By PEDRO VELAZCO
Tribune sportswriter
January 23, 2008 12:19 am
—
A look at Howard County players now coaching college hoops:
TUESDAY: Charlie Hall goes back to school
TODAY: Former Lady Kats in Div. I coaching
THURSDAY: Parkinson, Bell stay in the game
At Christmas, following a party at her parents’ home, Hillary Beck welcomed another set of guests who rarely have the chance to gather in person. Tia Davis stopped by, as did DeUnna Hendrix, and Ashley Hayes, along with a few other former Kokomo High School basketball luminaries.
It was a brief gathering of former Lady Wildkats who grew up the same place and now find themselves scattered across the country, working long hours, at times seven days a week, and hundreds or thousands of miles away from each other and home.
Within days, they were all gone again, back to Tucson, Ariz., Lincoln, Neb., Jacksonville, Fla., and Greensboro, N.C.
Each is coaching or working on the hoops staff at an NCAA Division I school, as is their former Kat coach Charlie Hall. None has been on the job more than a season and a couple are rookies. Each experience is unique, and yet there are common strands.
Certain themes stand out. Time management is difficult. Basketball is too much fun, and too intriguing to just walk away from when college is over. And perhaps the most striking theme — the desire to influence players at a time when they’re growing, exploring independence yet still in need of guidance.
Here’s a look at the Jacksonville University’s Hendrix, the University of Nebraska’s Davis, UNC-Greensboro’s Hayes and the University of Arizona’s Beck.
A clear future
Two years apart in school, Hendrix and Beck found a quick bond at KHS.
“I know Hillary and I used to joke about it in high school,” Hendrix said. “We always talked about being hall of fame coaches. For her and I, it’s always been a dream.”
Five years ago, Hendrix was the heartbeat of the Kokomo squad which went undefeated and won the Class 4A state title. Now, she’s a rookie graduate assistant at Jacksonville University. For the former University of Richmond player, coaching was the clear choice after growing up in Kokomo.
“I think a lot of it had to do with the feeder system,” Hendrix said of why so many recent Kokomo players are now in coaching. “We played for the same high school and same AAU teams and those coaches preached fundamentals. It’s not just about talent, they try to break things down for you. It’s almost like when you’re done playing, that’s all you know.
“When that’s embedded in you so much as far as fundamentals and learning the game, you almost create a passion for it.”
Hendrix is taking education classes at Jacksonville and has her hands full as a grad assistant. The staff has only two other assistants so Hendrix works with guards, helps with recruiting and does a little of everything.
The change of perspective from her time as a Richmond Spider to being on the bench is striking.
“It’s huge,” Hendrix said. “As a player, it’s almost like you’re being picked on by the coaches. You don’t understand a lot of things until you’re trying to discipline them yourself. Recruiting, budgeting, the things behind the scenes — I had no idea.”
The hours are a burden. Some days she gets to work at 8 a.m. and doesn’t go home until 8 p.m. Other days, work goes home with her. She has time to take only two classes per semester, and yet, she’s found plenty she likes about life on the Dolphins’ staff.
“The people, definitely people. I know some of our kids don’t come from the best environment,” Hendrix explained. After the holiday break, it was uplifting “just to see how much they appreciate a full-ride scholarship … just to see the appreciation when they come back to practice.”
A career detour
Hayes and Hendrix talk regularly and leaned on each other a lot when they found work as college assistants. Hayes is another coaching rookie. After her playing career was over at Murray State, she decided to put her intended career on hold in order to take an assistant’s job at UNC-Greensboro.
“I graduated with a business degree and thought I wanted to pursue a business job and got some job offers and kept declining,” Hayes said. “I realized I wasn’t ready to be done with basketball yet.”
Another of the 2003 state champs, Hayes has given herself a plan. She expects to make regular progress up the coaching ladder or else she’ll give up coaching and get a job with her business degree.
Her background prepared her for this new career path.
“I think that growing up in Indiana — first of all, it’s a great place to get your basketball roots,” Hayes said. “I grew up with players who made me better as a player, and I grew up with coach Hall. Growing up in Kokomo is icing on the cake for basketball.”
With the Spartans, Hayes works with guards, handles film exchange, makes travel arrangements and is a kind of personal assistant to head coach Lynne Agee. She’s learning on the job — she occasionally calls Beck for advice — and it’s been hectic, but it’s also rewarding.
“I like the interactions with the girls and being able to be a bridge between them and the head coach,” Hayes said. “I’m close enough to their age that they trust me. I’ve just [finished college] myself so I know where they’re coming from.”
Hayes also likes traveling and visiting different schools. (Favorite gyms to visit so far: no question, Duke and N.C. State.)
One part of her job has been hard to take however — losing.
The Spartans are struggling. It takes a toll on the players and Hayes.
“I’m not a very good loser,” she said. “Right now we’re not doing very well. Our best player tore her ACL at the beginning of the year. When you see the looks on their faces when they lose, it’s hard.”
There and back
Davis has had an eventful decade. She graduated Kokomo in 1999 and enjoyed a strong career at the University of Toledo, graduating in 2003. Following that she played professionally in Switzerland and Luxembourg for a couple years before getting a regular job.
Then Davis realized she wanted back in basketball. Now in her second season as a graduate assistant manager at Nebraska, Davis is taking four classes as she works towards a master’s in educational administration. “It’s like working a full time job,” she said.
It wasn’t an easy decision to go back to school and get into coaching, but for Davis, it was the right one.
“I knew that it was a possibility that coaching may be something I would take interest in, but you’re never really sure until you do it,” she said. “When you do something you enjoy, you feel it is your passion to do, it’s easy to come to work every day, it’s easy to spend long hours practicing or watching film or putting in the hard work
“I feel like if I have the opportunity to touch someone’s life, both on the court and off the court, I think that’s great. I don’t want to have a career where I’m just sitting behind my computer, looking at the screen every day. I’m a people person. I want to get out and talk to people and be able to socialize.”
With the Cornhuskers, Davis’ duties are limited by rule. She doesn’t coach the squad but helps the team in practice and does a lot of off-court work which frees up the rest of the staff to coach.
Her daily practice duties include playing with or against the squad. That’s given her plenty of opportunities to learn as she prepares for the future.
“Under the head coach, Connie Yori, she’s changed the program around,” Davis said. The Huskers went to the NCAA tourney last season, ending a lengthy drought. “She’s finally got the team like she wants it to be. I’m around a great group of coaches I can learn from. I’m trying to be a sponge so that when I do get an assistant’s job, I’ll be well equipped.”
Davis finishes her graduate assignment this season and plans on finding a job as an assistant for next season.
“When I got the job here at Nebraska, I knew that coaching was something I was possibly interested in,” she said. “Now that I’m here, in my second season, coaching is a passion that I have and I can see myself coaching for a while.”
Life in the desert
If you find yourself talking to Beck anytime soon, ask her about Arizona’s game at Oregon State earlier this month. The Wildcats had just six healthy players available for the game. As the air-tight contest went into overtime, then a second overtime, attrition due to foul outs took a toll.
In the second OT, Arizona had fouled out three players and had just three left on the court.
“At the end of the first overtime, our point guard sort of collapses at halfcourt,” Beck recounted. “She’s like, ‘I can’t do five more!’ She’s crying. We still scored two or three more possessions with three kids. Our point guard fouled out diving on a loose ball. Now we have [two players left,] a 6-foot-1 post player taking the ball out of bounds and a 6-foot-7 player trying to get open.”
Beck said that on inbounds plays, Oregon State defenders grouped around the one Wildcat on the floor and it looked like young kids playing soccer.
“When the pack just follows the ball — that’s what it looked like,” Beck said. “It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”
Oregon State eventually won the 5 on 2 game in the second OT, 94-88.
Beck has seen plenty. She’s soaking up Pac-10 hoops now as Arizona’s graduate assistant video coordinator. It’s her second season on the job after her playing career at Miami of Ohio. Staying involved in basketball was a given.
“I think that in Kokomo you grow up playing basketball and a lot of it sticks,” she said, discussing the common experience with the other former Kats involved with Division I programs. “You develop a love for the game and it wasn’t something that any of us were ready to give up when our time for playing was up.
“You start young when you’re in Kokomo. When I was growing up I went to the games,” she said, going through a long list of former Wildkat players that she watched growing up. “That drew me into the Kokomo program and it goes from there.”
Beck is studying for her master’s in educational leadership while helping the Arizona squad off the court, as well as overseeing the practice squad and helping with camps.
“There’s a lot of good things to my job — the chance to travel; the chance to see basketball played at one of the highest levels,” she said. “I think the thing that excites me most about the job is getting to influence 18- to 22-year-olds’ lives. My life changed a lot in college. Getting a chance to teach those kids basketball, but also influence their lives is what excites me more than anything.”
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.