Trojans and beyond…
After Yavapai, I got back into boys basketball at Paradise Valley High School, working with Bill Farrell. Putting us together at that point in our careers was one of the best things that could have happened to either of us. We were total basketball junkies, and honest to God, I don’t know how our wives didn’t throw in the towel that year of 85-86 when we worked together. I got a teaching certificate for physical education, because I had worked at Judson for the required two years to qualify. PE jobs are like gold in the high schools- I mean they have to be pried away from the cold dead fingers of a coach to have one open up, but Paradise Valley did have an opening in Social Studies teaching “B” classes. Thanks to my misguided advisor at Wyoming, I had accumulated enough hours in political science and pre-law to qualify to also teach social studies. This was during the time when tracking was big and you had three groups of kids classified in many schools- AP students, who were headed to college; regular students, who were headed into the blue collar workforce; and the mighty “B” students, who were headed to parties, jail, or worse. Kids walking around with a student number that had the letter B in it knew where they were headed and had kind of an attitude about it. Well, actually, they had a big attitude about it. A few years later, B programs were scrapped and nothing more was ever mentioned about it. So, I had to learn how to be an entertainer more than a teacher.
Bill’s classroom was right next door to mine, so every spare moment during the day- everyday- we were talking basketball. My reputation was about defense, even though I had been around some great offensive minds in Coach Youree and Dave Brown, and had soaked up quite a bit of knowledge. Bill Farrell was kind of like Dave- always coming up with new ways to do something and a very innovative thinker. He understood tempo and how to win with less talent than your opponent. He had a good spread offense, “41”, which was very effective in opening up the floor. I would recommend that all high school coaches have a spread offense, unless you know your team is always going to be the most talented. I worked with two of the best who ever did it, Coach Youree and Bill and became a big believer. It is still usable with a 30 second shot clock, and we have gone to it at MCC on many occasions. Bill and I only spent one year working together- thankfully for our wives- because at the end of the 86 season, Bill got into a dispute with the Principal of PV, Hal Buckley, and promptly retired. He was so intense that I think he retired on three or four different occasions in his career, which was all at Paradise Valley. But that 85-86 season was one of the most memorable in my career. We won the Central Region and got to the state semi-finals- the first time ever for a PV team- and lost to the eventual champion Carl Hayden 52-51.
Even though Bill and I worked together just that one year, I kept my teaching job at PV for a while longer. Always teaching “B” classes, too. Bill would “un-retire” later, after I had left PV and would go on and win two state championships. The gym at Paradise Valley High School is named after him, which is appropriate. He was a hell of a coach. He lives in Payson now, and when I take our MCC team up to Camp Tontozona for our annual retreat, we have touched base. As soon as we get near each other, we just start talking hoops and telling stories like we had been working together the whole time- even though it has been 35 years since we did.
Brigitte and I, and now our children Jordan and Morgan, lived right across the street from Phoenix College in those days, which was a pretty good haul from Paradise Valley. My old friend from the Adams-Westphal Camp days, Rob Babcock, was the head men’s coach at PC by the 1986 season. Once he knew that Bill was “retiring”, he asked me if I wanted to join his staff, which seemed from a family sense to be a smarter thing to do than to continue coaching way out in Paradise Valley. Rob, like everyone else in those days, wanted to get that defensive system into his program. So, I obliged and came back to the ACCAC. It hadn’t changed all that much on the men’s side, as Coach Youree and Coach Bennett still had MCC on top. We had a so-so year, and Rob couldn’t believe how much practice time it took to install and perfect the defense, until gradually he cut the amount of time he wanted to spend on it. The effect was that it wasn’t as good, and that will always be the effect of not spending enough time on what’s important. Rob and I worked together only that year and he eventually followed his brother Pete into the NBA, where he had a very successful and long career as a player personnel director and eventually General Manager of the Toronto Raptors. Pete, the former head coach of Greenway High School, went on to become the President of the Atlanta Hawks. The third brother, Dave, is currently the Director of Player Personnel for the Milwaukee Bucks. Rob, sadly, passed away last year from pancreatic cancer.
One of my fondest memories from the year at PC was the time the Los Angeles Lakers needed a practice court, and with his NBA brother connection, Rob’s name came up and they came to Phoenix College. This was 1986, and if you recall, “showtime” was in its heyday in Los Angeles. I got to stay and watch practice and I will never forget the sight of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at 7’2”, Kurt Rambis at 6’9”, James Worthy at 6’9”, Byron Scott at 6’4”, and Magic Johnson, their point guard at 6’9”, taking the floor. It completely changed the way you look at basketball. The court looked small and they covered the entire length of it so rapidly- it was a different game from what we knew. And when you think that the ’86 Lakers would not even make the finals- they would lose 4-1 in the Western Conference finals to the Rockets, who would then lose to Larry Bird and the Celtics in the championship round, it was like they were from another planet. I walked by Kareem and, at 6’8”, I hadn’t felt that small since I was a little kid walking with my Dad.
Next…the Spartans…
After Yavapai, I got back into boys basketball at Paradise Valley High School, working with Bill Farrell. Putting us together at that point in our careers was one of the best things that could have happened to either of us. We were total basketball junkies, and honest to God, I don’t know how our wives didn’t throw in the towel that year of 85-86 when we worked together. I got a teaching certificate for physical education, because I had worked at Judson for the required two years to qualify. PE jobs are like gold in the high schools- I mean they have to be pried away from the cold dead fingers of a coach to have one open up, but Paradise Valley did have an opening in Social Studies teaching “B” classes. Thanks to my misguided advisor at Wyoming, I had accumulated enough hours in political science and pre-law to qualify to also teach social studies. This was during the time when tracking was big and you had three groups of kids classified in many schools- AP students, who were headed to college; regular students, who were headed into the blue collar workforce; and the mighty “B” students, who were headed to parties, jail, or worse. Kids walking around with a student number that had the letter B in it knew where they were headed and had kind of an attitude about it. Well, actually, they had a big attitude about it. A few years later, B programs were scrapped and nothing more was ever mentioned about it. So, I had to learn how to be an entertainer more than a teacher.
Bill’s classroom was right next door to mine, so every spare moment during the day- everyday- we were talking basketball. My reputation was about defense, even though I had been around some great offensive minds in Coach Youree and Dave Brown, and had soaked up quite a bit of knowledge. Bill Farrell was kind of like Dave- always coming up with new ways to do something and a very innovative thinker. He understood tempo and how to win with less talent than your opponent. He had a good spread offense, “41”, which was very effective in opening up the floor. I would recommend that all high school coaches have a spread offense, unless you know your team is always going to be the most talented. I worked with two of the best who ever did it, Coach Youree and Bill and became a big believer. It is still usable with a 30 second shot clock, and we have gone to it at MCC on many occasions. Bill and I only spent one year working together- thankfully for our wives- because at the end of the 86 season, Bill got into a dispute with the Principal of PV, Hal Buckley, and promptly retired. He was so intense that I think he retired on three or four different occasions in his career, which was all at Paradise Valley. But that 85-86 season was one of the most memorable in my career. We won the Central Region and got to the state semi-finals- the first time ever for a PV team- and lost to the eventual champion Carl Hayden 52-51.
Even though Bill and I worked together just that one year, I kept my teaching job at PV for a while longer. Always teaching “B” classes, too. Bill would “un-retire” later, after I had left PV and would go on and win two state championships. The gym at Paradise Valley High School is named after him, which is appropriate. He was a hell of a coach. He lives in Payson now, and when I take our MCC team up to Camp Tontozona for our annual retreat, we have touched base. As soon as we get near each other, we just start talking hoops and telling stories like we had been working together the whole time- even though it has been 35 years since we did.
Brigitte and I, and now our children Jordan and Morgan, lived right across the street from Phoenix College in those days, which was a pretty good haul from Paradise Valley. My old friend from the Adams-Westphal Camp days, Rob Babcock, was the head men’s coach at PC by the 1986 season. Once he knew that Bill was “retiring”, he asked me if I wanted to join his staff, which seemed from a family sense to be a smarter thing to do than to continue coaching way out in Paradise Valley. Rob, like everyone else in those days, wanted to get that defensive system into his program. So, I obliged and came back to the ACCAC. It hadn’t changed all that much on the men’s side, as Coach Youree and Coach Bennett still had MCC on top. We had a so-so year, and Rob couldn’t believe how much practice time it took to install and perfect the defense, until gradually he cut the amount of time he wanted to spend on it. The effect was that it wasn’t as good, and that will always be the effect of not spending enough time on what’s important. Rob and I worked together only that year and he eventually followed his brother Pete into the NBA, where he had a very successful and long career as a player personnel director and eventually General Manager of the Toronto Raptors. Pete, the former head coach of Greenway High School, went on to become the President of the Atlanta Hawks. The third brother, Dave, is currently the Director of Player Personnel for the Milwaukee Bucks. Rob, sadly, passed away last year from pancreatic cancer.
One of my fondest memories from the year at PC was the time the Los Angeles Lakers needed a practice court, and with his NBA brother connection, Rob’s name came up and they came to Phoenix College. This was 1986, and if you recall, “showtime” was in its heyday in Los Angeles. I got to stay and watch practice and I will never forget the sight of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at 7’2”, Kurt Rambis at 6’9”, James Worthy at 6’9”, Byron Scott at 6’4”, and Magic Johnson, their point guard at 6’9”, taking the floor. It completely changed the way you look at basketball. The court looked small and they covered the entire length of it so rapidly- it was a different game from what we knew. And when you think that the ’86 Lakers would not even make the finals- they would lose 4-1 in the Western Conference finals to the Rockets, who would then lose to Larry Bird and the Celtics in the championship round, it was like they were from another planet. I walked by Kareem and, at 6’8”, I hadn’t felt that small since I was a little kid walking with my Dad.
Next…the Spartans…
