Conclusion…
I started out with these blogs two months ago with the intention of letting people know some part of what I have been through, while at the same time perhaps touching a nerve or two about the issues that are out there in coaching basketball. The “coaching carousel” will always be the way it is as long as leadership of these schools remains constant. When I say constant, I mean generally lousy. Nothing drives coaches from the business faster than bureaucrats- many of whom with no understanding of the complexities and commitment required by coaching. In my opinion, the two worst jobs in education are substitute teacher and assistant principal. One doesn’t pay much and you can quit anytime, but the other pays well and basically locks you in and forces you to kow tow to the district and your principal. I worked under twelve principals in my twenty five years in the classroom- two were exceptional, visionary leaders, and the rest were not. Most of the “were not” principals cared little about athletics and what coaches went through to do their jobs. They just didn’t want you to bring problems to them, and most assistant principals who worked for these types were the same- no problems please. Remember, I told you about a principal who hated the Desert Vista-Mountain Pointe rivalry because it brought too many problems. Crazy, right? That is surely why the Ahwatukee Bowl is not played at the end of every season where it belongs. When a coach says “I want to spend more time with my family”, that is usually coach speak for “I want out of here due to the leadership”. Good coaches prize loyalty more than any other human quality, and when administrators don’t, it is usually time to move on. I tried to stick it out on more than one occasion and always tried to believe that this place or that place was where I would finish my career.
I don’t know where this will all end for me. Maybe Mesa is it- who knows? Like I said right up front, I am a big believer in the Universe settling those matters. You will get what you really wanted ultimately, even if that doesn’t seem to fit your dream. Your actions are your dream at work. Example- we had two big lamp posts in front of our house- decorative ones that we put up there ourselves. Each was about eight feet tall. One of them rusted out and I saw that it was leaning a little bit, so I went over to straighten it out and the base basically crumbled as I held the pole. So I ordered a new one- they are not cheap. To save money, I decided to try and assemble the new one and mount it myself. That is most certainly not my expertise, so it took me a few days to get it done. Because of the heat, I got a large portable umbrella and put it out on the front patio so I could work on the lamp in the shade. Part of the mounting procedure involved tightening three bolts that were already drilled into the concrete. While trying to get the nuts off of the rusted bolts, one of them snapped. So my dilemma was, should I mount the lamp with just the two remaining bolts or give in and have a pro come out and drill three new holes. I was in the house looking out of the front window and was thinking about what to do. While I was staring at the other lamp, which was still mounted in the concrete, I was thinking that it would soon have the same fate and would need to be replaced. It was a clear, hot, sunny day as I stared out of the window. Suddenly, the sky darkened and turned a brownish color. Before I could react, a massive dust devil roared across the house, lifted the umbrella and smashed it in to the remaining poll, snapping it like twig and it came crashing down. I jumped up and ran outside, but it was too late. The second street lamp was destroyed and was laying right next to the first one. I looked up and the dust devil was gone- there was hardly a breeze. That, my friends, is how the Universe works. A professional will be installing the new lamps soon, slicing off the old bolts and drilling new holes. I got what I really wanted, even though it didn’t exactly fit my dream. My actions put the umbrella right where it needed to be. The Universe knew better- mounting that pole on two bolts was no good. That’s exactly how my career has been.
I have been so lucky to have had great assistant coaches. When you look at this list of names, you may think that I was hard to work with, because there are so many. I want to believe that it is the fact that school districts and juco districts have so little regard for coaches that they pay them virtually nothing, so they can’t stay with it very long. In conversations I have had with administrators over the years, I have heard the words “they are just coaches” a lot. I find that offensive. They were way more than that to their players and to me. Many went on to run their own programs, which is also part of my job. So a huge shout out to these guys (and two gals):
Vern Smith
Brigitte Ballard
Andy Morales
Jerome Wyche
Frank Madura
Melvin Miniefield
Mike Sventek
Jeff Newman
Scott Christian
Lane Waddell
Rex Morrison
Brock Brunkhorst
Mark Carlino
Josh Rosenbaum
Eddie Garcia
Tad Bloss
Kirk Fauske
Matt Fish
Matt Johnson
Tony Ramseyer
Paul Danuser
Jody Marshall
Kris Alexander
Alex Morris
George McBride
Laurie Woodcock
Mike Grothaus
Josh Kutchinski
Cory Hoff
Justin Hogue
Jordan Ballard
Derrick Ballard
Mike Contreras
Ernest Shand
Brad Claypool
Jimmy Herrera
Garriden Wolff
Mike Lopez
Ty Wimbish
Christian Griggs-Williams
Angel Ung
If I have forgotten anyone, please excuse me. All thanks to these people. Now, I’m ready to discuss the issues and maybe to keep on grinding.
I started out with these blogs two months ago with the intention of letting people know some part of what I have been through, while at the same time perhaps touching a nerve or two about the issues that are out there in coaching basketball. The “coaching carousel” will always be the way it is as long as leadership of these schools remains constant. When I say constant, I mean generally lousy. Nothing drives coaches from the business faster than bureaucrats- many of whom with no understanding of the complexities and commitment required by coaching. In my opinion, the two worst jobs in education are substitute teacher and assistant principal. One doesn’t pay much and you can quit anytime, but the other pays well and basically locks you in and forces you to kow tow to the district and your principal. I worked under twelve principals in my twenty five years in the classroom- two were exceptional, visionary leaders, and the rest were not. Most of the “were not” principals cared little about athletics and what coaches went through to do their jobs. They just didn’t want you to bring problems to them, and most assistant principals who worked for these types were the same- no problems please. Remember, I told you about a principal who hated the Desert Vista-Mountain Pointe rivalry because it brought too many problems. Crazy, right? That is surely why the Ahwatukee Bowl is not played at the end of every season where it belongs. When a coach says “I want to spend more time with my family”, that is usually coach speak for “I want out of here due to the leadership”. Good coaches prize loyalty more than any other human quality, and when administrators don’t, it is usually time to move on. I tried to stick it out on more than one occasion and always tried to believe that this place or that place was where I would finish my career.
I don’t know where this will all end for me. Maybe Mesa is it- who knows? Like I said right up front, I am a big believer in the Universe settling those matters. You will get what you really wanted ultimately, even if that doesn’t seem to fit your dream. Your actions are your dream at work. Example- we had two big lamp posts in front of our house- decorative ones that we put up there ourselves. Each was about eight feet tall. One of them rusted out and I saw that it was leaning a little bit, so I went over to straighten it out and the base basically crumbled as I held the pole. So I ordered a new one- they are not cheap. To save money, I decided to try and assemble the new one and mount it myself. That is most certainly not my expertise, so it took me a few days to get it done. Because of the heat, I got a large portable umbrella and put it out on the front patio so I could work on the lamp in the shade. Part of the mounting procedure involved tightening three bolts that were already drilled into the concrete. While trying to get the nuts off of the rusted bolts, one of them snapped. So my dilemma was, should I mount the lamp with just the two remaining bolts or give in and have a pro come out and drill three new holes. I was in the house looking out of the front window and was thinking about what to do. While I was staring at the other lamp, which was still mounted in the concrete, I was thinking that it would soon have the same fate and would need to be replaced. It was a clear, hot, sunny day as I stared out of the window. Suddenly, the sky darkened and turned a brownish color. Before I could react, a massive dust devil roared across the house, lifted the umbrella and smashed it in to the remaining poll, snapping it like twig and it came crashing down. I jumped up and ran outside, but it was too late. The second street lamp was destroyed and was laying right next to the first one. I looked up and the dust devil was gone- there was hardly a breeze. That, my friends, is how the Universe works. A professional will be installing the new lamps soon, slicing off the old bolts and drilling new holes. I got what I really wanted, even though it didn’t exactly fit my dream. My actions put the umbrella right where it needed to be. The Universe knew better- mounting that pole on two bolts was no good. That’s exactly how my career has been.
I have been so lucky to have had great assistant coaches. When you look at this list of names, you may think that I was hard to work with, because there are so many. I want to believe that it is the fact that school districts and juco districts have so little regard for coaches that they pay them virtually nothing, so they can’t stay with it very long. In conversations I have had with administrators over the years, I have heard the words “they are just coaches” a lot. I find that offensive. They were way more than that to their players and to me. Many went on to run their own programs, which is also part of my job. So a huge shout out to these guys (and two gals):
Vern Smith
Brigitte Ballard
Andy Morales
Jerome Wyche
Frank Madura
Melvin Miniefield
Mike Sventek
Jeff Newman
Scott Christian
Lane Waddell
Rex Morrison
Brock Brunkhorst
Mark Carlino
Josh Rosenbaum
Eddie Garcia
Tad Bloss
Kirk Fauske
Matt Fish
Matt Johnson
Tony Ramseyer
Paul Danuser
Jody Marshall
Kris Alexander
Alex Morris
George McBride
Laurie Woodcock
Mike Grothaus
Josh Kutchinski
Cory Hoff
Justin Hogue
Jordan Ballard
Derrick Ballard
Mike Contreras
Ernest Shand
Brad Claypool
Jimmy Herrera
Garriden Wolff
Mike Lopez
Ty Wimbish
Christian Griggs-Williams
Angel Ung
If I have forgotten anyone, please excuse me. All thanks to these people. Now, I’m ready to discuss the issues and maybe to keep on grinding.
