One thing about working in athletics, much like the Texas weather, it is always changing.
John Neese and I were having a conversation the other day about the number of people that have been around the American Southwest Conference since 2000. We came up with about a list of 12-15 people quickly off the top of our head that have been around that long and that is about it. I further looked at it and amazingly there are just 32. Take out SIDs and Athletic Director’s and there are 22 coaches in the league that have been in the league that long.
With 15 schools and each averaging about 12-15 coaching or administrative people and that is a very low percentage that have been in the league at least nine years.
That just goes to show you how much things turn over at small colleges.
We have been very fortunate at Hardin-Simmons to have coaches that stick around. We say it a lot, but Hardin-Simmons is a great place to be. Most of us are not here for the money. We could all go somewhere else and make more money. Most of our coaches could go coach middle school P.E. in the Metroplex and make more money than we get at HSU.
But life is not all about money and for the most part if you get into college athletics you are not into it to get rich. We have a great support system at HSU and have a great camaraderie between our coaches and staff. We for the most part do the jobs we do because we love them. There is little stress on us, we work in a comfortable work environment and are pretty flexible with our work schedules. Every one of us on staff knows when it is time to work, we get the job done. We don’t have to be told we need to put in more effort.
I think that has a lot to do with our success as a department as a whole. All of us have pride in our area and we don’t want to be shown up.
All of that being said change does happen and we lost one of the more veteran members of our staff over the weekend. Head basketball coach Dylan Howard has taken a job at Mississippi Valley State.
Coach Howard has done a great job for us at Hardin-Simmons and has been a very good friend to me. From an up-and-back trip to Colorado College in his first year, to the ASC Tournament three of the last four years it has been a fun ride. He took the team to the ASC final in 2007 and had a shot to win the game. There is one good thing about Coach Howard leaving, those Mississippi referees will be on his side now, because he never could get them on his side while playing against the Choctaws.
We had a lot of good times both at games here and on the road. We often found ourselves after a game finding a restaurant to rehash the game good or bad. Sometimes I would have to tell him we would win another game, or he would say they are getting better. He brought a lot of excitement back to men’s basketball at HSU. He allowed me to get close to the team, even watching practice on a lot of days.
We sometimes disagreed on different players and what they could and could not do, but most of the time he came around to my way of thinking.
If he would ever come around to admitting that Coach K is the most overrated coach in basketball history, we would be getting somewhere.
Some players thought they were getting the short end of it. Some finally figured out that he just wanted them to be their best, some didn’t and quit. Some players figured out soon that it was his way or the highway. It took some longer than others to figure that out. I think at the end of the day, his players figured out that if they did things the way he wanted them done they would have no problems.
Coach I wish you the best of luck and I am going to miss you.
