Different chapters…
There have been two chapters in my career at Mesa Community College. One goes from 2008 to 2015, the other 2016 until now. I will discuss the first chapter, but will have to wait on the second one.
Like I said earlier, the first person I called to join my staff was Mike Grothaus. Somehow, he managed to stay with me for five years in a school that just doesn’t value assistant coaches. When we came in, neither of us knew that much about the current state of the ACCAC. It appeared as though the dominant programs were the Division 1 teams in the league- Arizona Western, Cochise, Eastern Arizona, and Central. Most people that we spoke to said that to be competitive, you must be able to beat Arizona Western. Their excellent coach, Kelly Green, had a Brazilian connection of some sort and they had for years imported these massive players from there. We ran into Andre Alameda, a seven footer who was very skilled. They beat us both times we played them during our first year, on their way to a conference title. We were picked to finish 9th in the 12 team league, but instead finished 3rd. As mentioned previously, our first two games at MCC were in Moberly, Missouri, and our first two games as a staff were against two nationally ranked teams- Missouri State University- West Plains and Moberly. For those of you who question the value of a spread offense, both of those teams had much better talent than we did, but thanks to controlling the tempo, even with a 35 second shot clock, we were able to compete with them. We beat MSU-West Plains 65-59 the first night and then sat down and watched #2 ranked Moberly totally dismantle a good junior college team from Kentucky. Mike and I looked at each other and said the obvious- if we try to run with these guys, we will get killed. We opened the next night’s game in a four corner hoping they would aggressively come out and guard it-which they did. We ended up winning the game 72-70 in overtime. We came back to MCC to a thunderous silence. I guess they just expected us to do what we did.
Since the breakout into divisions, Mesa had not won a conference title nor a Region 1 championship in Division 1. Most people told us that it just couldn’t be done with the funding inequities between the Division 1 schools in our conference and us, who was being funded at less than a maximum Division 2 level. But fortunately, Mike Grothaus had become good friends with Stephen Rogers, a great player from Mountain View High School, who was red-shirting at Arizona State during our first year at MCC. Stephen had played on one of the truly great Mountain View teams and had committed to the University of San Diego after his senior year. He then went on a mission for his church for two years, and when he came back, San Diego had changed coaches and didn’t seem as interested in his services. Mind you, Stephen was a 6’8” wing player with big time skills, so I don’t know what there wasn’t to want there for USD. Anyway, he enrolled at ASU, but didn’t seem too happy there. Mike knew him from playing in men’s leagues and they became pretty good friends. Of course, Mike mentioned the possibility of playing at MCC, which is where he decided to go. ASU had told us and some others that Stephen was “soft” as a player, but we never found that to be true. He was great for us and would end up being an NJCAA All-American player. We ended up beating Arizona Western three times that season and winning the Region 1 championship, with a 72-69 win at Cochise. In that game, we were down 15 at the half. The bus ride back from Douglas was one for the books.
That team went on to the District championship game, which pits us against the Region 18 champion to see who goes to Hutch. We have to play this game each year, because Region 1- all the Arizona teams- does not have enough Division 1 teams to qualify directly to the national tournament. That is one of the reasons I mentioned why I wish some of the Maricopa teams, if not all, would go D1. Then, we would have enough teams to send a representative to Hutchinson every year. In 2010, we played the College of Eastern Utah, the Region 18 champion up in Salt Lake. They were coached by Chris Craig, former Horizon High School athlete, who would go on from CEU to Midland College in Texas and then off the deep end to some real mental issues. If you don’t know the story, look it up- it made Sports Illustrated. I thought he was a rising star as a coach, but mental illness is a tough thing. Their team had Michael Glover, who led the nation in rebounding and who would go on to NCAA D1 Iona and do the same thing there. He was a monster. Stephen Rogers hit a big three at the buzzer to send the game into overtime, but we ended up losing by one point. Eastern Utah made it to the national semi-finals and had a 16 point lead on Howard College with four and half minutes left in the game- and lost. Howard went on to win the national title, so all in all, I felt like we were in the conversation. Stephen Rogers went on to BYU, which was his dream. His father had converted the Fredette family to the LDS church, and Stephen got to play with one of their children, Jimmer Fredette at BYU on a really good team. He became a starter there.
We won the 2014 Region 1 title with a team that was one of the pure joys of my life to be part of. Before he left for Basha, Mike Grothaus had recruited the perfect bunch of guys for how we do things. We went 26-5, and 20-2 in the ACCAC- our only two losses being to Arizona Western. Down in Yuma, we blew a 14 point lead in the second half. As fate would have it, we ended up playing Western for the region championship and beat them by 45 points, 108-63. That is the largest margin of victory in a region championship game since divisions were formed, and I’m sure well beyond that. We again had to travel to Salt Lake to play the Region 18 winner, Salt Lake City CC, with their All-American Gary Payton, Jr. Two days before the game, our best inside player, and one of the best in the nation, Camyn Boone from Mesa Mountain View, sprained his ankle in a simple shooting drill. It was a very bad high ankle sprain, which normally puts someone out for two to three weeks. Cam made a gallant attempt to play in the game, even though he was in tremendous pain and could barely move. How tough was he? He scored nine points and had seven rebounds on one leg. But we couldn’t overcome a very good SLCCC team and lost. With a healthy Cam Boone, maybe the outcome is different- we will never know. If we had more D1 teams in Arizona, a very deserving team would not have had to go to Salt Lake.
I’ve got to mention Khari Holloway here. He was a freshman on the 2014 team and didn’t get too much playing time. He was a point guard playing behind a superior point guard, Shyheim McClelland from Milwaukee. Khari worked everyday as hard as he could, and was always in the gym doing extra. He wasn’t bitching and moaning about not playing, as so many players do. He learned and worked, and in 2015 came back and led us back to a number 1 seed in our region. He led the nation in free throw percentage and was as clutch as it gets down the stretch of any game. He ended up being an All-American his sophomore year. That is why we coach. He has a hard time today understanding kids who don’t want to put in work. They just want to play.
Next…Conclusion…
There have been two chapters in my career at Mesa Community College. One goes from 2008 to 2015, the other 2016 until now. I will discuss the first chapter, but will have to wait on the second one.
Like I said earlier, the first person I called to join my staff was Mike Grothaus. Somehow, he managed to stay with me for five years in a school that just doesn’t value assistant coaches. When we came in, neither of us knew that much about the current state of the ACCAC. It appeared as though the dominant programs were the Division 1 teams in the league- Arizona Western, Cochise, Eastern Arizona, and Central. Most people that we spoke to said that to be competitive, you must be able to beat Arizona Western. Their excellent coach, Kelly Green, had a Brazilian connection of some sort and they had for years imported these massive players from there. We ran into Andre Alameda, a seven footer who was very skilled. They beat us both times we played them during our first year, on their way to a conference title. We were picked to finish 9th in the 12 team league, but instead finished 3rd. As mentioned previously, our first two games at MCC were in Moberly, Missouri, and our first two games as a staff were against two nationally ranked teams- Missouri State University- West Plains and Moberly. For those of you who question the value of a spread offense, both of those teams had much better talent than we did, but thanks to controlling the tempo, even with a 35 second shot clock, we were able to compete with them. We beat MSU-West Plains 65-59 the first night and then sat down and watched #2 ranked Moberly totally dismantle a good junior college team from Kentucky. Mike and I looked at each other and said the obvious- if we try to run with these guys, we will get killed. We opened the next night’s game in a four corner hoping they would aggressively come out and guard it-which they did. We ended up winning the game 72-70 in overtime. We came back to MCC to a thunderous silence. I guess they just expected us to do what we did.
Since the breakout into divisions, Mesa had not won a conference title nor a Region 1 championship in Division 1. Most people told us that it just couldn’t be done with the funding inequities between the Division 1 schools in our conference and us, who was being funded at less than a maximum Division 2 level. But fortunately, Mike Grothaus had become good friends with Stephen Rogers, a great player from Mountain View High School, who was red-shirting at Arizona State during our first year at MCC. Stephen had played on one of the truly great Mountain View teams and had committed to the University of San Diego after his senior year. He then went on a mission for his church for two years, and when he came back, San Diego had changed coaches and didn’t seem as interested in his services. Mind you, Stephen was a 6’8” wing player with big time skills, so I don’t know what there wasn’t to want there for USD. Anyway, he enrolled at ASU, but didn’t seem too happy there. Mike knew him from playing in men’s leagues and they became pretty good friends. Of course, Mike mentioned the possibility of playing at MCC, which is where he decided to go. ASU had told us and some others that Stephen was “soft” as a player, but we never found that to be true. He was great for us and would end up being an NJCAA All-American player. We ended up beating Arizona Western three times that season and winning the Region 1 championship, with a 72-69 win at Cochise. In that game, we were down 15 at the half. The bus ride back from Douglas was one for the books.
That team went on to the District championship game, which pits us against the Region 18 champion to see who goes to Hutch. We have to play this game each year, because Region 1- all the Arizona teams- does not have enough Division 1 teams to qualify directly to the national tournament. That is one of the reasons I mentioned why I wish some of the Maricopa teams, if not all, would go D1. Then, we would have enough teams to send a representative to Hutchinson every year. In 2010, we played the College of Eastern Utah, the Region 18 champion up in Salt Lake. They were coached by Chris Craig, former Horizon High School athlete, who would go on from CEU to Midland College in Texas and then off the deep end to some real mental issues. If you don’t know the story, look it up- it made Sports Illustrated. I thought he was a rising star as a coach, but mental illness is a tough thing. Their team had Michael Glover, who led the nation in rebounding and who would go on to NCAA D1 Iona and do the same thing there. He was a monster. Stephen Rogers hit a big three at the buzzer to send the game into overtime, but we ended up losing by one point. Eastern Utah made it to the national semi-finals and had a 16 point lead on Howard College with four and half minutes left in the game- and lost. Howard went on to win the national title, so all in all, I felt like we were in the conversation. Stephen Rogers went on to BYU, which was his dream. His father had converted the Fredette family to the LDS church, and Stephen got to play with one of their children, Jimmer Fredette at BYU on a really good team. He became a starter there.
We won the 2014 Region 1 title with a team that was one of the pure joys of my life to be part of. Before he left for Basha, Mike Grothaus had recruited the perfect bunch of guys for how we do things. We went 26-5, and 20-2 in the ACCAC- our only two losses being to Arizona Western. Down in Yuma, we blew a 14 point lead in the second half. As fate would have it, we ended up playing Western for the region championship and beat them by 45 points, 108-63. That is the largest margin of victory in a region championship game since divisions were formed, and I’m sure well beyond that. We again had to travel to Salt Lake to play the Region 18 winner, Salt Lake City CC, with their All-American Gary Payton, Jr. Two days before the game, our best inside player, and one of the best in the nation, Camyn Boone from Mesa Mountain View, sprained his ankle in a simple shooting drill. It was a very bad high ankle sprain, which normally puts someone out for two to three weeks. Cam made a gallant attempt to play in the game, even though he was in tremendous pain and could barely move. How tough was he? He scored nine points and had seven rebounds on one leg. But we couldn’t overcome a very good SLCCC team and lost. With a healthy Cam Boone, maybe the outcome is different- we will never know. If we had more D1 teams in Arizona, a very deserving team would not have had to go to Salt Lake.
I’ve got to mention Khari Holloway here. He was a freshman on the 2014 team and didn’t get too much playing time. He was a point guard playing behind a superior point guard, Shyheim McClelland from Milwaukee. Khari worked everyday as hard as he could, and was always in the gym doing extra. He wasn’t bitching and moaning about not playing, as so many players do. He learned and worked, and in 2015 came back and led us back to a number 1 seed in our region. He led the nation in free throw percentage and was as clutch as it gets down the stretch of any game. He ended up being an All-American his sophomore year. That is why we coach. He has a hard time today understanding kids who don’t want to put in work. They just want to play.
Next…Conclusion…
