Family the big lure

Hugh Watson’s basketball teams were known for fast-paced transition offense, but nothing like the youngsters he’s coaching, err, teaching these days.

As a favor to a friend, Watson came out of retirement to teach P.E. at Philadelphia (Tenn.) Elementary School. The gig lasts until December, when Watson, who never lacked for energy in 40-plus years of coaching, including stops at the University of Idaho and North Idaho College, figures he’ll collapse on his couch for a week of R&R.

“I was fishing when I got a call from a former player and he said he needed a big, big, big favor,” Watson said. “I knew it was important when he said big three times. I’m falling in love with those little guys, but they never run down. They just go wild.”

It’s not exactly how the 67-year-old Watson planned to spend his retirement, but he doesn’t mind.

Soon enough, construction will begin on his retirement home on Cherokee Lake. His fishing boat is ready to hit the water. His Friday nights will be spent watching son-in-law Mike Zeller, a former Idaho Vandals football player, coach Lenoir City High School’s team.

Watson will log as much time as possible with his two children and four grandchildren. Wife Anna Sue’s parents live nearby in Kingsport. And not long ago, Hugh visited his 91-year-old mom and found her “digging up the garden. I told her they make tractors for that, but that didn’t stop her. She put in that garden.”

Family was the main reason the Tennessee native left NIC about six weeks before the first practice of the 2004 season to take the head coaching job at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn. At the time, Watson said he had two homes, Tennessee and Coeur d’Alene, but the lure of being near relatives won out.

Watson returned to Coeur d’Alene recently to be the guest speaker at a dinner with the NIC basketball team, which is coached by Jared Phay, Watson’s former assistant. Turns out Roast Watson was on the menu.

“We got a little homesick when we came in,” Watson said. “I’m thinking I was coming back to help raise funds and they roasted me pretty good.”

It was the sendoff he never received because of the timing of his departure. He led the Cardinals to 30 wins in his first season, capped by a fourth-place finish at the 1997 NJCAA tournament, the highest placing in school history. The Cardinals scored 97, 92, 103 and 116 points, respectively, in tournament games.

Watson, who remained at NIC until 2004, left to rebuild a struggling NCAA Division II program. He coached Lincoln Memorial for four seasons, reaching a high-water mark for wins with 13 in 2006-07. The Railsplitters played Tennessee, Middle Tennessee (coached by ex-Vandals coach Kermit Davis) and Southern Illinois last season – with predictable outcomes.

Tennessee coach “Bruce Pearl told me before the game he remembered recruiting some of my guys (when Watson was the head coach at) Hiwassee (College in Tennessee),” the charismatic Watson said. “He said I didn’t give him much time of day and I said, ‘That doesn’t sound like me.’ They were probably all going D-I (and Pearl was coaching at the D-II level).”

Watson’s club lost the exhibition game to the Volunteers 124-61.

“I lost five kids last year, four of them to knee operations,” he said. “I thought we were going to be pretty good, but I wound up without a true point guard.”

Watson doesn’t miss coaching. He’s rejected some feelers to get back into the business and he has no desire to coach his grandkids’ youth teams.

“I’d be too hard on them,” he said. “I want to love them.”

He stays in shape by taking four-mile walks daily and by doing 50 pushups every morning and evening. He had a nasty bicycle accident shortly after returning to Tennessee, requiring all kinds of hardware to repair his shoulder. He’s had to give up jogging because of a disagreeable knee, but he gets plenty of exercise chasing after his students.

“The other day one of them asked me how old I was,” Watson said. “I said, ‘How old do you think I am?’ He said, ‘35.’ I said, ‘Wrong, I’m 37.’ ”

He’s thankful to be surrounded by family in Tennessee.

“We’re happy,” Watson said. “I’m happy anywhere I go, but I sure do miss Coeur d’Alene. That was our favorite place.”