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Ty Lawson is the boys basketball varsity Head coach at Wild Lake High School in Columbia, Maryland.

Lawson was born and raised in Baltimore.

He played two seasons of college basketball at Bowie State University before beginning his career as a coach.

He loves the game of basketball and has a passion for giving back and teaching the game to the next generation.

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The world around him and how the.

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To this episode with Ty Lawson, Boys Basketball Head Coach at Wild Lake High.

School in Columbia, Maryland.

Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast.

It's Mike Cleansing here without my co host Jason Sunkel tonight, but I am pleased to be joined by the head boys basketball coach at Wild Lake High School in the state of Maryland, Coach Ty Lawson.

Ty, welcome to the Hoop Heads pod.

Thanks Coach for having me on.

I appreciate being here.

Excited to have you on.

Looking forward to diving into how you built your Program there at Wild Lake.

Going into your background, let's start by going back in time to when you were a kid.

Tell me a little bit about some of your first experiences with the game of basketball.

What made you fall in love with it?

Okay, so I'm in my 30s, early 30s, so I fell in love with the game, you know, around age 4 or 5, you know, just started, you know, playing young, grew up playing locally, you know, recreational teams, au the whole nine played in school, you know, elementary, middle school, high school, obviously being in the dmv, you know, a lot of people know the competition is heavy here, you know, so I feel like I, you know, grew up in a great basketball environment.

So the love for the game was always there, you know, from an early age and, you know, just playing into high school.

You know, I was, you know, afforded the opportunity to play college basketball.

Not scholarship wise, but I was a walk on.

So I think I have a unique, you know, experience just from, you know, playing and then getting into coaching, you know, kind of seeing, you know, all sides of the game.

Who was your biggest influence as a young kid that got you involved in sports and basketball?

I'm a junior, you know, I'm Ty junior.

So my dad, big Ty, you know, he was, I wouldn't say like a local legend or anything like that, but a very involved dad.

You know, a lot of kids, you know, grew up looking up to him.

You know, he was a role model for not just me, but a lot of other kids, you know, in the area.

He introduced me to the game, got me playing.

He was my coach, you know, throughout my youth, going all the way up into high school.

So, you know, he really did a good job of, you know, preparing me and introducing me to the game.

And you think of yourself and the way that you coach, your coaching style, the way you go about things, what's something that you feel like is a part of you that you got from your dad in terms of his style of coaching and something that you still take with you from him that you're passing along to the guys that you coach.

Today I'm cracking a smile because I'm thinking about my mom.

She's always reminding me like, yeah, you act just like him on the sideline, you know, the intensity for sure, you know, just the passion for the game.

You know, my dad had a heart for helping people, you know, and I believe that's like the same thing that, you know, he passed along to me, you know, just outside of the game, just, you know, genuinely helping people.

You know, making sure that the players, you know, and their families are, you know, doing well on a day to day basis.

You know, that's really something that he instilled in me.

You know, there's, you know, basketball is just a game, but there's, you know, things outside of basketball that are, you know, way more important.

Absolutely.

So you kind of came of age in a time before all the trainers and the culture that we have today.

So when you think about yourself as, let's say, a middle school, junior high, high school player, what were some of the things beyond playing on your teams and playing AAU basketball, How are you working on your game?

What were you doing to get better back in the time when you were a young kid, you know.

You know, speaking of my, my dad, I was fortunate enough to grow up with a basketball hoop, right?

So I was always outside, you know, one driveway, or, you know, a neighbor, you know, they would pull their, their basketball hoop out.

And the way our neighborhood was set up, sometimes we would take the courts and set up like a little mini full court.

So, you know, the neighborhood kids would get involved and, you know, just always working on my game.

You know, like you said, I, I didn't have the luxury of having a trainer, so I relied on my passion and just my drive to, you know, really improve myself.

And, you know, I would.

I just remember, you know, a lot of, you know, early mornings on the driveway, late nights, you know, just getting shots up, working on my game and, you know, that, you know, eventually gave me the confidence, you know, that I needed to perform.

You remember as a kid putting together a plan of, hey, this is what I want to work on on a given day?

Or was it more just I'm hitting the courts and when I'm out there, I'm just kind of improvising as I.

Go through it was a lot of improvising because I was a huge NBA fan growing up.

So, you know, I watched, you know, NBA on Sundays, you know, was a big thing in my house, you know, so always, you know, watching, you know, the great players and trying to go out on the driveway and do the same thing that they were doing, you know, so that's where a lot of the creativity started for me.

Just emulating a lot of the greats that I saw.

Who was your guy when you were growing up?

Who was your favorite?

Magic Johnson, for sure.

Magic Johnson gave me the confidence, you know, as a bigger player to get that rebound and push, you know, and a lot of coaches growing up would give me, you know that compliment.

And I always, you know, felt like this was my biggest compliment when coaches would, you know, talk about my passing.

You know, I love getting my teammates involved and creating for others.

So that was always something that I like to do on the court.

That's awesome, because I always think about this was maybe.

And I always knew this about myself, but it crystallized for me, like, three years ago.

I was sitting in the stands watching a game with my daughter, and we were at a high school game, and some kid out on the floor threw a great pass.

And I was like, oh, man, that's a great pass.

And my daughter, who was like 12 at the time, she turns to me and she looks and she goes, dad, the only thing you ever get excited about when you're watching a basketball game is a great pass.

You don't get excited about anything else.

It's only a pass.

I'm like, yeah, you're right.

You're 100% right.

And I think that kind of reflects who I think I am as a basketball coach and what I was as a basketball player.

And I'm guessing when you're coaching your team, that one of those things that you're always preaching, just, again, from listening to you talk and telling that story, is, let's make the extra pass.

Let's play together as a team.

I'm guessing that that's something that is really important to you as a coach.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

You know, that's one of our staple drills, you know, that we do it wildly.

You know, I'm sure a lot of coaches, you know, out there know about it.

One more passing, you know, some type of, you know, passing and shooting drill where, you know, we're really emphasizing making the next pass, you know, really, you know, just emphasizing getting your teammates involved.

So, yeah, that's.

That's.

That's definitely something that I try to emphasize, you know, on a daily basis.

Tell me a little bit about your high school playing experience and maybe share your favorite memory or just what you remember from that time of your life.

Sure, sure.

So I played at a school called Western Tech in Baltimore County.

We weren't really that known for, you know, our sports or anything.

We were more academic school.

So, you know.

But basketball, I wouldn't say that, you know, we were the best team.

We definitely weren't that bad.

But, you know, my playing experience, it was.

It was more fun in high school.

You know, like, I was, you know, all about, you know, playing with my friends, you know, playing with guys.

I mean, some of those guys, they don't play now.

And, you know, so thinking about, like, that was my only opportunity to play with some of those guys.

And, you know, we made good memories.

I'm still in contact with a few of them.

So, you know, I believe that's what high school basketball is, you know, truly about, you know, especially when you're not as competitive as some of the schools or some of the teams that you're going against.

You know, really, you know, making those memories and, you know, bonding with, you know, God.

So, you know, my, my high school experience was, was, was really good.

You know, I actually, you know, I share a story.

I'm not Michael Jordan by any stretch of the imagination, but I also got cut my, my freshman year, you know, so as a high school coach that has to make cuts, you know, that's one thing that I share with kids.

You know, don't get discouraged, you know, when we tell you that, you know, you didn't necessarily do enough to make the team this year.

You know, just stay, you know, working and, you know, anything can happen in the future.

So I did end up playing three years and then ended up, you know, playing, you know, at the college level.

But as you said, you know, I'm sure we'll, you know, get into that.

Well, it's a great lesson, I think whenever you can have something that you can share, right, as a coach, an experience that you went through at a similar age to the players that you're coaching, and then you can say, hey, I understand what you're going through.

I understand what you're feeling.

I went through this exact same thing.

Especially, let's, let's put it this way, especially when it's a negative, right?

Nobody wants to hear about the good old days and the coach talking about, ah, our team back in the day, we did this and that.

So everybody, players will tune, players will tune you out fast when you're talking about how great things were and how good your teams were and all that stuff.

But on the other hand, when you're talking about something that was in the moment a negative or a tough situation or a challenge, I think players, at least in my experience, I found them to be much more open to listening to those kinds of stories.

And I'm sure that when you're talking to a kid who you've had to cut, which we all know, look, right, as a coach, that's one of the most difficult parts of being a high school coach is telling a kid, hey, this year your dream's going to have to be postponed another year, you're not going to be big.

Nobody likes to have those conversations.

But when you have that personal story that you can share with the kid, that's impactful because now they can look at you as an example of, hey, this happened to me, and I was able to bounce back and put some work in, and now look, I ended up making the team for the next three years.

And so that's something that I'm sure when those kids hear that from you, I'm sure they feel value in that.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

I'm thinking of a kid right now.

You know, last year he didn't make the team as a freshman, but he worked on his game and he made it as a sophomore.

And I remember I was the one that had the conversation with him because, you know, here in Maryland, you know, in Howard county in particular, you know, we don't really do lists when we cut kids.

We have conversations with them.

So, you know, I told him, you know, that he didn't do, you know, enough to make the team last year.

But we also give, know, positive feedback in terms of these are the things you need to work on that, you know, we think that you can improve in order to improve your chances of making the team.

And it was a good thing that he didn't take anything, you know, personal in terms of, oh, I'm not, you know, liking the coach's feedback.

I'm not going to listen to what they're saying.

He actually took what we told him, he worked on it and he made the team.

So I was, you know, really proud of him.

And to your point, you know, that's a kid, you know, taking what we're telling them, applying it.

It's actual relatable information.

It's not like I'm telling them, you know, all the glorious things, you know, I was.

I told them, you know, had the same conversation told to me, you know, when I was your age.

So it's definitely a good thing when the kids, you know, can relate to a lot of the experiences.

Absolutely.

When you were playing as a high school player, was coaching at all on your radar while you were playing?

Or was it something that came about later on as your basketball career as a player started to come to an end?

In other words, I always say that there was two.

There's two paths, right, to coaching.

One is the kid who's 8 years old and is drawing plays up on the napkin and coaching his buddies and always kind of has been a coach.

And then there's the other guy who it's Just a player, a player, a player, a player, a player.

And all of a sudden their career ends.

They look around, they're like, what, Basketball's over?

Well, now what am I going to do?

Now I got a coach.

So I don't know if either one of those scenarios fits you better than the other one.

Oh, yeah, that was definitely me, the latter, you know.

You know, I didn't grow up thinking that I would ever be a coach.

My.

My dream was to always stay on the playing side.

Even when I first got into coaching, I kind of wanted to tailor my demographic towards the training side because I saw that that's kind of where the game was going.

And I also thought that that was like my way of staying connected to the game by staying on the floor.

But I just naturally got into coaching.

You know, you mentioned coach Julian Allen.

He introduced me to his AAU team here in Baltimore, so I started helping him on the AU side for a few summers and, you know, got into the school side of things once I actually started working on going back to school myself.

So start coaching.

While you mentioned.

We'll talk about your college experience here in a second, but did you start working AAU, like, in the summers while you were in college, or was this after you were done with college?

This was after I was done with college.

When I was still playing in college.

The plan was to still play.

You know, we had a few guys from our team that ended up landing a few, you know, nice deals with some agents and ended up playing overseas.

That wasn't my path.

But, you know, similar to what you were saying, you know, just when I looked around and, you know, saw like, wow, this is.

This is the end of the playing side, you know, But I'm not personally done with my basketball journey.

You know, I had to find something to do.

So coaching, to me, like, kind of was the next best thing to still keep me involved, but not necessarily, you know, like, as involved as I was, obviously, when I was playing.

Understood.

All right, let's walk it back to your college experience.

Tell me a little bit about how you get to that walk on experience and then what it's like for you.

I know that there's guys depending upon the program.

I've heard great things from guys who have been walk ons, and I've heard horror stories from guys who have been walk ons depending upon what your program's like, depending upon what the guys on your team are like.

So just walk me through your experience, how you got the opportunity, and then what it was like for you?

Yeah, yeah.

So.

And in high school, I wasn't the best player on our team by any stretch, right?

We had a guy who ended up playing Division 2.

We actually ended up playing in the same conference when I was a walk on.

He.

He was in the same conference as me, so we ended up playing against each other in college.

But he was like the main guy on a high school team that was, like, featured and, you know, the coach, like, ran a lot of the stuff through him, I mean, and no shade whatsoever because he was a great player, you know, and he's, you know, still probably good, you know, to this day.

But my experience as far as, like, networking and recruiting and all of that stuff, I didn't have any of that.

My dad also, like, he wasn't really, you know, exposed to that world, so he didn't necessarily know, outside of what the school was doing for me, how to network and do all those things kind of in the background.

So graduating high school as a senior, like, you know, my.

My playing career could have been over at that time.

So I ended up applying to a few schools locally.

As I mentioned, I'm from Baltimore, so I applied to Bowie State University.

It was really important for me at the time to get away from Baltimore, but not necessarily go somewhere too far that will have, like, a financial burden on my family.

So Bowie State was a great option for me.

I had heard good things about the school, so when I visited the school and then the campus, you know, I just kind of liked what I saw and, you know, thought I.

I saw myself on the campus, you know, and that's what I tell a lot of my guys, you know, when they're going on visits and stuff.

You have to visualize yourself in these places, and if you don't feel comfortable, then that tells you a lot.

So I felt comfortable at Bowie.

Ended up making a decision to go there.

Not, you know, like signing or anything, obviously, because, you know, I didn't have any scholarships.

So my story is pretty unique.

People that know me personally know about my connection to music.

You know, I've always had a love for music and, you know, make, you know, produce beats and songs and things like that.

So, you know, my plan if, you know, basketball didn't work out, you know, I always had dreams of working in the music industry, you know, as a music producer.

So Bowie State had a degree program for music technology.

They were one of the only schools in Maryland at the time that had that as a degree program.

So me as a, you know, music lover, I'm like that's, that's a no brainer.

You know, I want to work in the music industry and I can get a college degree in it.

Like that sounds kind of cool, right?

You know, so that was my path.

I had a few friends, you know, when I, when I would come back home to Baltimore for the summer would, you know, kind of nudge me and hey, like, what's up with the ball?

Like, what's, like what are you doing?

You know, I'm six nine by the way.

So like a lot of people, like you're just going to waste that height, you're just going to waste that size.

Like what are you doing?

You know.

So when I graduated high school, I was only 6 6, but I had another growth spurt my freshman year of college.

I went from 66 to 6 8.

So coming home for the summers, you know, my guys are like, what are you doing?

So that workout process started with a few of my friends that were just kind of encouraging me, like, Ty, right?

There's, there's no way you can just not do anything basketball related ever again, you know, so I'll give a lot of my friends that credit, you know, to, you know, for, for pushing me and kind of getting me back in the weight worm.

And the summer of 2010 was when, you know, they, you know, really just started, you know, helping me out.

A lot of my guys would come to the gym with me and you know, we had 5am sessions in the summertime, you know.

So to your point earlier about, you know, just going out, working on my game by myself, no trainer.

You know, my, my trainers were my friends.

You know, we would go to the gym, they would lift with me, they would rebound for me.

You know, they helped me kind of get back in basketball shape.

And I remember calling the assistant coach from Bowie State because, you know, schools have, you know, the phone numbers and all of that stuff on their website.

So I go on Bowie's, you know, athletic website, called the assistant coach, didn't get an answer, left with voicemail.

Told him, you know, my name's Ty Lawson, I want to try for the team.

And by the way, I'm 6 8, you know, so it always helps.

That always helps for sure.

So, you know, didn't call me back immediately but, but he did call me back.

And I remember, you know, like it was yesterday.

He was like, is this Ty Lawson?

I'm like, yes sir.

He's like, are you really six eight?

I said, yes sir.

So, you know, he gave me an opportunity to come, you Know, try out and, you know, the rest was history.

You know, I played my way onto the team, you know, through a series of, you know, workouts and open runs.

And by the end of that summer, you know, the coach, you know, they.

They told me, you know, we don't have a scholarship for you.

We don't have any type of anything, but we have a locker for you.

You know, I said, that's good enough, you know, so my experience as a walk on, you know, was amazing.

You know, I played my way onto a team with a group of guys that accepted me.

You know, some of the guys were on scholarship.

Some of the guys, you know, were just students, you know, just.

Just like me, who played, you know, you know, high school basketball but were good enough to play at the Division 2 level.

Bowie State is in the CIAA conference.

For those that don't know, that is a very talented conference.

And on the Division 2 level, on a lot of east coast schools, Bowie State and Lincoln University are actually like the furthest northern schools.

A lot of the schools are located in Virginia and North Carolina.

So it was a great experience, you know, traveling and, you know, just being, you know, being able to say, I'm a college basketball player, you know, know, that was always my dream growing up, you know, so being able to have that experience and earning that experience, you know, was a really unique opportunity for me and something that I don't take for granted to this day.

Story and I think it's one that when you hear guys like yourself talk about just the fact that you get done playing as a high school player and your opportunities are limited, not necessarily because of your ability, but simply because of the opportunity.

I think it was interesting to hear you say that your father didn't know a ton about what that recruiting process was like, and maybe your high school coach didn't know a ton about it.

I think.

Now, look, I'm a lot older than you, so you're in your early 30s, man.

I'm in my mid-50s.

So back when I was going to school, we knew nothing about the recruiting process.

And so I made a ton of mistakes and ended up getting lucky and getting an opportunity to play college basketball.

But to your point, my parents didn't really know much about the recruiting process.

My high school coach didn't.

So consequently, back in the day, pre Internet, there's no real way to find out anything the way that you can find it out today.

And so you kind of end up sometimes in this world of, well, I think I might be able to have an opportunity or I think I'm good enough to deserve an opportunity somewhere.

But how do I find and make that connection?

So I always find stories like yours to be inspiring that somebody just didn't.

You just didn't give up and you just kept looking for a way, how can I stay involved in the game?

And then to hear you talk about the fact that you're looking back so fondly on your experience with the program, the guys that were playing, scholarship guys, non scholarship guys, your coaching staff.

What's the relationship like or what was it like at the time?

What does it continue to be like with those guys that coached you at Bowie State?

Obviously, as you get into coaching, you probably look back on that relationship and just the way that they did things a little bit differently.

Because now I'm sure you're trying to take some coaching knowledge from that experience, whereas in the moment you were just trying to play.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

It's.

It's so funny you mentioned that because, you know, I think back to the early days of my coaching experience.

A lot of the things that I did literally mirrored the things that I received when I was playing at Bowie.

You know, I felt like that was like my closest experience to know high level basketball.

Right.

So, you know, a lot of the things that we did on a day to day basis, I carried over into the way I run the program at Wild Lake, you know, because we had success, you know, in the two years that I played on the team, we went to conference tournament, which was huge.

You know, I.

This was before the Charlotte Hornets became the Hornets again.

This is when they were still the Bobcat.

So I played on the NBA arena, you know, like that.

Like that's once in a lifetime experience, you know, so that was really cool.

And then we ended up.

Not a lot of people know that the NCAA Division 2 National Tournament is set up similarly to the Division 1 tournament.

So, you know, we had a selection Sunday process, you know, sitting down, trying to figure out where we're going and you know, again, like, that was.

That was a really cool experience.

My coaches, to this day, I'm still connected to them.

The head coach, Darrell Brooks, is still the head coach of Bowie State.

One of my former players or teammates is his associate head coach now.

So we still have that connection.

So, yes, I'm definitely still connected to a lot of my teammates, you know, because that was a really good experience, you know, and at that age, you know.

You know, you're.

A lot of the experiences that you're having, you know, you're going through similar things just in life in general.

So those guys, you know, and those relationships and those friendships really carried over into adulthood now, which I'm very fortunate for.

How soon after that experience, when you leave Bowie State and graduate, how soon after that did you start getting involved with aau, with Julian and getting involved on the coaching side of it?

How long after it was that?

So after.

Because I, you know, as I mentioned, you know, I try to, you know, work in the music industry.

So, you know, doing the music thing for about two years before, you know, that that love for the game just doesn't go away, no matter, you know, like, how closely connected you are to it, you know, so, absolutely.

I'm kind of knee deep into the music thing, but I'm still.

It's like I'm still playing, you know, myself, like, playing pickup locally, you know, things like that.

So that's actually how I met Julian, playing pickup one day at a gym.

I noticed he had on a pair of shorts that said Bowie State University.

And I'm thinking to myself, like, where'd he get those shorts from?

Like, I didn't see.

I just graduated from there.

I didn't see this guy on campus.

And he was pretty good in the pickup game.

Like, Julian could play.

So, you know, we were on opposite teams and, you know, just through small talk, you know, we had mutual friends at Bowie, and, you know, just the connection was genuine from day one.

Julian is one of my brothers.

You know, I talk to him, you know, every other week.

You know, still to this day, he's the one that kind of got me into coaching on the AU side again, you know, I had no, you know, thoughts about coaching.

You know, I was still in play mode.

And, you know, being into the music side of things, I wasn't thinking about coaching at all.

But when Julian, you know, gave me that opportunity to help him out, you know, I just developed a love for, you know, leading and teaching, and I really got into the X's and O side of the game.

Like, I think, like, just drawing up plays and just different concepts and different philosophies.

That's what really got me into, you know, the coaching side of things.

So it was a really cool experience.

It's funny how when you look at basketball from a player standpoint, right, so often, you're looking at, what do I have to do?

What.

What does my performance have to look like?

What do I have to do to earn more minutes?

Or what do I have to do to be able to play a bigger Role.

And yeah, you also are focused on helping your team win.

But there is a lot of.

And I don't think selfish is the right word, but there is a lot of you looking at your own performance.

And then when you start thinking about, okay, now when you become a coach, all of a sudden everything flips in that.

Not that you're not trying to develop individual players, because certainly you are.

But ultimately, every decision you make is no longer based on what's good for me as a player.

It's what's good for the team.

And I think it's interesting to hear you just talk about sort of that mindset flip and then also thinking about, like, the X's and O side of it, where, again, as a player, you're kind of focused in on what's my role, what do I have to do as opposed to as a coach.

You're seeing that whole picture.

So as you started to dive into X's and O's, where did you go or who did you talk to?

What kind of information were you looking at?

Were you watching YouTube videos?

Are you going to.

Trying to get to coaches clinics?

Are you grabbing the, you know, the old DVDs, how are you getting the X's and O?

How are you.

How are you grabbing that X's and O knowledge at that time?

Yeah, so, you know, I've always been like, somewhat of like a basketball hoarder, right?

So, like, anything that I feel like is, like, good or like, just resourceful, anything that I think is positive and I can use again in the future, I'm going to stash it somewhere and I'm going to keep it.

Right.

So fortunately for me, had kept my.

Because and now I'm going to kind of age myself.

I know you said you'll go older, but you're not.

You're not.

But so the paper playbook of my plays from Buoy State that I kept, they gave us a binder.

So at the beginning of the season, they had a binder for us, and it had all of our plays, like, different concepts, different things.

Obviously we were, you know, rebuilt on it as the season, you know, grew, but I still had that.

So just going through all of the stuff that I used to go through, you know, as a player.

And to your point about the X's and those, it was interesting because as a player, you know, you're sitting on the sideline and you're in the huddle and the coach is drawing up the play.

You may be looking at the whole board, but you're Looking at your ex like what you're doing, like what you're supposed to be doing so you're not worried about all the other exes and goes like, okay, Post told me to cut here.

He told me to do this.

Like, that's what I'm going to do, right?

So seeing those old plays, but then now that I'm a coach and I'm not just focused on my ex looking at those things, and it's like, oh, man, like, we used to do some slick stuff, like, we used to do some cool things, like offensively, like this double screen or this.

That dog.

Like, just really thinking about, man.

Like, and.

And to think a lot of that was based on because of the personnel we had.

So then that was another connection, like, oh, coach chose these offensive concepts because of the players that he had, and it made sense.

Thinking about some of my teammates, like, oh, okay, I see why he had this double stagger playing for him because he's going to knock that shot down every time, you know, so just things like that and really thinking about how I wanted to develop as a coach.

You know, that was at a time where this is around, like, 2015, 2016, where a lot of the basketball world had fell in love with the spurs and the way that they were playing.

So team basketball was like a really big thing at the time.

You know, just motion offense and, you know, just fluid movement and flow and you hear the.

You hear that buzzword pace all the time, right?

Just the efficiency that they were playing with.

A lot of coaches and a lot of teams try to, you know, mimic that.

And as a coach that just always loved motion and all of that kind of things, you know, that's something that I really tried to model, you know, my coaching actor, you know, so that's kind of where it started.

Yeah, I think we all start right with the coaches that we played for.

I always tell the story that I played for one high school coach and I played for one college coach.

So when I started coaching my entire repertoire of drills and plays and offensive defense, it was just.

It was what those two guys did.

And that was all that was.

That was all I knew.

I didn't know anything else.

And so as you go on and you become more experienced, you start to realize that, yeah, those guys are pretty good, but there's a lot more basketball out there and many different ways to do the same thing.

And so you start to expand your knowledge.

But I think anybody who plays you oftentimes just start out with, well, this is what we did when I was playing.

And so this is what my teams are going to do until you start to really dive into some of the stuff and expand your own knowledge of what you know, of what you're doing.

So let's.

Let's talk.

Let's talk a little bit about the experience with.

Because obviously a big part of the coaching is what we just talked about, the X's and O's and building your knowledge base and all those things.

But another huge part of coaching is you got to love your players, you got to love the kids, and you got to love that interaction.

So clearly on the AAU side of things, when you get started with Julian, tell me a little bit about your experiences.

Forget about the X's and O's and the basketball learning piece of it, but just what was it like for you initially going from, hey, I don't know if this coaching thing, what it's all about, to all of a sudden, boom, you're standing in front of a group of 10 kids and you got to start coaching them.

What are those interactions like?

What did you love about just working with the kids?

Oh, man, that was.

I think that was the thing that actually made me fall in love with the coaching side of it.

Right?

I mean, aside from my passion for basketball, I'd like to think I have a passion for people, you know, and I'm just really big on relationships.

You know, I'm.

I'm no Einstein, you know, I'm not a genius by any stretch.

You know, I'm.

I don't call myself.

I don't like to think of myself as a know it all.

So when it comes to actual life like, skills, relationship building is one thing that I'm very confident that I have the ability to do.

So when it just comes to connecting to people, you know, just building, you know, those relationships, those connections, it was just a genuine experience because I'm putting myself back into those kids shoes, you know, just remembering what it was like to have a coach that cared, you know, the AU side of things, you know, not.

Not a lot of people know, just the financial impact that it has on, you know, certain programs and certain, you know, organizations and, you know, communities.

It's really important, you know, for the coaches to have those relationships with the families and with the players.

So, you know, coming from the area that we were coming from and working with those kids, it was really important for Julian and I to, you know, just really just throw ourselves into the whole experience.

And I'll give Julian a lot of credit because he was Already doing it.

So to see him and the level of commitment that he had to those kids and the genuine connection that he had, those kids would run through a wall for him, you know, and that's the type of, you know, player that any coach would love to have, you know, and he had a whole program of kids like that, so it was really inspiring.

What do you think when you consider your relationships and how you build them, Whether you're talking about back in the day with your AAU kids or you're talking about the kids that you're coaching now, what do you think are the keys for you to build a good relationship with the kids?

I know one of the things you talked about is commitment, and I always think that that's a huge part of a kid having respect for a coach and knowing that, hey, this coach, like, he wants me to be there, but guess what?

He's there even more than I am.

And I think that's a big piece of it.

So beyond that, you can maybe expound on that if you want to, but just what do you think are the keys for you to building a good relationship with a kid?

Yeah, absolutely.

I would say, to your point about the commitment, you know, those kids saw Julian every day, so that was inspiring for me, the fact that he gave his word and he was committed to being there, you know, and it was really important for those kids to see that because, you know, there were some people in their family that weren't as committed to them as Julian was.

Right.

So to see him showing up consistently for them time after time, you know, a lot of experiences, some of them, you know, traveling for the first time, you know, out of the state of Maryland, you know, their families, trusting us, you know, to do that for them, to be those role models for them.

So the commitment part is definitely important.

But I would say, you know, like, to the point where, you know, mentioned earlier, just those genuine experiences.

Right.

You know, I, like, I, I, I'm not like a gatekeeper when it comes to information or my experiences, so I'm very open and honest with the kids about things that I've been through, because I'm, I'm.

I'm not a perfect person.

Right.

So when they see that, oh, coach isn't talking down to me, like, he's just talking about things that he's been through because he's relating the same experiences I'm going through as a kid, you know, that's where those connections start.

And when the kids see that, you genuinely care, and it's not just Talk, you know, I think that goes a long way with them as well.

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Is this for you to find out more foreign into that AAU experience with Julian?

Were you when you started to look around and go, man, I think this coaching thing might be something that I want to do on a more.

I don't know, serious is maybe the wrong word, but on a more permanent basis for your career as opposed to.

I'm just going to kind of dabble in AAU coaching.

G.

But was there a.

Was there a light bulb moment or was it a slow burn to get to that point?

It was, it was a slow burn that turned into a light bulb moment, if that makes sense.

Right?

It does, it does.

So like the slow burn was me still figuring out if this was something that I personally wanted to take serious.

So we had a summer where, you know, we were pretty successful.

We had some good teams and we had some good kids and there was a tournament that we went to where there was a gentleman that saw us playing and he was just.

He just fell in love with us and you know, our program and our coaching style and just how committed we were to the kids.

And that opportunity allowed Julian to get into some other things.

So it was kind of like just a.

That was the light bulb moment.

Like people actually believe in us and think that like not just me, but like the whole thing.

Like, so that was me really thinking like, oh man, like, what if I had an opportunity to do something like this.

So it also like Julian again, you know, he kind of introduced me to the school side of things because he was already doing it at a high school in Howard county, which is the rock of the school, of the school that I coach at now, funny enough.

So.

So.

But yeah, that's what kind of introduced me to that process.

And I do have a child, so, you know, getting into that, getting into the school side of things.

When I became a parent, you know, I was looking for a job, you know, so the school side of things, you know, becoming a teacher allowed me to get into the school side and coaching.

So I actually do work at Wild Lake High School as well.

And, you know, I think that definitely helps, you know, to your point about the relationships, the kids see me every day, you know, I'm in the hallways, you know, I'm with them, you know, at events and things like that.

So I think that's definitely a huge part of, you know, allowing me to, you know, build those connections because the kids see me all the time.

Yeah, being in the school, I always feel like, is a huge advantage.

And I know there are a lot of high school coaches that do a great job that aren't in the school, But I do know that when you're in the school, it does afford you the opportunity to do what you just described.

Right.

You can have these touch points with kids all through the day.

You can pop into their lunch period, they can stop by and stick their head in the door and all those things.

I know for me, at the beginning of my career, I started out and I was an assistant varsity basketball coach and I taught at the elementary school and our elementary school and our elementary school was literally across the parking lot.

So it was like, it was like, it was like a one minute walk.

And at the same time, our high school varsity coach and our JV coach both taught at the high school.

And so there would be times where.

And again, I'm literally 75 yards away, maybe from the building, but I was always the last person to know if there was a practice change or the bus was coming a little bit earlier or a kid was absent or whatever.

And I'm right, and I'm right there.

I'm not working.

Like, I'm not working some other job and having to drive in.

I'm.

I'm literally right there.

And I still felt like there were times where I was.

Where I was disconnected.

And so I've always felt that the opportunity to be in the building just gives you such.

It just allows you to be so much more connected to your players on a day to day basis.

Because.

Right.

We always talk about when you're building a relationship with a kid that yeah, you build it through basketball and you see him on the practice floor and you see him at games, but so much of that relationship is also built in the time that you see him off the floor.

And so when you're in the building, you just, you just get so many more opportunities to be able to, to be able to share that time with those kids.

So let me ask you a question to go jump back just for a second when you realized, hey, I might want to start going the school route.

And obviously you're been working and doing your music and you're coaching AU and that kind of thing.

So what steps did you have to take to bridge that connection to allow you to get back and to be able to work in a school setting?

So it's funny enough and I'm sure a lot of guys and coaches have similar experiences, especially when they get into the school side.

So before I got my actual teaching job, I started as a substitute teacher.

Right.

So, you know, just starting as a sub and just being in the building, I never forget the first day.

You know, I was a JV coach.

That's how I got started on the school side.

So, you know, started as a JV coach.

And this is when I didn't work in the building.

So I didn't work in the building.

And at the end of the season they, you know, were, you know, I was afforded the opportunity to start working in the building after the season.

So I started in the building and the guys.

Coach, what are you doing here?

Like I work here now, you know, so, so yeah, it was, it was an experience on both sides because.

Right.

Honestly, you know, early on that is something that I took for granted.

You know, just me being me and my belief and my confidence in myself, you know, know, I do, you know, believe that I have the ability to, you know, connect regardless of where I'm at.

Right.

But when I started working in the building and seeing how the kids behaviors and just how their responses started to change, you know, going from texting them and calling them every other day to seeing them on a daily basis, the interactions are different now, you know, and that's not something that I, you know, thought about going into it, but it's something that I use to my advantage, you know, early on in my career, as you mentioned.

And you know, that's something that now to this day I take for granted.

And I see, you know, a lot of schools prefer their coaches to, you know, work in the buildings, if that's a, you know, a possibility.

Because to your point, you know, that doesn't have to be like a necessary thing because there are a lot of coaches that are successful without working in the buildings that, you know, they coach at.

But for me personally, being able to see my players every day, you know, it helps, right?

Because if I weren't, if I wasn't working in the building and a young man walks into practice and, you know, he has his head down and he's all, you know, he's looking like he's not ready to practice.

If I didn't work in the building, it would be harder for me to figure out why that's happening.

But when my, when my players walk into practice, I know exactly why they're acting the way they're acting.

I can go talk to the teacher down the hall or I probably already received the email about it.

Right.

So, you know, it's definitely advantages to, you know, being in the building that I coach at, for sure.

All right, take us through the chronology of the jobs that you've had on the school side that led you to the opportunity at Wild Lakes.

Okay.

For me, you know, it's been pretty straightforward.

Fortunate enough for me, my teaching experience has only been on the special in the special ed world.

So becoming a special ed teacher allowed me to, you know, get a job in the building right away.

And I started working at wild late in 2022.

So my first year working in the building as a teacher, I wasn't involved with the basketball program at all.

They had a former coach who was a player at Wild Lake and he stepped down, he stepped out of the role and they were looking to who to pass the mantle onto.

And it was just a timing thing and I was very blessed.

That was a clear example of right place, right time, I was in the right opportunity and, you know, when they asked me to, you know, come on board and it was a no brainer for me, you know, at the time.

There's some things going on outside of the building, you know, just outside of basketball that I was still trying to, you know, get straight.

But once those things, you know, happened and, you know, the situation was still there for me to coach.

Yeah, I, you know, starting as a JV coach and the trajectory, you know, going upward, that was the next step.

Step, you know, becoming a varsity coach.

So that was something that I definitely didn't want to let the opportunity slip by.

So, you Know, took that and, you know, here we are two years later.

All right, so when you take the job and you think back from where you are today to the day you got the job or the days leading up to the job, when you think about what your vision was for the program and how you were going to get it to where you want it to go, how has that been similar or different to what's actually happened?

So, in other words, your vision, your plan, what did that look like?

And then how is what's actually transpired been different from what you maybe thought it was going into it?

Okay, so I mentioned earlier that I work.

I personally, I work and coach at the rival school that I started at.

So when Julian was still here in Maryland, you know, he was coaching at that same school.

And when he was the JV coach and I was just helping him out, it, you know, a lot of that was just me, you know, just figuring out, all right, if I ever get this opportunity, what would I do?

Right?

That came quick because Julian accepted another job and moved into his role.

So when I became the JV head coach, that was really my first time leading and having to do a lot of things, you know, making adjustments.

To your point about having a plan, okay, I have a plan now.

This plan is not working.

Like, we gotta do something else.

So, you know, and when I was in that role, being the JV head coach, I was a varsity assistant coach.

So, you know, sitting on the sidelines during varsity games, and at the time, you know, our school was.

Was.

Was.

Was known for.

For having some.

Some really good talent.

So, you know, those games are always exciting and being able to see, you know, why the coach made certain decisions and certain calls and the rotations for the substitutions, you know, just all of those things.

And when I got the opportunity to, you know, become a head coach at Wild Lake, fortunate enough for me, I was already a coach in the county for the last few years, you know, in various roles.

So being a head coach now, I was kind.

I wouldn't say I was prepared, but I had a general idea of how I wanted to start.

And, you know, and, yeah, that definitely did not go.

All right.

So give me one thing that you thought, hey, I'm going to be able to do it this way.

This is what it's going to look like.

I know that this is going to go smoothly, and it ended up going a completely different direction than maybe what you thought, man.

So, you know, to the, you know, point that we were making earlier about what did we take into our coaching career at Bowie, we were a fast paced team.

Like, we played up and down.

You know, we were a transition team.

So, you know, when I first started coaching with Julian, it was the same thing.

You know, we pride ourselves.

You know, everything starts in transition with us.

We like to play fast if possible.

So, you know, that was my first philosophy.

Like, regardless of what team I have, I'm going to get them in shape, we're going to play fast, we're going to get up and down.

And that wasn't the case when we first started.

I learned pretty early, like, you have to adjust to the style and play of your team if you want to be successful.

You know, some, you know, every coach has different philosophies, right?

But me personally, you know, I don't like to think of myself as a system coach.

I don't have a system.

My system adapts year to year based on the players that I have, right?

So, you know, one year we may not have the talent to play up and down, and then the next year we may be able to do that a little bit more.

Not necessarily that being our main style, but, you know, I do think that, you know, know, my system and my, you know, style of play definitely adapts.

And, you know, I try to, you know, meet the, you know, figure out what my players do best and then, you know, bring that out to the best of their abilities, if possible.

What time of year did you get the job?

Did you get it in the spring where you had an entire off season to prepare?

Did you get the job?

You got the, you got the job in the fall right before it, right before you started.

Of course, it's crazy, you know, like, I didn't have any time to prepare.

Like, I got the job.

So tryouts, I'm not sure, like, you know, how it is in other states, but in Maryland, November 15, that's the start of the winter season.

So I got hired maybe the last week of October and had a few weeks to get ready for tryouts, get right, just all of that.

So going back to, you know, me being that hoarder, you know, I had to go into my.

To go into my stash and figure out, like, all right, what am I going to call out?

Like, what are we going to do?

You know, but thankfully, you know, I had, you know, coaches, you know, who previously were involved in the program, who, you know, helped my transition into the head coaching role.

You know, it wasn't a smooth, you know, seamless transition.

Definitely were some bumps in the road, but they Helped me bridge that gap.

So I'm definitely thankful for them as well.

What do you remember about your first conversations with the guys on the team as you take over?

Did you have individual meetings with guys?

Did you get together as a whole team?

How'd you sort of introduce, hey, here's what I'm going to be all about.

Here's what our program's going to be all about.

So it's, man, just, just thinking back on all this, it's just crazy thinking how like I got here now because it wasn't that long ago and it feels like yesterday.

So the team that I took over, they had just went to the regional finals the year before I took over.

So there were extremely high expectations for that team and that group.

And, you know, I just came in, you know, telling the guys, you know, I'm the type of coach where I really don't try to change players.

Right.

If that makes sense.

I try to do my best to encourage them and give them feedback based on what I think they need to improve on.

But I'm not a forceful, pushy coach, if that makes sense.

So what I try to do if the guys, you know, when it comes to relationship building is just honesty, you know, like when I'm having those individual meetings, here's what I see, you know, for you, here's how I plan on using you.

Here's.

But, but also, what are things that you're comfortable doing?

What are things that you aren't comfortable doing?

That way I know when I'm game planning and we're putting these strategies together to use you based on two way conversation.

Right.

It's not just me talking to them and telling them what I want them to do, I want their feedback as well.

I want to know what they're comfortable doing, what they have experience doing.

Right.

Film doesn't lie though.

So, you know, I can always just watch and see, like, oh, well, you say you're a great corner shooter, but you're over 20, right.

So we're not going to use you in that role.

Right.

You know, I do think it is important to get that feedback from the players because to your point about the commitment and just the connection, I do think that that's important for players, you know, when you're getting that feedback from them, when they know that you actually care.

A coach is actually going to apply this, like he's asking me and he's actually going to put me in that position.

That's when the genuine connection, you know, grows from there.

Absolutely.

Getting a feel for your players, especially as a first year ahead coach.

Right.

And when you're getting the job so, so late, you're trying to get an idea of, okay, can I go back and watch film of these guys playing in previous years?

Can I talk to them and figure things out?

And then obviously, as you get out on the floor with them a little bit, you start to get a feel for what they're all about.

Talk to me a little bit about your practice planning process.

So when you're sitting down and you're trying to plan a practice, what does that look like for you?

Are you doing it pen and paper?

Are you on the computer?

Are you.

What, what's just, what's your process for planning a practice?

What a place?

Coach, I'm all over the place.

Like, I.

It may start with a pen and a paper, it may start that, that might transfer over to the computer and I'm typing some stuff.

But by, by the time practice starts and I print out that I typed up, it's, it's, you know, finally organized and all of that.

But it's, that's an interesting question because it's changed, you know, in my short, you know, time, you know, being a head varsity coach.

That is.

Right, because this was my first time in that role of actually planning practices.

That is one of the, the most, if not the most important part of coaching that I tell, you know, younger coaches that, you know, reach out to me now and, you know, talk to other coaches.

Your practice plan is everything, you know, and for me, not, I mean, plans.

So I'll be honest, you know, as a, as a JV head coach, that was me when I was close, you know, more closely connected to my playing experience.

So I'm coming into practice like we're just going to do practice the same way I did as a player, right.

Like just from, from, from memory and all of the things I remember the first time I ever did the shell drill and I'm getting mad at the kids because they don't know how to do it, but teaching them how to do it.

I'm just remembering it from my, from my playing experience.

And somebody had, like, you're the coach, you gotta teach them how to do it.

I'm.

Oh, yeah, that, that, that is true.

So, you know, getting into, you know, the varsity side of things, everything starts with, you know, your philosophy as a coach, what you want to teach.

Those early, you know, season practices work, you know, we're trying to, you know, get, you know, drill home, what we want to accomplish, what do we want to look like by the first scrimmage or by the first game, you know, what do we want to be able to do?

Obviously, it's not going to look the same, you know, come later in the season, you know, come playoff time, but what is our foundation?

What is our base?

So a lot of those early practices or those, those plans are, you know, related to just the building blocks that, you know, we're trying to emphasize as a program.

And, you know, that changes throughout the season based on, you know, the opponents that we're playing and the things that we're trying to slowly, you know, teach them.

You know, we don't just pile on everything on day one and expect them to know it and just roll the balls out.

And just now we slowly, gradually, you know, progressively build, you know, on the things that we do.

Assuming from year one to year two that now you're starting to get a feel for the calendar, right?

Of, hey, I know we gotta, I know we gotta have this in, by, by such in practice, and I know we gotta have this done because in year one, I can only imagine that you're like, all right, I got all this stuff.

We're gonna try to get all this stuff in and man, trying to figure out how long it's gonna take to be able to install this or that.

And now I'm sure you're getting a better, I'm sure you're getting a better feel for it now.

Yeah, for sure.

That's.

I'm just thinking about like the mistakes that I made in year one versus year two.

A lot of that was okay.

You might think of a drill or see a drill that you want to do, but you're not thinking about how long it's going to take to teach them.

And then, okay, you got to account for it may not be perfect the first time you run it.

So they may make some mistakes.

So a 10 minute drill can easily turn into a 20 minute drill, and then that 20 minute drill can easily turn into a 30 minute segment.

And now you spend 30 minutes doing something that you only planned on doing for 10 minutes and you feel like, oh, man, now, now my whole plan is thrown off.

There's been plenty of times where we're doing certain drills or we're in certain segments of practice and it's taken a little longer than I expected and now the whole plan is thrown off.

But I've gotten better as a coach and my staff has helped me with staying the course.

Right.

Okay, we may be off track a little bit, but what are the most important things that we still want to hit on this plan.

So those are things that I, you know, try to make sure that I have on the plan.

You know, what are things that we absolutely must do today?

And those are the things that.

Okay, we don't do anything else.

We got to do these things.

It's that fine line, right?

So you have some coaches that they've got their practice plan, and this drills 10 minutes, this drills 12 minutes, this drills eight minutes, whatever.

And you get to 10 minutes, and some coaches are like, boom, we're moving on.

It doesn't matter where we're at in the drill.

10 minutes we're gone.

And then there's other coaches.

We're like, no, we're going to stick with this until we get it right.

It sounds like you're kind of in the middle of those two, where.

Yeah, maybe if we got to go a couple extra minutes to figure this out, we're good.

But then I got to make some adjustments.

Moving on in the practice plan.

Yeah, for sure.

And.

And that also, you know, it depends on what time of year we're in, too.

If we're in January, like, if we're in the thick of it, like, we're in the middle of the season.

Okay.

We might have only planned for this defensive drill to be 15 minutes or this defensive segment to be 15 minutes, but we're about to play a team that shoots the lights out of the ball.

So we have to, like.

So we have to stay in this, like, it doesn't matter what else we have planned.

We have to make sure that we have this, you know, down and ready to go.

So.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

All right, so I asked you about how you plan the practice.

Now I want to ask you about after practice, how do you reflect on how practice went and then I guess again then preparing for the next one.

So when a practice ends, what are you doing to kind of sit down and self reflect and look at.

Okay, well, how'd that practice go?

Hey, I like this drill or, man, I found this drill and we just did it.

Man, that thing's terrible.

We're never using that again.

Just what's the process for looking back at what you just did in practice to kind of get yourself moving forward?

For me, you know, I.

I work in coaching a county where we have a system called huddle.

Not sure if you're familiar with that.

But for sure, absolutely.

I'll turn the huddle camera on for practice.

You know, so we record practices not every Single one.

Because we, we just don't have the time to, you know, give to, you know, watching all of that.

But if I do have the time, especially those, those early season, those, those foundational practices, those are definitely the ones that we're recording.

And you know, and not just for me myself, but you know, I'll sit down with some players and I'll say we were doing this drill, you know, why weren't you going so hard?

Or you know, why, you know, just really just, you know, self reflecting but also just figuring out, okay, this didn't look that good and in practice so maybe we need, maybe instead of five minutes, we need to spend 15 on this, you know, really cleaning it up and making sure everybody understands and knows what they're doing, you know, so a lot of self reflecting comes from just, you know, film watch.

I'm really.

You like to have a set plan for practice.

I shouldn't say plan.

A set routine.

A set schedule where like we always start out, we're going to start out with defense or we're going to start out with a shooting drill.

And then, or does it vary day to day just depending on the needs of your team.

So this year I did something different and my players responded to it well.

So I think I'm going to kind of, you know, do it moving forward and you know, coaches feel free to, you know, do this as well.

When we finally developed our pregame routine, every game we, you know, we have 20 minutes before we get on the floor.

So we have a routine of drills that we go through and you know, that became our pre practice routine.

So getting later into the season, around January, you know, and then getting into the playoffs, our pre game routine became my pre practice routine.

So the first 20 minutes of practice we're doing all our pregame drills and that's offense, defense, you know, just touching all of, you know, both sides of the game.

So we, you know, we, let's say we have two hours of practice.

If we spend 20 minutes during our pregame routine now we have an hour, hour and 40 minutes of doing anything we want basketball related.

So that became like a thing that we did, you know, later in the season and it allowed us to spend more time doing other things to stay prepared for, you know, our opponents or, you know, just, you know, just skill development, getting shots up, you know, ball handling, you know, skill work, all that kind of stuff.

Also a mindset thing, right?

So they know as they go through that routine they're getting ready for a game or they're Getting ready for practice.

They're getting ready.

I can see the value in that 100% that it just takes.

Kids especially, I think people forget, right?

And it's this way in college to some degree, but it's even more so in high school, where you have kids who their class day ends.

You talked earlier about the kid who comes in with their head down or whatever, and maybe he's a little bit.

Had something going on.

Maybe they had a tough test or the girlfriend broke up with them or whatever.

And so to be able to kind of have that transition time, right, to go from, okay, here's something that we do every day.

We're still attention to detail.

We're still doing all those things, but it's familiar.

Kids know that this is what's coming, and then that helps them to kind of shift from, hey, I'm in my day as a high school student to now I'm here, I'm a basketball player, and I'm getting into the practice.

I'm sure it helps from that standpoint, too.

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

And again, you know, like, we mentioned working in the building, you know, you know, seeing the kids, you know, some of the kids and, you know, being a teacher and then some of their classes, you know, so, like, actually seeing what they go through before they get to the court, you know, is definitely important.

What are some.

Some things that, when you took over as the varsity head coach that you didn't realize that varsity coaches had to do outside of the basketball responsibilities?

Because I think that's one of the things that.

And I know that I spent like, 12 years as a varsity assistant coach, and by the time I was done being a varsity assistant coach, I was like, I'm not sure I ever want to be a varsity head coach.

When I look at all the stuff that my head coach had to do.

So just give me.

Give.

Give somebody out there who's.

Who's getting into coaching, who maybe is a young assistant coach and is thinking, hey, someday I want to be in the varsity coach at that level.

What's.

What are a few things that you have to do to manage your program to make sure that the program's running on all cylinders?

That has nothing to do with, on the court coaching basketball.

That is a great question.

And I'll give you what I feel is the best piece of advice that the former coach gave me, because, you know, when we.

When I came into this role, you know, me and him, you know, we have a good relationship.

So we talk and, you know, the.

The more.

More than anything else that he told me.

The.

The biggest thing that sticks with me is no matter what happens with this program, good or bad, your name is the first name that they're going to think of.

Your name is.

Is the name of this program.

So you have to be comfortable with whatever decision you make, knowing that whether it's a good decision or bad decision, you're going to be looked at as the person that made the decision.

So that's something that I really think about when I'm making decisions.

Right.

Like, regardless if this is, you know, something on the court or off the court, varsity or jv, you know, And I think a lot of varsity or young coaches, you know, don't realize when you're the varsity coach, you.

You run the whole program.

You're not just the varsity coach.

You know, the JV coach essentially reports to you.

The JV players eventually are going to play for you.

So you coach your team.

Yes, but you run the entire program.

So, you know, not just, you know, the basketball side of things, but little things like fundraising, you know, ordering uniforms.

Like, we had a young man who unfortunately got, like, a bad cut during the game and he bled onto his jersey.

We didn't have any backups at the time, you know, so, like, little things like that, like just knowing the.

You know, just all.

All of the things that you need.

You know, a lot of coaches take for granted and think that it's just basketball, but it's.

It's so much more.

So much more.

That piece of advice that you got in terms of that your name is always on the decision brings to mind something that was one of our very first interviews.

A guy who.

He was a longtime head coach here in the Cleveland area.

And I remember he told me that when he was making decisions about his program, he said that no matter what decision I make, someone out there is going to like it and someone out there is going to dislike it.

It doesn't matter what the decision is.

And he said, what I always came back to is when I put my head down on the pillow at night to go to sleep, I wanted to make the decision that I thought was right and not worry about an outside influence or not worry about what this parent was going to say or what this player was going to be upset because I had to do what I thought was best for the program and the team.

And as long as I made that decision, yeah, maybe somebody was going to be upset about it.

But I always think that if you're doing your job correctly as a coach, if Everybody's happy.

When you're a coach, then you're probably not doing a great job because you're not making the tough decisions that are required as a leader.

And so it's.

And that's a fine.

That's a fine line to walk.

And I think sometimes as a young coach, I know that I sometimes struggled with having those difficult conversations with whether it was players or parents, because sometimes you want to just kind of.

You want to kind of dance around the edges, right?

You don't want to give them that harsh truth.

But I think as you get older, you come to realize that you got to have the conversation and give them the harsh truth, because if you don't, you end up with this nebulous area of miscommunication, and then that's when you're real.

That's when your real problems can.

Can start.

So I'm sure that sounds like that rings true for you.

So to go along with that, I know I just kind of spouted on.

Did not ask you a question.

So let me ask you a question about it.

Let me ask you a question about parents.

So tell me about how you and I want to spin this positive.

How do you engage parents in your program so that you have them as advocates for what you're doing instead of.

In so many cases, we see the adversarial, right.

We see the bad stories of the parent coach relationship that goes south.

So let's focus on the positive.

What do you try to do to get the parents of your players engaged in your program so that when they're sitting in the stands, they're the people in saying, hey, man, Coach Ty, he's doing.

He's doing right by.

He's doing right by this program.

He's doing right by my kid.

How do you engage him in that.

Way, you know, well, to, you know, speak to something that you just mentioned, you know, what you were just talking about.

I think a lot of, you know, coaches, they don't really consider how important connecting to the parents and just you, you know, really, you know, engaging with them is.

But I do think for me, you know, I had a great coach, you know, that I learned from outside of Julian when I was at the former school, and he used to tell the parents on parent night, like, you know, very first night, right?

Like, he.

He would lay.

He.

He would lay the ground.

He would lay the law, right?

And he would essentially say, we have your son's best interest at heart.

You know, he was.

He.

He had already been a coach and you Know, in, in the area for, you know, 15 plus years.

So he also had the ability and kind of like the, you know, like the, the background to, to have these type of conversations with them.

Like they were familiar with that for sure.

Yep.

He would tell them early, like, this is not the type of program where no parents are going to be overly involved in decision making.

So to the point that you were just making like he was comfortable giving.

He started with the harsh truth.

Right.

He didn't dance around.

He started with the harsh truth.

And then we'll start to, you know, you know, build on that, but we're not going to dance around it.

We're going to start with the harsh truth so that you know what you're getting yourself into.

Right.

So that has always kind of been my, like, I admire that because of the response and the respect that he got from that.

You know, I feel like parents, you know, they appreciate when coaches are genuine with them.

Right.

So I don't lie to parents.

Like, if I, if there's a child that's not that great.

Right.

But the parent thinks that they're the next LeBron James, I don't mind being the person that has to tell them like, you know what dad or mom, like, let's ease on back a little bit with those expectations and those comparisons, Right.

Because at the end of the day, you shouldn't want your child to be the next anybody.

You should want them to be the first death and the best version of them.

Right.

So, you know, that's what I encourage all of the parents with.

Like when you bring your child here to us and you, you know, allow us to coach them, it's a, it's, it's a two way thing.

I'm not just telling you guys to trust us and just get out of the way.

We have to trust you that you're going to believe in us and, and buy into the things that we're trying to do for your child because we are trying to do right by your child and put them in the best position possible.

You may not agree with everything that we do, obviously, because to your point earlier, if everybody's happy with what a coach is doing, there's too much people pleasing going on.

Right.

And you have to have those uncomfortable conversations.

Now.

They don't have to be uncomfortable because it's not like the intent is negative.

We're trying to positively, like, like you just said, you know, when it comes to parents, like every conversation doesn't have to be a.

Oh, well, I feel like this and you feel like.

And this.

And it's a lot of clashing.

Right.

It doesn't have to be a clashing conversation.

We can agree to disagree.

But at the end of the day, I'm thankful that I do have the opportunity where parents respect my decisions and they allowed me to coach their children and that relationship.

And that conversation is had early in the season.

It's had throughout the season, if need be, but.

But thankfully, you know, been in a situation where it hasn't had to happen consistently throughout the season.

You know, hasn't had to be a lot of reiterating.

I think proactive is what I always like to say, is you try to build that relationship so that it's positive, so that if you ever do get into a situation where you do have to have a conversation that maybe is a difficult one to tell somebody something that they may not want to hear, you're much better off with that conversation when you've already established a relationship with that parent.

If the only time the parent hears from you is when they're complaining about playing time, and that's the first time the two of you have ever spoken, well, the odds of that going well probably aren't very high.

But if you've already established a relationship and a conversation, a dialogue, and you're communicating with your parents on a regular basis, then when situations arise that maybe there is a disagreement, it makes that conversation easier to be had because there's already that previous relationship.

I think I've found with the situations that I've personally been in and ones that I've seen with players and coaches that I know that when there's a previous relationship, it just makes things go a lot smoother.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

And, you know, fortunately for me, my assistant coach, that helps me out, you know, he went to school with some of the parents, so, you know, just the timing of everything, you know, they.

They really trust us as a staff because they're familiar with a lot of the faces and a lot of the.

The people that they see.

So, yeah, that's.

That's helpful as well.

Absolutely.

All right, before we get out, I want to ask you a final two part question.

So part one is, when you look ahead over the next year or two, obviously you're a couple years into building the program.

What do you see as being your biggest challenge over the next year or two?

And then the second part of the question is, when you think about what you get to do every day, what brings you the most joy?

So first, your biggest challenge.

Second, your biggest Joy?

Well, I mean, I'm just going to be honest and straightforward.

I would say the biggest challenge is just the landscape of basketball is changing in terms of just players and their, you know, willingness to stay committed to programs.

You know, on the public and private side of schools, you know, you see a lot of movement, you see a lot of players, you know, starting at one school, finishing at another school.

So I would say my biggest challenge is, you know, just figuring out how to navigate that space and, you know, just making sure that I'm doing things at Wild Lake that, you know, players want to, you know, be a part of and, you know, just continue to, you know, build a brand or, you know, just hard, hard nose, you know, hard working basketball players that, you know, just, just, you know, appreciate the game.

And that's something that I, you know, that I see as challenging.

You know, you have a lot of guys that are playing, you know, and just, just chasing things that aren't necessarily, you know, things that I would, you know, you know, play for.

So just just trying to, you know, build that genuine love for the game back into a lot of my players, you know, and that kind of goes into the second part, you know, like, that's, that's joy.

You know, I think the biggest thing for me that I fell in love with as a coach.

As a coach, right?

When you're teaching, you know, X's and O's, when you see a kid had that.

Oh, that's what you mean.

That's, that's like, yes, yes, yes, you did, you know, so those are definitely the best moments for me, you know, situation.

Seeing a kid, you know, teaching a concept, seeing a kid figuring out and then going and applying it is, yeah, just bring.

Brings joy to my heart for sure.

So, yeah, that's awesome.

I mean, I think any coach can relate to that moment, right, because we've all been in that experience where a kid or a team, they don't get it.

They don't get it.

They don't get it.

They can't get it.

They're just struggling and then all of a sudden, boom, they figure it out.

And then the smile that came across your face when you told that story, man, like, I recognize, I recognize that smile from myself and from that I know of like, bad.

Like all of a sudden they're figuring it out, like, that's, that's what I've been teaching.

And all of a sudden it goes from what it goes from.

You've had this vision in your head of what your team or what that player is supposed to look like and all of a sudden you're like, there it is, man.

It's, it's incredible.

And that's a great, it's a great, that's a great feeling.

That goes back to what you were saying earlier.

You know, just, you know, figuring out and seeing the kids, you know, when they have that, when they have that moment, it's like that's the vision that I had in my head when I, when I first started, you know.

No question, no question.

All right, last thing before we finish.

I want you to share how can people reach out to you?

How can they find out more about you and your program?

So whether you want to share, social media, email, website, whatever you feel comfortable with.

And then after you do that, sure, I'll jump back in and wrap things up for sure.

I'm very fortunate to be in a position that I'm in working with these young men because I'm not going to lie, like, there was a time in my life where social media wasn't really my thing and I wasn't really into, you know, that world and that, you know, that side of things.

But people can find me.

My main platform right now is Instagram.

I'm Coach Ty0 on Instagram.

That's like my, my main platform.

So I'm, I'm getting back out there on, on the social media side of things.

If anybody wants to interact or connect with me, my email is coach320gmail.com that's probably the best way to, you know, reach me directly again.

You know, trying to build my network back up.

You know, I know like the, the younger generation, you know, they love the tick tocks and, you know, the Instagram show reels and all of that stuff.

But I'm not really like, like I, I do tell people, you know, I do pride myself on being a real life coach.

Right.

So I'm may not be on Instagram, I may not be on TikTok, but you can find me in the gym, you know, working with kids and you know, giving my knowledge to the game.

So that's, that's what I'm about.

You know, it may not be cameras around recording it and, you know, posting it, but the work is there though, for sure.

That's well said, Ty.

And I just want to thank you for taking the time out of your schedule tonight to join us.

I really appreciate it and to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode.

Thanks.

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