SPEAKER_00 0:00

Coach Dwayne Jubert is currently the head boys basketball coach and athletic director at Kuntz High School. Coach Jubert was hired by Kuntz in 2004, and for over 21 years, he has stayed loyal to the Lions. He has led them to four state tournament appearances while winning the state championship three times, once in 2005, another in 2007, and most recently in 2025. On top of these gold medals, he has also won over 650 games during his head coaching career. Before Kuntz, Coach Jubert was an assistant at Harden ISD from 1996 to 1999 before taking over as the head coach until 2004. Prior to coaching, he graduated high school from Harden, Jefferson, where he won the 1991 state championship. After high school, Coach Jubert attended Prairie View AM University on a football scholarship before transferring to West Texas AM, where he graduated in 1996. He and his wife Connie have been married for 29 years. Together they have two sons, Connor, who is a senior at Texas State, and Cole, who is a sophomore at Coons. Coach, thanks for being on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Man, thank you for having me, man. It means a lot uh to be on here to talk to you today. When you emailed me the other day, that really made me feel good to talk about our program of what we've been doing over here at Coons High School.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Yeah, it's it's been a program to watch out for every year for quite a while now. And obviously that that has something to do with the guy who's in charge. Just a couple of quick hitters here that I kind of ask every coach. You've coached in the Alamo Dome, but other than the Alamo Dome, other than the drum, what are some of your favorite gyms that you've coached in?

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Well, you know, when you said that, uh, you know, I was thinking about the drum. That was first of all, you know, because that's the that's the best place to play. You know, we we was able to win it there in 05 and 07 there, and that's just unbelievable when you're playing in that atmosphere. And people talk about that in the Alamo Dome, but that drum was just the biggest place to play. But now you go back to the the Tinnaha tournament. The Tenaha gym is very uh uh one of the best gyms around. I've been going there for the last 15 years, man, so it's a spectacular gym to me. Uh just the atmosphere that you have there, uh the small town uh that you have with 3A and under, and those guys is playing back and forth. So uh it's really a truly a blessing to be at that place too, uh, every Christmas time.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Yeah, I I'm a Lai Pan guy, so I'm I'm aware of the Tenohal tournament.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Oh man. Yeah, you know all about the history there, man.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Yeah, that's that's one of the best small school tournaments, if not the best small school tournament in the state. It's truly, it's I always enjoyed going to that one. Uh so talk to us about what or who or why you got into coaching, especially basketball. I know you you played football, and and so what what got you into coaching and especially the sport of basketball?

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Well, like you said, football was my thing in uh high school. I played both. I played football and I played basketball. And we was able to win a state championship in basketball with uh Dr. Charles Broadup over there at Horton Jumpson. So, you know, I went off to college and played football, but after that didn't work out, I went to Canada for football, and then I came back home and then I was looking for a job, and you know, I was like, man, what am I gonna do? I had my degree in kinesiology, and then I started talking to certain people, and they was able to give me a job over at Horton High School. And so I was doing football and basketball there as well, as well as track. But it just came in one day where I, you know, I was able to coach basketball. And when they was able to coach basketball, you know, I was like, hey, what am I gonna do? I thought I learned from one of the best coaches around with uh Dr. Charles Broadup, uh running the system. So I believe in that and I continue to believe in it. You know, I've been doing it now for 29 years now in education and coaching. And I think if you you run the system, you're gonna be successful. Uh so he was really a big input uh uh behind me uh to get me into that coaching profession and being able to coach basketball because I thought I was just gonna play uh play football, then I thought I was just gonna coach football. But after I started doing basketball, man, and starting to have a lot of success with it and stuff, I said, hey man, this one thing I really, you know, I believe in and I love and this is what I want to do. And so that's what we've been doing now.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Yeah, so you mentioned in there running the system, and and you sent me some stuff about that. Talk about that. Talk about why Koontz is good at that, whether it be, you know, the players buying in, the parents buying in, administration buying in. You sent me a a couple of things about kind of your disciplinary actions, what happens when a kid misses practice or they get ISS. Um, but just go into depth a little bit about running the system and what that means.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Running the system, uh, you know, everybody thinks because I played for Dr. Brad, we'll we're a diamond press team, a one-two-one press team, and which it makes you look like we're running a one-two-one one, but we're able to make different calls uh for different press breaks that uh teams are running against us as well. Uh so that's kind of the blessing behind this one one, two, one, one that we run. A lot of teams now run a lot of man-to-man, uh, but we just we basically look like we're running a one-two-one, but we can make some changes, different calls all the way through the game. Just depends on what you're trying to break the press. Uh, we're able to make calls because I have other coaches on the sideline telling me what you're trying to do. So it's different things that we work on in practice as well to know what this team is trying to do to hurt us and what we can do to contradict what they're trying to do to break the press. Uh, but you talk about our system, uh, that's that's basically it. I mean, we're running, we're running up and down the whole time. I had a guy last year after state tournament, he had uh emailed me and he's like, man, I've never seen a team that press off our miss or make. Most of the time you got to do it off our make, but we were so successful where we've been able to do it in the past years now. We do it on a miss or make. So if we miss a shot, we're fine with it. We're already pressing you and we're locking up, uh playing full court, 94 feet for 32 minutes. Uh so that is the system. We're gonna play you uh from baseline to baseline the whole time, and we want guys to be able to run and play our style of basketball because a lot of teams now they don't do this in practice, you know. And when you're going against other teams, they'll be like, man, I'm trying to practice against seven and eight guys just to get a look because y'all are flying around all the time. Uh so uh playing basketball for Kunz is hard, man. It's a responsibility uh that you got to be in shape. Uh and my kids understand that. Uh the parents understand that. We'll play by seven or eight kids uh sometimes. You know, I love to have 10 uh kids on the roster, love to have 12, but you know, at the when it comes down to it, we play about seven or eight kids. But long those kids flying around and having fun and doing what we try to do, we're good. Um I try to go with a what we did in high school, we was able to go five and five rotation at Horton Jefferson. So I believe when your kids understand that, that hey man, if I practice hard, if I work hard, I'm gonna get playing time. So I mean, I tell my kids, you're gonna get playing time. If you come here, you play defense. Uh you'll see our thing, we always talk about defense. That's no ifs, ands, or buts. You have to be able to play defense uh to play for the Coons Lines. So offensively, that's gonna bring some things to you, your game, because you're playing defense, you should be able to get a steal and go get a layup. So it's something that we practice each and every day. I go back and I look at 2013 when I was looking at my practice schedule today. Some of the same things that we do in 2013, we're still doing that right now. So we talk about being redundant and doing things over and over, and that's what I tell my kids. If you're doing it from day one and when we start, uh, when school starts in September, if you're doing it all summer long, uh by the time basketball season here, you should be able to, you know, continue to be able to do it to the best of your ability, not missing a layup, knocking down shots and stuff like that, if you're doing it each and every day. Our discipline program that we talk about, we talk about just do what's right. I have different things on there, talk about discipline. When kids get in trouble, they get ISS, you know, and stuff like that, or they have to be in sack. So we we tell them, you know, it's 10 minutes, it's 10 horses, it's 10 apes, which we call, which apes is all the way around the court, touching the floor with two hands all the way around. Uh so we we got to punch those guys. And so they're missing athletics too, as well, because they're in ISS. And so we just try to take that over to practice where you miss in practice, so that's four minutes of your playing time. So if you're a starter and you're in ISS, you miss four minutes of your playing time right there because you've been in ISS. So I try to teach these kids to uh be young men, uh, but be responsible in those classrooms as well as the hallway, as well as outside, uh just wherever you're at in the community or wherever you may be at. So we we we stress that. We usually give them like four options. You know, we used to be able to give SWATs and stuff, but now we don't give SWATs anymore. So now we just first offense is 10 apes, second offense is 15 apes, and the third offense is 20 apes. So this type of stuff that we do. But we talk about being on time. That's my pet peeve. You gotta be on time uh for these young men to understand that there when one day when you get out of here, you're gonna have a job. You got a family, you gotta be on time uh to your job. Don't show up right there at 5 o'clock when you're supposed to be here. I asked you to be here at 5 o'clock. I need you here 10 minutes, 15 minutes ahead of time. So that's something that we stress about as well. Uh but conditioning-wise, in basketball, all of everybody always asks me about the conditioning that we do in practice. Um, I'm gonna be honest with you, you know, uh, every now and then we'll get on that line and run. But when we get on the line to run, it's for punishment. But I've been able to, in our system, when we make mistakes, when we drop a pass in three-man weave or three-on-two, or we miss a layup, I get those guys there. When they make a mistake, they got to get on the sideline, they got to get a down and back. And we tell them 10 seconds. And so they understand that. So as soon as I miss a layup and when I come back, I got to get a down and back in 10 seconds. And if I don't get it, you know, if I if I'm skipping and I'm and I'm going back in line when I already missed a layup or a bad pass, and I'm getting in line, so I'm cheating myself and I'm cheating a team. So I teach them responsibility as well, right there. And then I make everybody get on the line for that one person that's trying to skip or mess up the drill as well. And so that's something that we've been able to do in our program. And that just trying to build on and continue to get better and better each and every day.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

There's a lot of good stuff in there. Uh, you know, you you you hit on just do what is right. When you sent me that disciplinary stuff, that's that's one of the main things I saw in there was just do what's right. And and it's true. I like too that when you have these disciplinary plans in place, it's hard because you don't want your best player to be one of those kids because then it's your best player sitting four minutes. It's your best player not starting. And so it it takes some real accountability, even from the coaching side, to hold yourself accountable to no, this is our best player, but he's not doing what is right. And so he has to face the same punishments, even though he's he's the player that we need to have on the floor.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

And that's one thing I've been in that situation a couple of times, not a couple times, but many a times. But a small school, uh 3A ball, and you know, you one of your best players cutting up, acting a fool, or not doing what they're supposed to be doing in a classroom or or in the hallways, and then the principal got to email you or something like that. And then you have to sit them down for that, and you got to make them understand you're not only hurting yourself, you're hurting the team, you're hurting me, but you're hurting the community as well. And I think when kids start understanding that they're hurting all those people around, then you'll be successful. But, you know, I've done had to kick kids off the team because they just can't do right. And it hurts you uh because you you never want to kick a kid off the team and stuff like that. But it it goes back to missing practice. And I tell kids, if if you miss my practice, this is like a job. I tell them it's it's like a job. You got to show up each and every day uh because this is what we want to do right here. We want to represent Kunz. We want to represent the community, we want to represent this school. We don't need you cutting up and acting a fool in those classrooms outside of the classrooms. We want you to come here and represent.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Um, so you hit a little bit on practice planning there. The question I sent says lots of coaches feel as if they do the same drills every day in practice, whether it be shooting drills, fundamentals, defense, sometimes they can seem redundant. So, what are some things when you're not specifically scouting an opponent? If you're known for one thing, do you do those same drills every day? And if you do, how do you get those kids to not think it's the same drill, it's the same thing over and over and over?

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Well, uh, we we change our stuff up. You know, we're a pressing team, so we do a lot of trapping in three-on-two and two-on-one uh type of situations. So we're doing a lot of transition drills each and every day. Uh so I'm able to go to different clinics where I learn a lot from different coaches that come on the college level to bring in stuff. Uh there's pressing teams, and I Google different, you know, different coaches to see what they try to do with their system. So I'm always trying to learn different guys that press and run or to see different drills that they they incorporate with their teams. But also it's about, you know, seeing what my kids can do. So we're able to change some things up. A lot of things, like I said, we're always trapping. So we're doing different trap drills or tipping from behind, drills that we're gonna work in practice, and I show them how it's gonna work in practice, but then I show them how it's gonna work in the game as well. And then they'll see, I mean, we just did that uh the other day in practice, and that's what happens right there. And I'll and I'll break it down to them on the film and I show them in practice as well. But if you do this over and over and over, by the time game time comes around, you should be able to do what we need you to do. And like I said, we pride ourselves on defense at Koontz. And that's what I pride myself on as well. For each and everybody you talk to me about, they talk about Koontz defense and flying around. Why do your kids play so hard? I think that's the way I coach. You know, that's the way I was brought up. You know, I'm I'm gonna stress that to my guys. You know, I'm gonna get on to my kids, but at the end of the day, they know that I love them and I want the best for them. Uh so I'm gonna coach those kids up hard. A lot of the drills, like you said, are are redundant, but we're able to incorporate different things with it. And I'll add each and every year, and I'm because like I said, I go to different clinics just to see what I can bring to the table that's gonna add something different to what we do. I've been going back and look at my practice schedule. But like I was telling you right there, I've been doing this each and every year, and I keep my and I keep my books. And so I'll go back to my book and see what we did that day, and I'll tell them, hey man, this is what we did in 2018, and those guys were number one team in the state. Why are we not the number one team in the state now? Because you're doing the same thing these guys did in 2018. So I kind of hold that over those guys' head as well, and they understand that. But it it all goes back to the family as well, you know. Uh, you know, you talk about tradition over there at Coonton. I've been there for 22 years. So I've been able to coach some good kids there, uh well as their dads, their uncles, you know, and so now some of them are coming through now. So that's a truly a blessing now that you can able to see that. And so now you're getting some of the back from the parents that played in my system. Now they can a man, you better listen to Coach Juba. He's only gonna tell you what's best for you. He's not coming here to hurt you and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

So I I want to hit on coaching defense. Uh you know, you've you've mentioned it a bunch of times, and anybody who's watched Coontz, whether it be the state tournament at Tennell, just in a normal game, they know that they're gonna get they're gonna get pressed. There's gonna be a lot of pressure defense coming at them. And so that takes buy-in from kids and especially from coaches. Um, there are days as a coach where if you have a long day during the school day and then you've got a a very intense practice after school, you still got to come in ready to go, just like the kids have to come in ready to go. So, talk about some keys to coaching that style of defense. Obviously, high energy, um, accountability, but what are some things that you and your staff do to be successful at that?

SPEAKER_01 15:49

You know, you talk about it, Ty, and I try to tell my kids, uh, when we're doing these drills, they don't do it by themselves. Man, coach, I get out there and I do it with them. I'm 52 years old and I'm still I'm running around now and I'm yelling and I'm chipping from behind, and I'll show them by example. Or when we're pressing, I'll get there and I'll play the interceptor spot with my interceptor, I'll play the wing spot. And so I do it with them as well to show them, hey man, if I can do it right now at this age, I know you can do it at 17 years old. And so that's why I go out there and I try to show them that I still can do it. I might not can do it as fast as them, but I'm still gonna have the heart and the energy, and that's what's gonna carry us over. Because if people understand that if you're playing this for 32 minutes and you're playing it for 94 feet and you yelling, and that's what I try to tell them, nobody likes to be yelled at. So we out there on the court and we yelling and we're talking, we playing defense, but we're trying to also get in that other person's head who we're playing against as well. So we're trying to take them out their game. And I try to show them different things from playing football, man, because now I try to bring a football aspect to it on basketball. We try to be physical, we try to talk on defense, we try to play hard, we dive on the floors for loose balls. Uh so I just try to show them coming from the football field and they coming out there and coaching it, I do the same thing. I just try to lead by example as well. Uh, I guess one day I won't be able to kind of run around and dive on the floor and do all that tough stuff. Uh, but with us my coaches as well, you know. I expect my coaches to coach hard. I tell that to one of my guys this year here. He's like, Coach, man, you know, what you want me to do? I said, and he's a former player that played for me in 2005. He was an MVP for me in 2007 at the state tournament. Uh, and I told him, I said, hey man, what what we did for you in 2007, that's what I need you to do with those post players now. I want you drilling it. I want you working them over and over and over. And that's what I did for you back in the day. So I don't want to cheat these kids now. I want you to do the same thing that I did to you in 2005 and 2007 to make you a good player. I want you to do that right now for the players that we have now. So I ask my coaches to coach hard. You know, and I let my players understand that I'm going to coach you hard, I'm going to yell at you, but at the same time, I'm going, I'm going to love you and I'm going to build you up as well because I only want what's best for you.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

So you sent me today, I want to, since you just said that, you sent me today some of the things you do at the start of every year. You give a player their role, exactly what you think that your team needs them to do that year. I highlighted a few things in there, and a few times in there you said, can't be in your feelings, don't start pouting. It is hard for kids to take that tough coaching. Um, but I want to hit on, you know, you you give these roles to these kids. Does every kid know every kid's role, or do you just tell that kid their role? How does how does that go about in that in the Koontz system?

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Well, Child, I I'm honest with each and every last one of my kids right there, that list that I sent you, I go over with each and every last one of them. We'll we'll sit in a film room right there, and I sit them all down in the film room, and we'll go over this whole list. So when I go through the point go out, I tell you how many points I need you to make, just you know, uh how many, you know, what I need you to do on defense. I'll give you your role right there. And you got to understand that I've been coaching you now for three, four years, some of them, you know, two years. So I know your character, I know what's gonna push you and what's not gonna push you. But at the end of the day, and I'm telling them right there, hey man, you can't be soft. You can't be a guy that turned the ball over when we having pressure, because that's what I've been seeing in practice. That's what I've seen in games. So I'm able to see different things that you need to be working on to make you a better player. And so, and then it comes back to right there, the NLC. And so when their mama or daddy's saying something, well, like so-and-so not getting the playing time, I say, well, I told him his role from day one. I showed him, you know, and this is what I need him to do right here. So if we want to talk about playing time, you know, that's what about playing time. But I guarantee you, I tell him all the time, hey man, if you if you're playing hard, you can probably get four minutes a quarter, you know what I'm saying? Because I want to go five and four or five and three. I want to rotate some guys in and out there as well. But if I can go five and five, I would. But I but I I love to go this each and every year. And that's one thing that I started over there at Coons, just to let each and every last player know their role and what they have to do. And so when it's game 26 and I can go back and sell them, man, hey man, you didn't you didn't block out backside. You know, that's what I told you at the beginning of the year. You need to be playing uh blocking out backside on the on the press. You need to be tipping from behind, you need to be playing defense. But that's what we tell everybody. You gotta play defense. If you can't play defense, you're not gonna play for us. I treat each and every last kids like that. They're my own because they are. You know, a lot of these people are, that's not your son. No, he he's my son, you know, that and that's how I feel about it. But he's my son because that's I treat all of them like my son. And so when I see them out of school after they graduate, hey man, you still my boy, and I still love you. I still want the best for you, and I was hard on you for a reason because I want you to be the best.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

If you have former players now coming to work for you, it sounds like you have that respect from your players. Um, so as the season moves on, do those roles change? And do you sit back down, you know, when district starts or when playoff starts? And do you revisit those things or or have you had a pretty steady, this is your role for the year kind of thing?

SPEAKER_01 21:05

This is your role for the year, though. I've been, like I said, I've just been blessed to be able to coach these kids and go over, but I've been able to see it because I've been with them since junior high, most of them, because I'm the athletic coordinator, so I'm in junior high at that athletics as well. So I'm able to see them grow up and what they can handle, or how they handle pressure, how they handle pressure from other teams that's playing against them, how they have pressure from their parents and stuff like that, you know, and how they can take constructive criticism because coaching, that's what we're doing. We're giving you constructive criticism to make you better, uh, and to be able to uh to win ball games. And at the end of the day, that's what I want them to do. I want them to win a championship. I want to be the best team in the state of Texas every year. And I tell those guys there when I wake up, that's my goal, that's my drive. You know, is to be on my mind about being the number one team in the state of Texas. And when you're not number one team in the state of Texas, it hurts me because that's just my competitive. Nature because I want to be the best team in the state of Texas each and every year.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

I didn't know you were a Charles Bright Up player. And so I want you to just hit on him for just a minute. As a young guy, I know him as the guy at the state tournament that always talks about the former teams. But obviously he's he's much more to that to a lot of people. So just talk about Dr. Bright Up for just a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Well, I tell, you know, everybody, you know, Dr. Brupp, he's one of those guys that took me on his wing over at uh at Horton Jefferson. You know, I was a football guy. I was one of the only guys that went straight football and basketball. All my other guys played football with me in junior high all the way up to about that 10th grade year, and then they just started going straight basketball. But he was able to, you know, let me still come over from basketball, from football to come over to basketball. And he believed in me, you know, and he kind of teased me now. He said, man, because uh we had a reunion game some years after that, and I came out there and I was just coming from college and I hit like 20-some point. He said, Man, if if I would have known that about you back then, Jube, I would have played you more and stuff like that. But you know, uh he was a he was just a like a father figure to me as well, you know, because I've had some truly some great coaches, but he's one of them, you know, that's always pushed me uh to be better. Uh, you know, we learn a lot from him because he used to write you notes, um, my high school coach and bat and football. That, you know, and then that's what I try to take over to now because of the things that I learned from Coach Bodduck and my other coaches, high school coaches and my college coaches, I take it and give it to my kids now. So I'm I'm able to write them these kids' notes. That means a lot when you can write a kid a note and show them how much you care for them. And you took time out of your year or your day to write them a note to let them have it, because that means a lot to kids. And so that's what I learned from Coach Boddup, uh, just the maturity of that and how each and every young man to go out there and be the best. And he's push us. He got onto us a lot in high school, but he only wanted the best for us, and that's what I appreciate about it. And I still tell him that right now. Anytime I need something, I know I can call him. He's always gonna answer me, and he's gonna be there for me.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

All right. Something I try to do is try to shout out coaches' families, coaches' wives. A lot of times there's there's early mornings, there's late nights, there's road trips, there's Christmas break tournaments where you're on the road. Sometimes you have to schedule uh, you know, family vacations around summer leagues and team camps and things like that. So just talk about you and your family and your wife and how y'all's work-life balance works and how you've been able to be married this long and raise two successful kids.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

Connie and I would be married, um, we got married May 24th, and so it's gonna be 29 years. Uh so she's been able to be behind me. Uh when things wouldn't good, you know, it's tough out there, we're not winning, or things going bad, and I'll come back and I'll take it at home uh and I'll let her know. And she's always kind of behind me to push me to make me better. But everything that we do, she's a competitor too. She's been a teacher, she's been an educator, she's been a principal. Right now, she works for Region 5 down here in Beaumont, where she goes around to different superintendents and principals and talking to them about their education and about their system and stuff. But our summertime, uh summer league that we do, she works at the concession stand, you know, uh she's running stuff, she's setting up stuff for summer league where we're going to different places. So in order to be successful, you gotta have a wife. You gotta uh have that person behind you that's able to be in the game and be able to support you. Uh, I don't have to, when when we go out of town, she's always there, you know. She takes care of the stats on the games and stuff like that. Uh, she takes care of the books, whatever I need, she's there each and every game, man. So I don't have to worry about that. And that that's good for you when you don't have to worry about that type of stuff right there. When you've got a family member, your wife behind you all the time, no matter what. And that's that's what makes it a plus. Because if you didn't have that behind you, man, it'd be kind of hard because we'll be spending so much time away from one another. But our summer, our summer break, it's around basketball. You know, we we it's about uh summer league, it's about AAU ball, it's about traveling. Even our Christmas break, uh, the tender hall tournament, each and every year. Well, she's she got to work around her schedule and her new schedule now to where she's off, where she can go to the tender hall tournament and stuff. So she's able to do that, and that's what makes it successful here, that we're able to work together and be on the same page because she loved winning just as much as I love winning, and she loved for the Koom's line to be great as well. So she's gonna push these kids too, and so she's gonna push them behind the scene and tell them, hey man, this is what y'all need to be doing. It comes with a little bit different from a mother, you know, and a mom. She saw Connor, her oldest son, he went through it, and so she saw what he went through when he played. And now her baby boy is a 10th grader. So now she's seeing it now. And we're kind of struggling right now. We kind of struggled this past year, but we just don't have the numbers like we've been having in the past. The buy-in with some of the kids that's there. So we're going through a little struggling time right now, but we know that anytime you stay somewhere that long uh at a small school, that can happen to you. So we have 305 kids, but the numbers they go up and down, man. So it's just tough. When you can stay around there and just go each and every year and you can have successful teams, you know it's truly a blessing. But we're just trying to get these guys better, trying to get these other kids better now, and just trying to get the drive in these kids because I don't think some of these kids right now that we have have that drive in order to get back to where we need to be. We just got to put in the work, and that's what we're gonna continue to try to do. But we're trying to build it back up to where we can be, to where we need to be in the next couple of years again. You you want what's best for the the kids, you want what's best for the community. I I think that's what's kind of, you know, it beats me in the head because I'm just like that. I uh I want to be at Koontz and I love Koontz, and I love the kids there, and I just drive over and over and over and I tell them, hey man, you just gotta continue to do what these other people did. But right now, you just don't have it, man. You don't have that drive and you don't have that dedication, and that's the tough part about it right now. But you gotta get the parents to understand that too. You know, that's another thing you talk about. You got to get those parents to understand that. I need to be driving these kids. He need to be working all summer long. He needs to be up there practice uh for summer league, he needs to be showing up. And right now, man, we're struggling. We get we're struggling with numbers, you know, on the JV level and the bore level. It's just gotta be all the way around with the parents, with the kids, with the community, with the administration, and everywhere and everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

Summers are are not meant for basketball anymore. They're meant for other things that these kids want to do, and and you can't fault them for it. You want them to be kids, but come November and March, there's a reason you're not where you're at. It's because you've just got to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

And I tell those kids all the time, you man, I want to be the last team standing. I want to be that team that teams go watch. I don't like to go watch other teams at the state tournament. I don't like to go watch teams at the Tenner Hall tournament playing in the championship game. It hurts me when I'm not in that championship game. You know, us and La Pen, I mean, I think La Pen just beat us this year here. I think we had like five wins or six wins, and he went over me this year and got the most. You know, that's something that I'm working back on and trying to get it again, but just to try to get my kids to understand that as well, because that's what I strive for each and every day. I I strive, and that's why I like to play teams like La Pen and 2A schools and one A schools that straight basketball. Because now I'm a good to I get to see good, fundamentally sound basketball. Teams that try to break the press all the time. And so when I carry it over to 3A ball, you know, hey man, we didn't seen this press break. We didn't seen those schools that straight basketball that do that uh day in and day out. And I know them type of schools, they do that. And that's why I went over there to the La Pan tournament and different things like that just to go see that.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

I appreciate you being on. Best of luck. Like I said at the start, the Koots lines are always a a program to watch out for, and and it shows uh that you're you're a guy that that is to be respected in the coaching community, and that's why I wanted to have you on here. Um so I do appreciate you being on here with me.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

It means a lot to me, like I said, you know, because you look around for the last 22 years that I've been there, you know, after the first year when we wanted, well, I had a parent talking about, you're gonna leave. So I said, No, I'm not gonna leave, you know, and I stuck around and I was still there. And, you know, and she seen me again. You still here, you still here. Yeah, because I'm here for these kids, I'm here for the community, I'm here. But you know, it just hurts you as a coach. You can understand as a coach when you just don't have that same buy-in uh from the kids, or you don't have the same buy-in from the community, or or different ones not pushing them from parents, not pushing them to be better, you know, and that's what hurts you. Or you have different coaches behind you that's trying to hurt your program. I believe in sharing kids, you know, at a small school, you gotta be able to do that. You gotta be able to share. But when it's basketball season, I need these guys dedicating on that. And now we're fortunate enough in the summertime where you can share them with, they can go do football, they can go do basketball, they can go do baseball and stuff like that. Uh, so you know, we have a lot of work to do, and I want that for all the kids here that I'm coaching to get to that next level.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

Yeah, well, I have no doubt you'll get it, you'll get it going back in the direction you've had it before. Um, there's there's no doubt in my mind. So, best of luck. Uh, like I said, I appreciate you being on the podcast, and uh, we'll stay in touch later on.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

If you need something my way, man, holler at me. Like I said, man, if there's anything I can do to help you out, just let me know, man. I'll do any any one of those coaches as well, man, because any guys that want to know the system and what we do, I'm always uh willing to teach them, show them things that we do and different drills that we do to make you successful.