics in the conference, in particular men’s basketball. There was a strong tradition and several great coaches had passed through the school, so there was a reluctance to wave the white flag and drop to division two. Neither the school nor the district imposed a demand to drop to that level, so while most of the sports on campus did make the drop, men’s basketball did not. Knowing that is what drew me to the job in the first place.

What we didn’t know also was that the district had decided not to fund any sports that decided to stay in Division 1 appropriate to that level. Back in the beginning of the conference, coaches were given a certain number of tuition waivers for their sport. Somewhere along the way- when tuitions were $325 a semester, the district froze those waivers and began calling them “athletic talent” scholarships. Tuition costs continued to rise over the years, but the talent scholarships have been continually frozen at $325 per semester. In basketball, we were allowed twelve of those scholarships, which meant that our total scholarship budget the entire time I was at Mesa was $7,800 annually. Chew on that one for a minute. I remember sitting in the locker room one time with a recruit and his mother, and she said that because her son was such a good player, we were willing to pay for one class each semester, which is about what $325 covered. Yes, ma’am but….we lost the kid.

Since we could never really talk money with prospective student athletes, we had to sell our ability to coach, our program, and the fact that as a Division 1 program we would be at a better level than our Valley sister schools, thus giving a player more exposure to four year colleges. That proved to be correct, as during our tenure we put more players into NCAA Division 1 schools than all the other Maricopa schools combined. We went after good students, because the college had what were called Presidential Scholarships for high achieving students from local high schools. Those scholarships were tuition waivers, like athletics had been given in the old days. We looked for great students who were really good players, and who had a chip on their shoulder about being under recruited by Division 1 NCAA schools. In the beginning years for us, they were not hard to find.

Not only did we want to know who was out there nationally, but we needed to find out who the bigshot was in our own conference. Since the split in divisions, Arizona Western, a Division 1 school, had risen to the top of the heap, followed by the other remaining D1’s in the league- Cochise, Eastern Arizona, Central Arizona, and Yavapai College. When we came in, the D2’s in the Valley were not holding up that well against those schools. It had become a two tiered conference, which had a lot of people wondering if it could really continue that way. At our first coaches meeting, Mike and I learned that the esteem in which Mesa was once held had evaporated, as we were picked to finish 11th (out of 12) by the coaches in our league. Of course, that became instantly good locker room material. It was clear, though, that Western was the target.

End of Part 1

The Devil Train: The Case for Rooting for Arizona State in 2022​

This week, I'll be making my first trip to Casteel HS to see the 3-0 Colts take on the 3-0 Casa Grande Cougars. Before the season, I struck up a conversation with the person that runs the Casteel social media account. They invited me to a game out there and I looked at the schedule and saw what looked like 3 tough road games: Mountain Ridge, Upland (CA), and Williams Field. I said if Casteel could take 2 out of 3, I'd make the trip down. Well what do you know, the Colts went out and won all 3!

Casteel is averaging 30 points per game. Landon Jury is in his second year as the varsity starter. Last season, he had 8 TD passes and he's closing in on that number with 6 in his first three games. Jury also leads the team in rushing with 152 yards (and 3 TDs). Sophomore WR Elijah Beamon already has an offer from NAU. Cornerback Jeremiah Newcombe (a junior) has 17 offers, including 9 from the Pac-12.

Casa Grande comes in riding a 16-game winning streak after running the table to the 4A title last year. The Cougars have scored at least 40 points in each of their games. CG has a dual-threat QB in sophomore Eltorna Gant, who also leads his team in rushing. Nathan Long is the team's top wide receiver. If Casa Grande is to compete in this one, it can't have 19 penalties like it had in the Central game last week (a 40-30 win).

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Saw this on Twitter, put your Arizona State coaching staff together inn the comments below

The Vision...

The vision starts with a staff, so the first thing I did upon being named head coach at Mesa Community College was to get a one together. This is the most important thing a head coach does. A coaching staff must be united. As mentioned, I found out right away that the Maricopa Juco’s view assistant coaches pretty much the same way as all the high schools do- not worthy of any legitimate pay. There are few exceptions in high school, which explains the constant transiency of coaching jobs. It is really hard to get a great staff and hold them together at these levels. Further exacerbating the problem at MCC was that the men’s basketball practice bloc was 1-4PM. If any assistant coach candidate had a full time job, that would make participation in practices very difficult. The women’s team had the 4-7 slot, so my only other real choice would have been after 7PM. That is not good for men with families, and if part of your philosophy is talking about family importance, you can’t do that to people. You have to live your philosophy or it is meaningless.

I have been lucky with holding a staff a few times, but it never lasts long. When I interviewed at Mountain Pointe many years ago, the Principal was Harold Slemmer. The interview I had there included only three people- the Principal, the Athletic Director, and the District AD. That is why I knew they meant business. He asked me what it would take to have the #1 program in the state, which incidentally was the only time in 40+ years of coaching that I was asked that particular question. Even MCC avoided that question, even though that is a very important one, and probably should be the first one out of the decision maker’s mouth. I told Harold that there were three things that would guarantee success- getting my staff on campus with jobs, having a class dedicated to the basketball players, and having rent free access to the gyms in the summer. Dr. Slemmer looked at me and said “we can do that”. Within three years, we had the number 1 ranked team in the Arizona Republic poll. Then, Dr. Slemmer left for the AIA and it was never the same.

The first person I called to join me at Mesa was Mike Grothaus. I had gotten to know Mike while I was at GCU. He was a new assistant there, having just finished his playing career as an Antelope. Or so we thought. It turned out that he had one semester of eligibility left, and halfway through the year as a result of some player losses, Scott asked him to suit up and play his last semester. Can you imagine that one? He started the year barking orders to players in his role as a coach, and the next thing you know he is heading into the locker room as a player. He admitted to me later how awkward that turned out to be. As a coach, Mike and I quickly became fast friends, as he had played for my good friend Tom Bennett at Gilbert High School, and I had coached against their team while at Mountain Pointe. Mike and I shared a lot of the same values as coaches and had a common background in who we learned from. We called it "the tree", and the roots were Coach Bennett and Coach Youree. When he became a player again, Mike would never talk to me about things that were discussed by players in the locker room, even though I tried to get information from him. I had the utmost respect for him for that, and was so fortunate to have him join my new staff. Scott Mossman was an excellent and tireless recruiter, and he had passed that knowledge onto Mike. Nothing is more important to college basketball than the ability to recruit, and Mike had it. And he was living at his parent’s house, and unmarried. We could scrape together some “adjunct” PE classes and perhaps some fitness center hours so he could actually make some money.

I also convinced a couple of my former assistants at Mountain Pointe to join in. Lane Waddell was our junior varsity coach for most of my ten years at MP, and was a fellow social studies teacher there, as well as a very good friend. What Lane brought to MCC was an understanding of our system, as well as an administrative sense and ability that every program needs. His teaching schedule at MP was such that he could make most of the practices- albeit late. I also asked Rex Morrison, a former freshman coach for us at MP to join. Rex and I had been friends and teaching colleagues for many years starting all the way back at Camelback High School. He was a great communicator with the public and salesman for the program, and like Lane, was well versed on our teaching techniques. And like Lane, Rex had a teaching schedule- then at Paradise Valley High School- that allowed him to make many of the practices. These guys were big believers in our philosophy and understood that loyalty was key. Thus, I completely trusted them when they had conversations with players, or anyone else for that matter, which as any head coach will tell you is very important.

Finally, we had a young man join us from Michigan named Josh Kutchinski. He had been a high school and junior college coach up there for several years, but decided to move to Arizona to try and catch on somewhere. By the time he got ahold of us, Mike, Lane, and Rex were already in place. I felt with Mike, our recruiting would be solid, which it was. With Lane, I felt that all of the various academic and administrative needs would be met, and Rex would handle community relations. Plus it would be fun to be around these guys again. So with Josh, we wanted him to coordinate fundraising. What no one in the Valley, including myself, knew was that the Maricopa Community College athletic programs are not funded very well. I will speak more to that later, but it became immediately apparent that as the only Division 1 program in Maricopa County, we were going to be up against some pretty powerful and well funded programs across the United States. For example, Indian Hills, Iowa reportedly had a recruiting budget of $250,000, while MCC's was $0. So, I asked Josh to take on that role initially, with whatever help I could give him. He had no other employment, and went to our MCC athletic director to try and get jobs in the game management area for all the sports on campus- gym and field set-ups, announcing, etc.

There it was- a great staff. The only thing missing over the subsequent years was any interest from MCC about who we had on staff and how to pay them. The amount they were willing to give for assistant coaches in 2008 was $4100. That was not $4100 each- that was $4100 to split among them in any way the head coach wanted. A joke and a sign of the esteem that coaches were held in across the district. That would never change during my tenure at MCC. These were great men and dedicated, knowledgeable coaches. The chance of keeping them together for any length of time was remote, at best. This first group would last one year. It boggles my mind to think of what we could have done at Mesa if we could have held this group together.

There were six players who could have returned from the prior year’s team, which at that time was about right for a junior college team. In principle, you would lose about half of your team from one year to the next. After assembling the staff, the next step was to meet with the returning players. We did that and three of them decided right away that this new program was not for them. That’s OK and not unexpected when new people take over. So, we had a staff and three players. There weren’t any small colleges of note in the area that had basketball programs, other than newly named Arizona Christian University, formerly Southwestern Bible College, where Paul Westphal cut his coaching chops. In that era, guys who wanted to play there had to have a keen interest in becoming church pastors, which narrowed their player field considerably. There weren’t many prep schools around then either to offer post grad teams where players could play and not lose any college eligibility. And, as mentioned previously, neither Arizona State or Grand Canyon hit the Arizona players that hard. We would go on in my tenure to help 35 players get Division 1 NCAA scholarships, but ASU, UofA, GCU, and NAU never recruited a single one of them.

Mike Grothaus had a list of players that he had been in contact with at GCU, and since GCU really wasn’t that interested in most of them, he was able to start talking to them about coming to MCC. Although late in the recruiting process, we were able to put together a pretty solid group of guys to go along with the three returners. What we gleaned right away was that there was a sizable amount of Arizona guys who were good, skilled players that were overlooked by national recruiters. These kids generally had a chip on their shoulder and were out to prove their worth. As a coach, those are the best kind of players to have. Mike, being a player from that Tom Bennett-Royce Youree tree, also knew how important good character was to that equation.

Next: Setting the tone...

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Haven't seen the Coyotes play at Campo Verde in 9 years. The past 3 times I've seen them play, they were on the road. Making my way to Gilbert this Friday to see them against Apollo. Should be a good test for the Campo D.

I last saw Apollo (1-1) in 2018 and then went to the Hawks' spring game in 2019, which was the first for head coach Aaron Walls. AHS improved from 2-8 his first season to 8-3 last year (and a playoff appearance). Of course, the star attraction at Apollo is running back Adam Mohammed. Through 2 games, the junior has 413 rushing yards and 7 TDs. Silas Chicharello returned at QB last week and had 2 TD passes, so Mohammed isn't having to do that job again (like he did in Week 1).

Campo Verde (1-0) only got to play about 6 minutes last Friday night. Then the rains and lightning came and with their opponent coming from Tucson (Ironwood Ridge), the Nighthawks did not return on Saturday to finish it. Unfortunately for the Coyotes, that cost them a likely victory as CV led the game 20-0 when it was stopped. That defensive effort followed up on an 18-0 win in Campo's opener in California. I believe their quarterback, Ashton McPherson, was injured in that game. Mason Shea moved over from receiver to finish it. Junior running back Athan Ferber went over 100 yards (115) in the win over Chavez. Campo Verde also made the 5A playoffs in 2021, despite a 4-6 regular season record.

Through 13 varsity games, Mohammed has had 100 or more yards in all 13 of them. Will Campo be the first to keep him under the century mark?

On to Mesa Community College

As fate had it while that season was progressing, I learned of an opening for a head men’s coach at Mesa Community College. I talked to Scott about it and, surprisingly, he said that he thought it was the third best coaching position in the Valley, behind the Suns and ASU. He said it was full time, it was Division 1 NJCAA, and the recruiting field in the metro area was very fertile, since ASU really wasn’t recruiting any Phoenix kids, and Scott and his GCU staff didn’t really hit the valley that hard, as well. This was 2007, and there were none of the NAIA schools present then either. Equally surprising, Scott told me that he might even apply. So, I put in for the job. That was in October. I called my friend, Tom Bennett, and told him that I was going to apply and was there any guidance he could give me. Coach Bennett was the winningest coach in MCC history, and was a member of the NJCAA Hall of Fame. He told me to make sure that I included an experience reference to each one of the requirements listed in the job description. Otherwise the search committee would throw my cover letter in the trash without any further consideration. A few years later, to amplify the point, I served on a search committee at MCC for an on campus job of some importance. Over two hundred people had applied, and in the first meeting of the group, we were told to read each introductory letter, and if the candidate had failed to mention prior experience that was listed in the job description, we were instructed to throw the application out. I tried to object to this method, as there were many outstanding candidates with great educational and work backgrounds who had simply not listed their experiences in each category. I was told by the committee chair that was how it was done at MCC- period. I couldn’t help but to think back to Coach Bennett’s advice and be grateful that I had followed it. I declined to ever participate in another search committee after that. So, if you ever apply in that District, remember this.

As I eventually found out through the years, the Maricopa County Community College District is a lumbering bureaucracy that moves extremely slow when filling jobs. I think right now in 2022, the majority of college presidents in the district are interims, as is the Chancellor, if that gives you any idea. I thought in October 2007, that they would wrap up the coaching search fairly quickly to give the new coach a recruiting advantage. Wrong. It was January of 2008 before I heard anything. I had no idea if I was even being considered and by January was beginning to think I had been passed over. The GCU basketball team was in Hawaii, and with a day off, we were all at Sunset Beach on Oahu when my phone rang. It was an administrative assistant to the interim Vice President of Student Affairs at Mesa Community College. She said the search committee wanted to interview me. Over the sound of the crashing waves, I told her where I was and that it would be difficult for me to get there. She said not to worry, the interviews would not take place until February- late February. What’s the hurry, right?

It was the kind of interview that I do not like- a committee of coaches who had been roped into asking candidate after candidate a series of scripted questions. You could just read their faces that they knew this was a waste of their time. I believe the main role of a college athletic director is to hire good coaches, and then give them all the resources they need to be successful in the pursuit of excellence. That’s his/her job, not some committee. If this was a high school interview, I would have walked, like I did at South Mountain CC a dozen years earlier. I actually did that at Mesa High once, also. I went over to interview with Lionel Gore, who I believe was the Mesa District AD at the time, only to walk into a room that had parents, players, teachers, and God knows who else. I asked Lionel if I could speak to him in the hallway, and then left. But, after my experience at GCU, and the fact that Tom Bennett and Royce Youree really wanted me to do this, I gutted out the MCC interview. But the fact that MCC did it this way, would be a bad omen for the future, as it usually is.

I actually didn’t find out that I had been selected as the next MCC coach until late March. They called me in for what was supposed to be a second interview with the college president, only to be told by him right away that they wanted me for the position. Just like the South Mountain president, he didn’t beat around the bush, only this time it was a full-time position coaching basketball. It turned out to be perfect timing for retiring from teaching, as well, as I had reached my 80 point retirement threshold in February, so I immediately put in for it upon hearing the news from Mesa. I finished out my teaching contract in May, but was actually working two jobs in March, April, and May. I would drive to work in Ahwatukee each morning- teach at Mountain Pointe High School, then go to MCC for work there, then home to Central Phoenix. Long days.

Right here, let me say that for the third best coaching job in the valley, it was crickets when I got the job. I did not receive one call from anyone in the media to talk about the job, or to announce it. I don’t coach for that, but I thought it was a bit odd. As with most people, I hadn’t really paid any attention to the kind of media coverage that the Maricopa jucos got in the media, which was actually nata. Even the MCC Sports Information guy said he would get it up on the internet somewhere down the line. He was a part timer, like many people who worked there, as I found out. Some people refer to the community college system in Maricopa County as a kind of pyramid scheme- most of the faculty are what they call “adjunct”, which is probably Latin for “part-time”. Even my wife was an adjunct French teacher at MCC. She taught the same subject at Camelback High School full time, and most adjuncts have a desire deep down to catch on at one of the colleges full time. That is a very slim chance proposition, as full time faculty positions are few and like golf coaches in high school- you have to pry them away from cold, dead fingers.

There was no official announcement from the school about the hiring, nor was there any sort of welcome ceremony. Sometimes I wondered over the years why the Maricopa Community College District even bothers with athletics. They have a low regard for coaches, only hiring a few full time. I went to a Vice President at MCC once to see if I could get some jobs on campus for my assistants. She said “what can I do for them, they’re just coaches?” These were men who had Master’s Degrees and years of experience in education, but to her they were just “coaches”. The District recently dropped football altogether, and during that mess, there were serious discussions at the district level as to why they should fund any athletic programs. The schools had to scramble around and come up with justifications for keeping the athletic programs at their schools. The reason for funding any program should be the pursuit of excellence, but unfortunately for most high school coaches and all of the MCCCD coaches, it is simply participation. Just don’t bring them any problems. The pursuit of excellence, unfortunately brings problems- most notably a strong level of institutional commitment.

But, I just wanted to coach…so away we went.

Next time: The Vision

GCU (part 2)

Let me amplify the family aspect of teams that I ended with last time. In 1968, which was my senior season at East High, and the school’s first year in the highest classification of Arizona high school sports, which was “AAA”, we were immediately tossed into the toughest region in the state- the Metro. The Metro in those days had two divisions, and ours had North High, South Mountain High, Central, Maryvale, and Carl Hayden. On the other side, one of the teams was Phoenix Union, which was coming off a 28-0 season. Another of the teams was West High, where we would open the season. They initiated us to the Metro with a 75-59 thumping. We won our home opener against Scottsdale High, and then headed over to play Phoenix Union in that huge gym of theirs. They were already 3-0, so had a 31 game win streak going. We beat them 65-64, which Coach Youree still refers to as the “arrival” of East High basketball. We would go 6-4 in our side of the Metro, and even though we didn’t go far in the playoffs, we were the only team in Arizona to have beaten the two '68 AAA finalists during the season- Phoenix Union and Maryvale. And many people know how East High then dominated the Arizona basketball scene for the next thirteen years until the school closed. Where does family come into this picture? Well, on the night of the Phoenix Union game and all of the subsequent games that season, we started four seniors. On the day I posted Blog #41, those same four starters met for lunch, almost 55 years later, as we have done many times over the years. It is a brotherhood, a bond. Sometimes, Coach Youree joins us, and he is the father figure. Yes, a family. Isn’t this what sports should be for someone?

The 2007-08 GCU season was rocky, and pretty much all over the map in terms of how we played. We definitely played much better at home in Antelope Gymnasium. We ended up 15-16, which reflected our inability to play well on the road. Since GCU was in the PacWest Conference, which included four teams from Hawai’i, we had two different road trips to the islands that were a week each. Those were pretty cool for coaches, because on our dead time, of which there was quite a bit, we could sightsee. It wasn’t so good for the players, however, because they needed to rest and/or do homework on their down time. Scott had been there several times and knew all the sights that appeal to tourists. We climbed Diamond Head on Oahu, as well as taking a drive up into the rainforests in the center of the island. I was also able to take walks on the boulevard facing Waikiki Beach, which was pleasant. On one of the walks, I pulled out my cell phone and called the lunch room in the Social Studies Department of Mountain Pointe High School, where I was still technically a teacher. It was lunchtime for the group, so I wanted to make sure I described my walk down to the beach and into the ocean. On the Big Island, where we would play the University of Hawai’i Hilo, we drove along the coastal highway and visited some of the beautiful waterfalls along the way.

The most poignant visit for me was on Oahu- Pearl Harbor. My Dad grew up in a tiny town in Texas during the Depression. His parents lived on a small farm and life was rough. My Grandpa had to deliver ice to homes for coolers and my Dad would help him before and after school. The blocks of ice were fifty pounds each and had to be hand carried to each location, many times up some stairs. My Dad couldn’t wait to graduate from high school, and had plans to join the army in the hopes of becoming a pilot. Right after graduation in 1940, he drove 50 miles to Dallas, where there was an army recruiting center in which he could sign the enlistment papers. His neighborhood buddy, Duane “Rusty” Jackson, went with him, even though Rusty was not a high school graduate yet and was only 16. He was going to see if he couldn’t lie about his age and get in the service. His life in the small town was dreary and he envied his friend’s ability to get out. When they got to the recruiting office, my Dad went to the army office and told Rusty to wait in the lobby and he could go next. Rusty got up after a few minutes and went down the hallway to the navy office. He had never seen the ocean, so the idea of working on it and going around the world on a ship kind of appealed to him. By the time my Dad finished enlisting in the new Army-Air Force, Rusty had lied his way into the navy.

Dad’s first station after boot camp was at a new base out in the dusty town of Phoenix, Arizona, called Luke Field. Rusty, on the other hand, landed a plum position as a gunner’s mate on one of the premier battleships in the U.S. Navy- the USS Arizona. On December 7, 1941, Rusty was able to make it to his gun position on one of the two towers of the ship before the bomb hit that completely destroyed it. His body was blown out into the bay and recovered later. Most of the crew of the Arizona were never recovered and were entombed permanently in the wreckage. Rusty was eventually buried back in his home town. Every other year when I was a kid, we would go to Texas to visit my Grandma, who still lived on that old farm. And on each trip, my Dad would drive my brother and I out to the cemetery and we would go to Rusty’s grave. His grave marker was a simple stone with his name and years of life on this planet. He was 17 when he died on the Arizona. There was also a metallic frame that held a small black and white picture of Rusty wearing his navy uniform and his sailor’s hat with “USS Arizona” written on it. When I stood at the Arizona Memorial all those many years later, and saw Duane Jackson’s name on that wall, I understood why my Dad took us to the cemetery on each visit to Texas. He wanted us to understand that Rusty’s sacrifice mattered. And as I stood there, I was overwhelmed by that.

We lost all four games in Hawai’i, but would beat all four of those teams in Antelope gym. That’s kind of the way the whole season was. Chaminade, which was and still is a D2 famous for hosting a tournament that annually includes some big time D1’s now referred to as the Maui Invitational, actually has an on-campus gymnasium that is…well, rustic. What struck me immediately was that there was no dressing room for the visiting teams, so we had to dress in a classroom that was on top of a hill directly above the gym. That is junior college stuff. Anyway, as we descended the hill, we were directed to a side door and found that we entered the gym on the second level and would have to go down through the bleachers to get to the floor. That also meant that at halftime and after the game, we would have to climb through those same bleachers to get back to the classroom. If there were fans present, those trips could be problematic. When we got to the floor, I immediately noticed that the entire surface was covered with Chiquita Banana stickers. I had never seen that before- or since. Predictably, when we went up the bleachers at halftime, the fans were giving us the business, and after our loss, many hung around to give us more of the business as we walked out. We played a very poor second half, which of course we attributed to having to climb that hill at halftime.

When we played Hawai’i Pacific, I found that they did not even have a gym of their own, and played at two or three locations around Honolulu. The night we played them, they were at a local high school gym. Although their team was not very good, the gym was packed with fans and they had a great pep band. I spoke with a student after the game and found out that their housing costs would be reduced if they attended sporting events. And they partied the whole game- very loud. The student told me that if they had to be there, then they felt they should have a great time. Smart. I hear the Havoc at GCU these days gets the same deal. One of the players on their team was someone that I knew from Arizona. I asked him if he liked it at Hawai’i Pacific and he said “Yes, great weed”. The fans really did carry a mediocre team to victory that night.

BYU Hawai’i was a different story. They were the class of the PacWest and had a great South American player named Lucas Alvez. He would be PacWest Conference Player of the Year three times. Great big man- 6’9” with great athleticism, feet, and hands. He was very skilled and fun to watch. They had a beautiful arena and were located on the North Shore of Oahu. Nothing remarkable about the game stands out, and they handled us pretty easily. BYU Hawai’i has since dropped their athletic programs, which is a shame.

Hawai’i Hilo played in the Hilo Civic Center, which was one of those old combine gyms with a stage at one end of the court. There was no air conditioning- beach breezes, right? Wrong, it was stuffy in there and even more so when it filled up with people. It was so humid that there were two boys at each end of the floor with mops to wipe up the droplets of sweat from the players each time they went to the other end. There were several times during the game when the boys were caught out on the floor by one team or the other coming down on a fast break. We at least had a locker room, but the windows were open and people outside could hear everything. We played a poor first half, and Scott came in at halftime and started to give it to the team pretty hard. When he paused, some lady outside yelled “you tell ‘em, coach!” Everyone laughed, including the players.

Next time: On to Mesa Community College

This week, I'm checking out two teams that both have new head coaches, both have just been moved down from 6A to 5A due to struggles, and both won exciting games in Week 1.

I'll be in East Mesa at Skyline as the Coyotes host Tucson.

Tucson made a late hire bringing in Malcolm Nelson in July. He has 18 years of experience and was an assistant with the IFL Tucson Sugar Skulls in 2019. The Badgers played just 2 games in the COVID 2020 season and went 1-9 last year. TMHS matched that win total with a 29-21 victory over Dobson last week. The game was tied with less than 3 minutes to go before the Badgers prevailed. Tucson played two QBs, a senior and a freshman. They combined for 215 yards with Devin Neumann (Sr.) going 8-of-11 for 150 yards. The two QBs also totaled 85 rushing yards. Defensively, the Badgers held Dobson to 61 passing yards (8-of-18).

Skyline hired Adam Schiermyer back in January. He was previously the OC at Eastmark where he helped get the Firebirds into the playoffs in just their second season of varsity play. Prior to that, Schiermyer was a part of Preston Jones' staff at Perry. Over the last three seasons, Skyline's record was just 5-23. Like Tucson, the Coyotes were 1-9 in 2021 and matched that win total with a 21-17 victory at North Canyon last week. The Rattlers were driving at the end, but were tackled just one yard short of the end zone on their final reception as time expired. The Coyotes got it done on the ground with junior Jordan Blake tallying 251 yards on 20 carries and a pair of touchdowns. The SHS defense held North Canyon to 88 rushing yards.

It's a pair of teams that don't get much attention, but someone will be 2-0 and I think will have a chance at a 6-4 season. Should be a close one in the East Valley.

Who are some sports reporters/media that others may not know to pay attention to but do good work?

I say in Flagstaff that Brenden Martin gets out to a lot of stuff that I don’t have time to cover. Same with with Ava Nichols.

The Granillo show is new in the valley but they’ve got some good stuff early going on. Seliberty was recently on

Every year we find out there are these secretive scrimmages around the state

Here are some I found out about

All the levels are playing this week (I'm calling it Week 1 for the big schools). Doing this thread weekly again so we can seen what games everyone is covering.

I'll be making my first trip to Corona del Sol since 2015 to see the Aztecs against Mesa. The Jackrabbits return WR Tre Brown, who went for over 1,000 yards and 11 TDs in a 10-game season. Mesa was 4-6 last year, but is in a winnable region this year with Corona now moved out of it. This is the 4th year at the helm for Chad DeGrenier and MHS has only posted a winning record during his first season in 2019. Mesa will be starting a new QB this year as Cy Schmaltz is now playing for Gila River in the HJCAC. 2015 was also the last time I saw Mesa play in person.

The last time Jake Barro coached in a football game, he was claiming the gold ball after Casa Grande took the 4A Conference title last December. Just a month later, he took the job at Corona del Sol. The Aztecs went 5-5 (5-0 in region play), but finished at #19 in the power rankings. Corona returns Connor Ackerley at QB, who passed for 1,051 yards in his sophomore year. It seemed the reins were on him as he only attempted 20 passes twice last season. In Barro's offense, he could have a career-high 28 in this opener. CDS also brings back RB Jonathan Kubat, who rushed for 1,128 yards and scored 21 TDs in his junior year. It conjures up memories of a solid offense Barro had at CG with Angel Flores and RJ Keeton.

GCU (Part 1)

What intrigued Scott about having me on board was the system of team defense that we taught. I didn’t know Scott that well, but I knew that he had been an assistant for Paul Westphal when GCU was an NAIA school. He had been part of a national championship with Paul and was a disciple of his way of doing things, as you would expect. What that meant, though, that Scott’s view of defense was all about effort, and not necessarily technique. Our system was not only about effort, but also very much about technical expertise- footwork, arm work, body positions relative to the ball, and floor position.

When I worked with Bill Farrell, he also was intrigued with the defensive system. He let me go to teach it as thoroughly as I could, because he really wanted to learn it for his own coaching future. I understood that and obliged by not holding anything back. Other coaches that I worked with, including Scott, were taken aback by how much time it took to learn the system and usually tried to get me to do a quicker version before eventually giving up altogether. It wasn’t too long at GCU that I was cut to one drill per practice and soon after that to none.

I still had to try and figure out a way to contribute, because standing around during practice was beyond boring. We had some good big men, so I migrated to them after asking Scott if I could be utilized there. I had noticed that the bigs really had no system of individual work- they just went to a basket and shot free throws and anything else they could think of. We had developed through the years something we referred to as the “post sequence” and I thought it would be a good way to get the big guys organized and learning some new skills. It starts with the jump hook around the basket with both hands. We have taught the jump hook through the years to all of our players, regardless of size. That shot allows a player to score over bigger opponents when they are near the basket. It is frustrating to watch a guard get a great offensive rebound, but then have no way to get their shot off over a bigger player who is next to them. For big guys, the best way to score right at the basket is to go up and dunk the ball on their opponent, but most guys can’t do that. So, the jump hook keeps them moving towards the basket instead of fading away.

From learning the jump hook, the post sequence moves to how to get position relative to how the defense is playing you. There are four ways you can be guarded in the post area- behind, side top, side bottom, and in front. There are techniques for gaining good offensive position for each type of defense. Big guys must learn how to show a target hand that tells their teammate where they want the ball to be thrown. It is amazing to watch on TV or at live practices and games how post players will show a target hand, and their teammate will just throw the ball to the center of their body, making it more likely to get knocked away. They show a target for a reason. We would teach every player on our team these techniques of passing and catching in the post, as I found through the years that guards are often not good post defenders. At GCU, I was only given permission to work with the bigs, however, which was only half the picture. But, it was better than just standing around.

As with the defense, it takes time to work on post skills and time to learn them. I started sitting with the bigs during games down towards the end of the bench, so that I could talk to them about how they were being played and what they might consider doing. That also got me away from where Scott and the other coaches sat, which was more pleasant and free. Scott was of the opinion that his main function was to work the referees continually and the other coaches picked up on that which made it fairly noisy at that end of the bench. Eventually, he felt a little insecure about where I was sitting and asked me to stop working with the big guys. He made them commit to one move only- an over the right shoulder turn and jump shot. If they couldn’t get that shot, they were instructed to kick the ball out to the perimeter. Of course, if you only have one move, the defense will fairly quickly take that away, thus our bigs became much less effective offensively. So from about half the season on, I really had no function on the court, except adding encouragement during drills. I still sat with the big guys on the bench the rest of the way, offering encouragement as best I could. This season would have been a one and done at GCU for me regardless of what awaited in the future. Mesa Community College would soon be a viable option.

A side note here to all head coaches- always include assistants in team meetings. Scott came in one day and instead of having practice, he decided to have a team meeting in the locker room. We all started going in, and he stopped the assistant coaches. He said he was like a father to them, which meant that we must be the uncles that show up for Thanksgiving. He told us to just wait out in the gym. The meeting lasted for a good two hours and we sat out there the whole time- not knowing what the meeting was about, or what was being said. The assistants who had been there longer than me started into a session of picking Scott apart, and it went on pretty much the whole length of the meeting. It was pretty shocking to hear, and although I had never had a meeting that excluded any assistant coaches and never would, it brought into focus exactly why. Teams are families, and coaches are a huge part of the family. And like any family, it hurts to be left on the outside, and these coaches manifested that hurt.

Next up: GCU (part 2)

Now that the Mesa Community College chapter of my life has closed, I want to put some things out there that are straight from the source. Even though there was no season in 2020-21, I was still employed full time at MCC, thus making 17 the total number of years that I coached in junior college. Two of those were as an assistant- one with Dave Brown at Yavapai College in 1982-83, and one with Rob Babcock at Phoenix College in 1986-87. I coached for 23 years in high school, which included three as an assistant- one with Bill Farrell at Paradise Valley High School in 1985-86, and two with Royce Youree at East High School in 1981-82, and Camelback High School in 1989-90. I spent one year as an assistant at GCU in 2007-08, when the Antelopes were NCAA Division II. That’s 41 years in the business, 35 as a head coach at Judson High School, Camelback High School, Mountain Pointe High School, Yavapai College, and Mesa Community College. I don’t know if my resignation at MCC puts an end to the career or not, but I am definitely a lifer, an outlier.

How did I get to MCC in the first place? After stepping down as head boys coach at Mountain Pointe High School in 2007, I was pretty much feeling the same then as I feel now. It was time to move on and try something else. I wasn’t sure what the next thing was going to be, but I wanted it to be in college. In 2007, that didn’t leave a lot of options in the Phoenix metro area. There was Arizona State University, Grand Canyon University, and the Valley juco’s- that was pretty much it. ASU was coached by Herb Sendek, with whom I had absolutely no relationship. I had limited experience with the Maricopa juco’s, having been Rob Babcock’s assistant in 1986-87 at Phoenix College. It was apparent back then that the administrations of these colleges had a high school mentality when it came to paying coaches- meaning there was little money in it. So, I was teaching at Paradise Valley High School, coaching at Phoenix College, working in their fitness center at night, and working on my Masters degree at ASU. Another bit of experience I had with the Maricopa juco’s happened in 1995. By then, I had my Masters degree, and the head coaching position had opened up at South Mountain CC. Doug Ferguson, the Athletic Director at SMCC, wanted to talk to me about the job and meet the college president. So, I got dressed up and went over to South one day to meet with both men. Doug took me to the president’s office, we shook hands, and basically the first thing he said was that it was not a full time position and there was no guarantee it would ever be. I appreciated the fact that he did not beat around the bush, so I didn’t beat around the bush either. I said that head coaches should be on the campus full time, stood up and said it was nice meeting with him and walked out. Total meeting time- about three minutes. Doug chased me down the hallway and said that I just needed to be patient- that it would be a full time job soon. As of this writing in 2022, it is still not a full time position. Dan Nichols coaches there, but works at Grand Canyon University. Coaching juco, then, did not seem possible in 2007.

That left GCU. I knew the head coach, Scott Mossman, through the recruitment of some of our Mountain Pointe players. I made a shot-in-the-dark phone call to Scott and asked him if he needed another assistant. As luck would have it, they did have an assistant who was leaving. One thing led to another and I went to GCU, albeit as a volunteer, which meant that I would have to keep my teaching job at Mountain Pointe. Picture that drive everyday, if you will. The two institutions are basically on opposite sides of the Metro area- a good 20+ miles from each other. You have to be a lifer. Scott Mossman was married, but his family lived in Riverside, California, so he lived in Phoenix alone and preferred to practice at night, which worked out for me- although it meant that I would hardly ever be home. A lot of coaches know what I am talking about.

Next time: GCU

What do you guys think?

Do you like the new set up of 8 schools per level (6A-4A) and then 8 wildcards?

Curious to get your thoughts...