‘Retired’ coach stays close to home
During his son’s senior season at Cheney, Denny Humphrey decided to retire as the Blackhawks basketball coach. That ended 34 years for Humphrey as a head coach which saw him win 552 games – the fifth-best total in state history at the time – and lose 276.
But Humphrey didn’t stay retired long, signing on as a volunteer assistant at Eastern Washington University in 2003.
Son was reunited with the father when Rhett Humphrey joined the Eagles as a player this year.
We talked the elder Humphrey into sharing a few minutes with us.
Spokesman-Review: I thought you retired.
Humphrey: I am retired. Ray Giacoletti asked me to come up when I did retire. I gave that some thought … it was a good time and Mike (Burns) asked me to stay on when he took the job. It’s been interesting working with college kids, better athletes. It also gets me out of the house for four hours a day. My wife has me out of the house, is the way I should put it.
S-R: What are your duties?
Humphrey: I don’t really know. I just help coach (Brandon) Renta and coach (Grant) Leep with the posts and I try to offer some little things that might help the program. I’m kind of big on taking care of the little things.
S-R: How much do you get paid?
Humphrey: They try to give me some money for working the camps and they give me some clothes to wear to the games.
S-R: Is it hard being an assistant after all those years of running your own program?
Humphrey: It’s better now than maybe the first year or so for me. You’re not the head guy, you’re just one of the assistants now. When you’re the head guy for 34 years, you kind of get a little used to doing it your way, which doesn’t mean it’s the right way. There are other ways to run a program and win games.
S-R: Do you feel like you’re contributing?
Humphrey: Sometimes I feel like I want to do more, but that’s OK, I’m not the guy. I don’t have all the answers, but I think I know a few things that work at this level as well as in high school. I think that’s the job of an assistant coach – you have to throw some things out and if they don’t want to use them, that’s fine.
S-R: How long will you do this?
Humphrey: I don’t really know. Age-wise, I’m 65, but I don’t want to quit yet. Right now I want to keep going.