‘Great Coaches’ A Big Help To Sp Senior’s Basketball Career

Nate Dunham never said it in so many words, but it’s not hard to figure out he’s been blessed during his basketball career.

Dunham hit two clutch 3-pointers in fourth quarter to lift SP over second-ranked and undefeated Ferris 50-46 Tuesday night.

The Shadle Park senior has had three coaches and he classifies each one as great.

It started in grade school when his father, Lou, guided his teams, continued at Northwest Christian, where the coach was former pro player Danny Beard, and is on-going at Shadle Park, where Darcy Weisner is the head coach and Lou Dunham is an assistant.

First, his father:

“He coached me fifth grade through eighth grade. He’s by far the best coach I’ve ever had,” the appreciative son said.

Dunham then went to Northwest Christian for two years, before transferring to Shadle Park.

“I still miss my friends over there,” he said. “There were a lot of good people. I miss Danny Beard, who was a great coach.”

Actually, he transferred after his freshman year with his brother Graham, but only lasted a few days. He made the switch to Shadle permanent his junior year.

“I kind of wanted a change. I always wanted to play at the higher level, see if I could play, kind of like my brother did. I look up to him a lot,” he said. “I love it. It was the best choice I could make. Coach Weisner is a great coach. He is a coach that no matter what happens he instills, ‘I believe in you, keep going.”’

Dunham, 6-foot-1, has proven he can play at the higher level, averaging 12.6 points as a junior to earn honorable mention in the All-Greater Spokane League, and scoring 14 points this year for the Highlanders, who are tied for first with a spot to regionals all but guaranteed.

“Most guys have been in our program for four years, so with Nate, he’s a good basketball player but it’s still an on-going progress. But, he accepts constructive criticism,” Weisner said. “He doesn’t have so much pride that he doesn’t want to learn the game.

“I learned a long time ago if you don’t get along with your point guard or if he doesn’t know what you’re saying, it’s difficult.”

Weisner made the observation Friday night after the Highlanders pulled away from North Central in the fourth quarter for their eight-straight win. The game just happened to be the Groovy Shoes game, when the noise level is deafening and sideline coaching is difficult.

“I love having a guy do the show,” Weisner said. “I’ve told coaches this before. Size, you can’t coach, but to have a point guard move the ball, shoot - and we like our point guard to score - he does a lot for us.”

Weisner’s teams play serious defense and Dunham is their “switch” guy. Offensively, Dunham has to go up against at least four other point guards Weisner said are “four of the better point defenders I’ve seen in this league in years. They put a lot of pressure on the ball.

“So, he’s going against that every night and then picking them up because he’s our point on defense. We put a lot on him.”

Obviously, Dunham has responded well to the challenge, but that still doesn’t mean leaving Northwest Christian was easy. As a freshman, he was a key reserve and his brother a star on the State B champion.

“It was hard to leave all my friends behind. At first I really didn’t enjoy Shadle at all,” he admitted. “It took me a good month or so before I felt like I fit it.”

Basketball meant additional adjustments.

“It’s really weird to get used to a system and get used to what the coach wants out of you,” he said. “I knew what Danny wanted out of me and what he needed out of me. When I first came to Shadle last year I wasn’t looking to scoring at all. Now I’ve kind of stepped into more of a scoring role now. That was hard for me for a while.”

It’s still an on-going process.

“It’s definitely hard, but the second half of the season I’m going to try to improve my shot selection,” he said. “I don’t feel I’ve been shooting as well as I should. I’ve put up some bad shots for the team. I’m going to try to balance out my passing and scoring. That’s my goal at least.”

Weisner said, “He comes over to me, we talk during the games, he gets instructions, he nods. He’s very coachable during a game.”

Having his first coach on the bench helps.

“I love it,” he said of having his father around. “No matter what, he’s never going to contradict (Weisner). He’s going to encourage me no matter what I think to go along with what Darcy says. But he does a lot of stuff during the game that helps me with individual stuff. He does do that a lot.”

No matter how the season turns out, Dunham has shown the gigantic leap from B to AAA can be made.

“Everyone said it’s way better, a huge difference,” he said. “But any of the best players on the B teams could play in the GSL pretty easily.”

And he has something to offer his teammates, the thrill of playing on television for a state championship, a goal worth working hard for.

“If we believe in our system, believe in what the coaches say, we can be the best,” he said. “We want to play March 15 on TV. That’s what (Weisner) says every day.” , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo