Monty Patel Takes Over North Little Rock Boys Basketball | Varsity Vibe

Monty Patel has been around basketball in the state of Arkansas for a long time, and after finding success a eStem, he’s taking over a North Little Rock Charging Wildcats team excited to keep their rich tradition going. 

Patel joins Alyssa Orange to chat about NLR, coaching the Arkansas TBT team and what he’s learned coaching over the years.

Transcript

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In commercial real estate, every day counts whether you're developing, acquiring, or moving a project towards construction. We need accurate information and responsive services to keep things contract. Whatever you need to talk about, they have to start with the body. I'm your host, Alyssa Orton, thank you so much for joining us as we bring another great conversation with you, with coaches and athletes from around the state. And today we're headed down to North Little Rock. The boys basketball team has a new head coach, but he's not new necessarily to the program or really basketball in the state of Arkansas at all. Monty Patel spent some time as an assistant coach with the Charging Wildcats, but for the last few years, he's been the head coach over at East Dem. With an opportunity ahead, he said, why not? And now he gets to take North Little Rock into their next chapter of boys basketball. He's been around the game at a bunch of different levels from the summer league to high school to even coaching the Arkansas TBT team, where he got to be around former razorbacks, former pros, former guys who played internationally and soaking up all of the knowledge that they got to teach him as a coach. And now he's excited to pass all that along to this next generation of North Little Rock basketball players. So I hope you enjoyed this conversation with basketball head coach Monty Patel. Well, coach, first off, congratulations on getting the North Little Rock job. Um, and I want to definitely talk about uh the background history with basketball and your journey to North Little Rock. But it's been, you know, uh a couple weeks now, and so just kind of talk about the excitement that you're ready for this next step.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Oh, I'm I'm thrilled. I couldn't take a smile off my face. Really, it's been six days, and it feels like I've been here two months already. But I mean, just hit the ground running and getting ready to roll. So I'm excited. I've I've been having fun and just trying to make sure I get all the ducks in a row.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

The process, when you felt like you were ready, you were you're at East End for a few years to take that leap to go to North Little Rock. What was that process uh like for you personally? And then going through that interview process.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

I mean, truly, I wasn't sure that I was even gonna put in. I was honestly thinking, don't do it. It's it's it's not the time, or it's not gonna happen. And then the the really close people I'm to, they said, what do you have to lose? If they tell you no, they tell you no, and you're in a really good spot. You have a great job, anyways. And so I, you know, I talked to those people, I put in, and I just went through the interview process, and I'm literally on the runway between Atlanta to Richmond, Virginia, and I find out that I've got the job. And yeah, I didn't know any better. And I was just like, okay, I'm in, and what now? And so he started, you know, telling me the things he needed really quick. And then I just look at my phone and there's water on my phone, and I realize I'm like teared up crying, just emotional. And I was just like, like, did I did I really just make this? Did this really happen, or am I just dreaming? So the process was fun. It was just getting prep prepared for the interview and just going through it and just seeing what happened.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Yeah. I mean, I North Little Rock, great history when it comes to basketball. A lot of talent has come through that program, as we know most recently, you know, with Nick Smith Jr. and such. Uh, but what was it that's so attractive to you now as the head coach that you really feel where this program can take its next steps?

SPEAKER_01 5:25

You know, when I think North Little Rock basketball, I've always thought Johnny Rice, and he was my head coach when I was there as the assistant. And there was always just a pullback to come visit, come see everybody there, come to the games. And so I'd always just checked in with him. And then when he retired, Coach Claiborne took over. Him and I had been really good friends. So I started visiting with him and just going, you know, going back watching games. So there's always just been a pullback. I I don't know what it is, but the place is so special. And there's it's a very it's a lot more family feel than people realize, even though it's like a very big place. And there's still so many coaches and teachers and people that I've just you know respected over a long time that I've still kept in touch with. So I mean, even when I got the job, it was so many people that are like, welcome back. We're so happy to see you. And I'm like, hey, you still work there, like you're still there. That's awesome. But that's what a special place it really is.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Yeah, yeah. What are you what were the first couple things you had to do?

SPEAKER_01 6:26

I mean, first, you know, Coach Ballon called me, and you know, he's the one who offered me the job. And then I said, okay, I had to wait till the board meeting just to make sure everything was kosher. And then after that, it was call and give a lot of thanks to people that have helped me along the way. Call and see if I can get a hold of our new sta or my new staff that I was inheriting. Call the football coach, call the girls' basketball coach, call the volleyball coach. Uh somewhere in between there, call my wife, call my parents. I didn't know that wasn't going on. Call my parent, like my my mom and dad-in-law. And so it was just, it was going so quick. But, you know, and then once it got announced, and uh, you know, Nick Winger is very well respected in our state. Once he announced it, my my phone back, my phone was overheating. There's so many calls, there's so many texts, and I'm I finally put on do not disturb just so I can get through what I needed to while trying to still just be me. I try never to, you know, not message someone back or not, you know, reach back out to somebody. So it'd just been playing catch-up from that point. And so today is finally the first day where I feel like, okay, I've gotten a lot accomplished in six days, but then I also looked and I've probably only slept 16 hours in the last four, and I've skipped many of meals just trying to get caught up and and get to know the parents and then reaching out to them and their kids and just telling them how excited I was. And I just wanted them to give me a chance.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Yeah. What did you learn about yourself as a coach and your years at East M that you're now ready to bring to Northland Rock?

SPEAKER_01 7:57

I mean, and I'm still learning it, but a lot of humility, a lot of humbleness, you you know, you have to figure it out. We as coaches just a lot of us have egos, and and I'm not saying I didn't, but you know, being humble and and just being able to grow. Uh, I thought I had it all figured out when I got the head coaching job because I'd already done TBT for two years, thinking, you know, this is high school kids, we can win. And then we get slammed early, and you're you're like, it's a rebuild, you have to rebuild and and you have to stay very steady instead of playing the highs and lows of a winning and losing a season. And so finally we broke through and we won for a season, and then we won another season, and we knew we were just on the verge of doing something really special, but it was really just how to build a program. And you know, Coach Joyner had had really taught me accountability for the kids and never giving up on the kid, but always being hard on him. And Coach Rice had really, really taught me just how to manage a program. And I try to take a lot of the things he taught me into what we did in the East Tem along with the other guys that had taught me stuff. Coach Clayboard gave me ownership in a program when we were at Mary and so it was really fun to put all the aspects of what they taught me into the program.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

You talked about coaching uh the TBT, which is uh where I've, you know, kind of got to know you and your style a little bit, following along with a lot of the former Razorbacks who are on that TBT team. Uh, what was that experience like? Because I feel like it's so different and it's literally so compacted to a very short window of time uh that it's definitely full of learning curves. Talk about that experience in those two years.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

I mean, the NCAA tournament ends, and I get the call that, hey, do you want to be the head coach? And I wasn't even looking for this call, and like I didn't even know this was an option, and I thought it was a prank and just a friend that just was messing with then. I was like, Yeah, sure, I'm in. And next thing you know, you're coaching it. And then you just figure out basketball is very simple. We make it complicated as coaches sometimes. How can I keep it simple? How can I get along with the players? How can I help put them in the best spot? And a lot of the things the players taught me, players taught me more than I than anything was I can do it. I need to be confident, I need to trust myself. And you know, like like Jalen Barf had a really good conversation for the years he was with us, and he was like, Coach, like you're good at this, like be confident in yourself because he could tell at times. I I'd be walking on eggshells just wondering, like, how am I coaching this team? How did this even happen? And next thing you know, you're doing this for four years. So you you learn a lot about just yourself and how you're gonna prepare and kind of how you're gonna prepare when you're really scared out of your mind that you're about to coach razorbacks on television, on ESPN, and at some point, just you know, the the ego of yourself is am I gonna get embarrassed on national television? And and I thought we put on a good product and a good show for the amount of money that we were able to raise to to really put it together. So there were many different things I just figured out throughout the way and it shaped me to just continue to be good.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Yeah, I'm sure in the moment it's it's hard to realize, even though you mentioned, like, how am I even here coaching some of these razorbacks that I got to watch on TV play as a race back or even as a professional? Um, but now looking back, that opportunity that barely anybody gets to have to be around that many good basketball players in a gym. You know, what did you take away the most from that? You talk about confidence, but about the game itself.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

I mean, the game itself is the players, the players want to be coached. That was the coolest thing of it all. No one, none of the players ever spoke to me by my first name. And some of them are older, some of them are younger. And they said, coach, and they want to be coached and they wanted to be held accountable. And when when we had to have some harder conversations throughout some of the games or practices, they responded so well for what we needed as a team and what our vision was. And so it just taught me as I like started coaching high school kids again, like, y'all haven't done what these guys have done yet. And those guys respond very well. So trust this process and just continue to understand that I'm trying to get you to what those guys are. Those guys are successful, they've been in the NBA, they've had their chance, they've been overseas, they've had their chance to just keep leveling up, leveling up, leveling up. And you can do the same, but the work doesn't change. And so those guys taught me that, and it taught me to just really pour into our guys instead of constant. It I I learned a lot, and and those guys learned a lot, and it and it took me to just allowing like allowing myself to give the kids the confidence and the freedom that it takes to really play the game and keeping it as simple as possible for those guys to allow them to succeed.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

You've been around this game for a really long time, specifically in this state. How have you seen the game and the players and the talent evolve over the years? And just in terms of the talent that Arkansas has kind of being like a hotbed that coaches want to come in and recruit from on a collegiate level.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

We have really good coaches in our state. I don't I don't know that people realize that until they actually come into our state to recruit, but we have really knowledgeable coaches that give our players so many tools, and then there's platforms in the state that are allowing the kids to be seen nationally. And I mean, it just it just being that big of a hotbed and kids being willing to learn, and a lot of coaches just not bucking from their standard have made this state really fun. I mean, people know who North Witter Rock is, people know who many of the programs in our state are because the players are great, but the coaches hold them accountable to a standard that it has put us more on a map. I mean, you look, even at the just the history of North Witter Rock, you have Koelware, you have Nick Smith, you have Moses Moody, you have Colin Moore, DJ Smith, Kayvon Allen, Anton Beer. And the list just doesn't stop. And and continuously, those guys, I mean, Coach Rice taught me coach those kids. Who cares about anything else? Coach those kids. If they're here, they're here. If they're not, they're not. You coach it. And so I think just I give credit to a lot of people for helping the stage just continue to have a bigger platform.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

What was it that drove you to want to be a coach?

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Really and honestly, I felt I didn't get what I was looking for as a player. I I think our team, my teammates would probably tell you the same. We we needed, you know, I guess the the right word would be like stability and we needed organization. And we just felt we didn't have that. And then when I was doing this in Pee-Wee, I was coaching a Pee-We team. Our community member asked us to, and kid asked me for help on his homework. He made a C on a test, was the happiest, happiest kid alive, and it made me feel really good. And I got to college and random fact of just the questionnaire and my major was physical education, and they had me down for a coach because I didn't really declare. They're like, ah, this seems good. And so I was like, you know what, that is truly what I do want to do. And had a lot of hard conversations with my parents about, you know, they want to be the pharmacist, they want me to be a lawyer. And I'm like, that's I I enjoy that. I would enjoy one of those, but I'm a coach, I feel like that, and the money will come at some point, and you hope you're compensated well enough for it. But I just hope I'm fulfilled by the time I I leave here, you know. So just just kind of kind of just happened and also just worked itself out.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Some of your favorite memories, I'm sure. I mean, you've traveled a lot, you're traveling now uh on the summer circuit. Uh the the time spent with the teams and players away from the court, as you mentioned, is sometimes more valuable and just as valuable as the time on the court.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

I think we I think what I hate is when people weaponize kids for an agenda. And it's more about like watching kids just grow and then come back and be like, hey, coach, this is my wife, this is my son, this is my daughter, I've got a business now, I've got my barber's license, whatever it may be. I had a former player reach out to me and was like, Coach, I've been doing so well. I've got this business going, I'm excited, you've been so impactful. And and you know, he's texting me because he knows that I got this new job and he played for me before in high school, and I'm just like thankful. And I'm just like, this is what it's about. The scholarships are great. You get to save money, you get to go hoop, you get to go to so many fun games. But the fulfillment comes from just the kids' lives and and hoping you changed it in even uh a half a percent. And I think that's what's always going to be special to me in this. And obviously, you want to be competitive and you want to win, but at the same time, the most important thing is the relationships, and that that that is what will always be valuable too.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Yeah, yeah. You talked about just being about six days in or so as as we sit here and talk. You think maybe is it gonna sink in the first time you step on that court to coach a team in a game that may actually be the head coach in North Little Rock?

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Honestly, I think so because I've been waiting for it to sink in, but I've been ripping and running, just trying to get everything done that needs to be done. I I've got to order practice jerseys. We're talking about getting new game jerseys. Um, we got to get the office organized. I'd ask like there's a TV, a new one we were looking at putting in. And so it just hasn't stopped. And I my assumption is that first game, I mean, we have North Side and a Benefit game coming to our place. Then we go to part view, and I don't know which one of those games it's really gonna set in. And as soon as it sets in, I think I just get chills. I'll get like I remember the first game at East End. We had played it at the Painburn Classic, it's on the road, and as soon as it tipped, I just had chills going through me, and I was like, this is going to be so much fun. And so I don't know when it's gonna set in. I hope it sets in soon, so I can just get past that initial shot. But I think when there's just so many things to do, I'm just trying to get to the next task, the next task, and the next task.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Yeah. Well, I don't have to tell you, there are a lot of people excited to see you take over and see what you do with the program. We appreciate the time, coach. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Thank you so much for joining us in this conversation on varsity vibe. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. And remember, if you've missed any conversations that we've had here on the podcast, just go back and listen to them right here on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. Such great conversations with coaches and athletes across the state of Arkansas. Also, always want to encourage you to follow us along on our social media platforms that is Instagram, X, TikTok, and Facebook. And while you're at it, sign up for the newsletter at varsityvibearkansal.com that comes to your inbox twice a week. Everything you need to know to keep you in the know with high school sports around the state. Once again, I'm your host, Alyssa Orange. Thank you so much for joining us, and we'll see you next time.

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