The universal language

There’s no two ways about it – Matt Gregg constantly talks down to his players.

But when you stand head and shoulders above your tallest player, it’s to be expected.

Height aside, however, the second-year Freeman girls basketball coach has a natural way of communicating with his players.

“The great thing about what Matt’s done with the girls program is that he treats his players like athletes,” Freeman boys coach Mike Thacker said. “He doesn’t make a distinction between boys or girls as far as basketball is concerned. And I think the girls have responded to that approach.”

While myriad authors have theorized about the differences between male and female – about how the two genders speak separate languages – Matt Gregg has found one universal way to communicate.

He simply speaks Basketball.

After eight years as Thacker’s assistant, Gregg took over the girls program at the end of the 2002-03 school year. His first season ended with the Scotties ranked statewide, but upset in the Northeast District tournament a game short of the state tournament.

“I played high school basketball at Clarkston and we never made the state tournament,” Gregg explained. “I played a year at Spokane Community College under Sam Brasch and we went 15-0 in league and got knocked out in the league tournament. So I know what it’s like to be disappointed.”

Gregg helped his players channel that disappointment into a summer of dedicated work and a season of passion.

Which brings the Scotties to the state Class 1A Tournament, which tips off Wednesday at Yakima’s SunDome, with a 20-2 season record, the No. 1 ranking in the state according to the Associated Press and the role of pre-tournament favorite.

“It’s been so cool to watch Coach Gregg and see how successful the girls team has become,” starting boys point guard Jason Bailey said. “He was my junior varsity coach as a freshman and he’s still the same guy – a sort of goofy guy who likes to have fun and who knows a lot about basketball.”

That approach, that personality has been wholeheartedly embraced by the Scotties, who have spent the majority of the season ranked No. 1 in the state.

“I have been so impressed by the passion and dedication these girls have shown,” Gregg said. “They were in the gym every day during the summer, running, shooting and lifting. They’ve worked so hard to get to this point.”

Which is not to say it hasn’t taken some getting used to.

“I did have to learn how to handle tears,” Gregg said. “I think there have been tears from every member of this team at one time or another, but I believe that comes from just how much passion and how much desire they have to get better and be successful.”

When it comes to coaching philosophy, Gregg has stuck to the beliefs he brought to the girls game.

“I always thought that, if I were to coach girls, that I would press a lot, use a lot of the shot clock and get up and down the floor,” he said. “I don’t treat these girls any different than we used to treat the boys.”

Gregg says he still gets in a player’s face, but because his face is about a foot higher than that of most of his players, it tends to be much less than the good-cop-bad-cop routine he ran with Thacker.

Which makes Gregg just big cop.

His gentle demeanor rarely cracks, and “getting in a player’s face” amounts to two questions: “Why did you do that?” and “When are you going to stop doing that?”

In other words, Gregg is about as intimidating as a 6-foot-10 teddy bear.

“These girls are always beating on me,” he admits, grinning. “They’re such great kids. I’ve been blessed. I wouldn’t trade coaching these girls for any other team.”

Even though this is his first trip to state as a head coach, he has a definite idea about what he does and doesn’t want his team to do once the tournament tips off.

“We’re not going to need someone to rise up and start scoring 20 points a game,” he said. “We haven’t needed that all season long and we don’t need that now.

“It comes down to something Coach Thacker always writes on the board and something I now write on the board for the team: ‘Run the stuff.’ At one point we even talked about having that printed up on T-shirts. We just have to do the things we’ve been working on all season long. If we get away from it, we’re not a very good team. But when we run our stuff, we’re pretty good.”

After Friday night’s victory over Colfax that cemented the Northeast District’s No. 1 seed, Thacker and Gregg jumped in the car and drove across the Cascades to spend the day scouting.

And talking basketball strategy.

“We had a great conversation,” Gregg said. “We both just want our players to keep going out there and doing what it was that got us here in the first place. We do that, we’re both going to be OK.”