I played basketball for quite possibly one of the greatest basketball coaches if not the high school ranks, definitely our fine beehive state: Steve Hodson. Pictured to the left. He taught me discipline and a love for the game for which I am eternally grateful. As many know, Coach Hodson was a defensive guru teaching a pack-line helpside man-to-man.
We worked as a unit to protect the paint and to help each other on any dribble penetration. We never gambled or took chances, but we followed our rules as dictated by our leader. We all believed in him and knew that he was teaching us the right way to play. On Offense we were similar. Very deliberate. Passing up a good shot for a great shot and a great shot for an even better shot for a teammate. I learned how to be unselfish and to value the basketball. In life these on court lessons transferred over into a mindset of wanting to help each other. Even to this day, my wife accuses me of being taken advantage of or trying to help too much. This is a direct result of (on top of my parents of course) the lesson of a helpside man-to-man and also knowing that if I were to make a mistake, there is always a contingency plan in place where my teammates will pick me up and save me. We learned to value the effort put forth in a task and to make sure it is done right, no matter the length of time it may take.Coach Hodson exhibited those traits off the court as well, as he would willing do anything to help any of us, no matter the situation.
Coach "Hod" passed away a little over a year ago. He was a great help for me leading into my coaching career and as I was coaching younger age groups. It was an extremely hard thing to not have him around as I took over the program at Parowan High School. I've never told anyone this but I still have his phone number on my phone. I can't force myself to delete it.
After returning from a mission (a few years after college) I got an opportunity to coach Shawn MacQueen, who had recently been named as the Head Coach at Cedar High School. He brought a completely different style of basketball to my world. I heard him talk about pressure defense and denying passing lanes. He spoke about an uptempo style of offense that was a complete 180 from what I knew. In all honesty, I had a hard time at first. I liken it to changing religions. I personally have never done that, but I have been part of lives of people who have. Trying to change a mindset, though it may seem like something so small, was hard. I really decided though, after my first year with Coach MacQueen, that I wanted to really listen to him and hear what it was all about. Coach Mac got me hooked on Coaching clinics (which I still go to every year in Vegas) and improving my craft. I learned from him that there are more ways to skin the proverbial cat. I learned that you can teach the same principles of trusting your teammates through a ball-denial man-to-man. I learned many small tricks and tips on ways to help give your team a chance to win. And this may sound like a small thing, but it is something I am very passionate about, he taught me about the value of assistant coaches and the time-out. I am sure will write about the timeouts and how he molded that part of my philosophy. Suffice it to say, off the court, I learned that a "well timed" time out can help avoid problems as well as provide a fighting chance for yourself. He would, at the beginning of each timeout, grab us assistants and ask us for our opinions, giving the players time to sort things out themselves. An invaluable lesson. I am incredibly grateful to him for the opportunity he gave me and the friendship I still have with him. We play each other this season. I won't take it easy on him nor will we run many of the things offensively nor defensively of which he taught me (and the same can be said of Coach Hodson in this matter) but I can definitely thank Shawn for him directing me to the world of basketball knowledge where I have been able to figure out who I am and what I do. Inadvertently through Coach MacQueen, I learned probably the most important lesson thus far: "Know thyself".
Coach MacQueen left and took a head coaching position at Rowland Hall in Salt Lake and it left me to a kind of crossroads. I had been going to school to be an accountant and with the new Coach offering me a spot on his staff, I decided that I needed to either keep going in one direction or the other. Either Accounting, or coaching and... *GASP*... teaching. I switched my major and joined Craig Cardon on the new Cedar High School coaching staff where I served there as a Sophomore team coach and subsequently the JV team coach for 3 seasons.
Coach Cardon was my freshman basketball coach in high shcool so there was a level of familiarity there. Coach Cardon put me in charge of guard development and I began to "bone-up" on individual skill. It was through these years that I really truly gained a love for player development. It became my mantra over those years that it only took 20 min every other day to get better. I kind of felt like the Tony Horton of basketball doing personal trainer sessions on my afternoons and the summers. I also began to solidify my feelings on summer and off-season development. It became apparent that those who spent extra time... got better. I got the chance to watch my little brother Joel go through the program those years and witness someone with a work ethic that has been unmatched so far. It inspired me to do the same in my classes and other areas to get to where I wanted to. I grew so much over the course of those years and learned from Coach Cardon an incredibly important lesson about a program and a coach's relationship with a program. It had always been a year to year thing for me. Each team with a different identity. Coach Cardon began to run alumni tournaments and inviting past players in to speak to the players as well as being "guest assistant coaches". I realized that we were all links on a very long chain that existed prior to our time and will exist after we've left and as he would say "We are merely caretakers of something that is bigger than us."
I left Cedar High to pursue the opportunity to coach at Parowan High School. Last year was my first year. In the future I will detail this year in many of my lessons learned at tips as well as asking for opinions, but suffice it to say, it was the most growing experience of my coaching career and I loved every minute of it. I am literally counting down the days to November 8th which is the first day of tryouts.
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