Basketball Preview: Giving players a chance
Two new North Side Greater Spokane League girls basketball coaches face similar challenges this season, although one of them has a higher hill to climb than the other.
Tyrone Hoard at Rogers and Angela Huntley at North Central inherit programs which have endured more than their share of recent struggles, including a 0-20 GSL record for the Indians last year.
But longstanding adversity may be more profound at Rogers, which ended a 73-game league losing streak last season but nonetheless recorded many more losses than victories by the end of the year.
Hoard, who succeeds Nicole Kilgore as the Pirates’ head coach, is in his third year at Rogers, where he teaches science, physical education and works in a freshman alternative program. He was Kilgore’s junior varsity coach and varsity assistant for his first two years, and when she resigned at the end of the 2006-07 season, he was eager to apply for the position.
“What drew me to this job,” he said, “was my passion for the school and for coaching. I’m not coming into this position feeling like a savior. When Darcy Weisner (former Rogers athletic director) hired me three years ago, he told me that you’ve got to know what you’re getting into.
“We lost six seniors from last year, and we have one only girl back with any varsity experience. So for a while at least, our record doesn’t mean as much as if people watch us play and see good attitudes and lots of hustle, know that we’re playing hard, start to finish. If we do those things, then those are successes to us.
“Look at last night (an 86-21 loss to Gonzaga Prep). We took a beating, but after the game people came up and told me how good it was to watch our girls diving after loose balls right till the end. Our girls have already improved, and I’ll consider it a victory if I can help them to be better people and better basketball players.
“It’s an uphill battle here. One of my biggest jobs is fundraising so we can get our girls more opportunities, get them to camps so that basketball isn’t just a November-to-February experience. I have a parent group looking for backers, and we’re sending out letters to members of the community.
“I’d love to have a more level playing field. We have kids who don’t have money for a GSL (activity) card, and I’m trying to get them to pay for summer camps. One of our biggest donors is a Mead parent who wants to see Rogers be more successful. He gave money from his company to help our girls during the summer. We just want to introduce them to as many new things as possible.”
Huntley comes to North Central after two years as an assistant coach at Community Colleges of Spokane, where recruiting was her primary responsibility. She graduated from Eastern Washington University in 2002 after playing at Central Valley, and succeeds longtime coach Dave Hall at NC.
“This is something that I wanted for a long time,” she said. “Having a head job is a dream come true for me. Expectations aren’t that high here right now, but I hope to turn that around.
“Putting in a new system is a real challenge,” she said. “I didn’t get the job until right before school started, so it’s a brand new system for the girls, a new mindset with a lot to do. A lot of what I’m doing is re-teaching, not only physical skills but mental.
“What I bring to NC is a fresh start, and hopefully a new perspective and new energy. It’s hard to introduce my stuff and have the kids pick up on it, but by the end of the season, I think we’ll be fine. What I want to do this year is to set a foundation for the future, and to have us get better every minute of the day, every practice and every game.
“I think the girls want to work hard enough to succeed, but they don’t yet understand what it takes. When you haven’t had success for a while, you have a hard time knowing what it takes.”
That’s a sentiment that Hoard would echo at Rogers, along with the feeling that there’s nowhere to go but up.