The Coaching Tree: Bull & Markey

Garrett Bull ('08) and Nathan Markey ('20) kick of Season Five of the show, fresh off being named PIAA 5A Coaching Staff of the Year at West York. Tom, Biz, and Coach Curley dig into two eras of Juniata basketball, an all-time starting five draft, a Brian Cannon story, and a new production partner. Two branches, one coaching tree.

Transcript

Season Five Kicks Off

SPEAKER_03 0:00

This is Americ Studios Podcast. This week on the Juni Adam Men's Basketball Show.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

If I could change one thing about my career, it's the amount of time I spend in the gym outside of practice hours and continuing to develop your game and continuing to do all the right things to work on your game as an individual so that when you come into practice, you've gained extra skills and you can be more ready to go on top of what you're already doing in practice.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

I'm Tom Frank. I'm Biz. I'm head coach Greg Curly. And this is your Junior Adam Men's Basketball Show. Welcome, listeners. I am Tom Frank. I'm joined each and every week by Drew Beskitt, aka Biz, and your Junior Adam head basketball coach, Greg Curly. We talk whole things. Junior Adam Men's basketball. All right, fellas, we are officially. I feel like this is the episode where we start. This is the official opening of the fifth year as the Junior Adam Men's Basketball Show. What do you guys think of that? Total, totally agree. And we should make it known for listeners that our our our our our guy Biz is hurting a little bit today. He gotta play hurt, man. He's lost his voice, but he's gonna he's toughen it out because we had two we have two stellar guests, and he said, I'm doing it no matter what.

SPEAKER_04 1:18

So all we hear about on this show is guys playing hurt with broken limbs and stuff. So a little voice ain't gonna keep me down here.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

You're trying to teach a lesson right now? Is that what you're doing? That's right, perseverance. All right, I like it. I like it. Words of wisdom. Coach, how are we feeling?

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Three months away from first official practice, although we get the extra days now. So it's starting to turn the corner here. And uh we've got our last AAU live weekend coming up. So uh summer recruiting is kind of winding down and uh starting to see the whites of their eyes, if you know what I mean. So getting excited.

The AAU Grind: Summer Recruiting

SPEAKER_03 1:53

Let me ask you this question. If you can generalize this uh the the the AAU kids that you're seeing now, are they better, worse, or completely different than the guys from 10 years ago?

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Uh I mean it depends what adventure you're at and what games you're watching. Uh it's a little more watered down now. I mean, there's more more events. There used to be probably the same number of teams, but but probably concentrated more at one or two events, you know. Like we were just at Summer Jam Fest at Spinky Nook. There's two made uh hoops events going on at the exact same time. There's an event in Atlantic City. And you know, when I started this, it was Hoop Group uh Summer Jam Fest at University, uh, West Virginia University, and that was kind of it for the big one in the summer. So there's a lot more. I think there's more AAU teams, probably too. But you know, I there's still a lot of good players, and I don't I don't know if it's changed that much. You know, it's it's also just knowing where to look and do those kind of things. But it's exciting. I mean, you keep watching these guys and start seeing the possibilities and start to develop relationships with guys, and uh it's the thing that keeps you going with this deal and this business is is the next one, the next group, the next guys, and uh the possibilities. So I'm excited about it.

SPEAKER_03 3:08

So all I heard was these guys are just all watered down that you're looking at right now.

SPEAKER_04 3:12

Wow, man, don't generalize this program, but come on.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

All right. No, I know what you're saying. I know what you're saying.

SPEAKER_04 3:22

All right. Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna jump in here and play. I got a limp, but I'm in. So now, how many times do you go to these tournaments and discover guys that weren't on your radar? Is that common or are you just going to focus?

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Well, it depends what time of year it is. I mean, generally spring, uh, we try to identify guys, then we follow them through the summer. And as we're following guys through the summer, we see some teams we haven't seen before or guys were out come back and play. And so we'll add to it. So it's probably a pretty healthy mix right now. You know, going into this last tournament, we're we're going back to see some guys that we've seen before. Uh, but again, if they start if they play a couple teams from areas that we think we could pull from or even maybe not, and and they catch our eye, then we'll add them to the list. Um, so it's a little bit of a mix. But we're a little later in the process now, so hopefully we have a decent idea of who we're really targeting and where we want to go with that. And uh and so we'll really kind of zero on out in on them, but they're gonna play different teams, and that creates other opportunities.

SPEAKER_03 4:20

So have you ever have you ever gotten a kid from one of these events that you did go in there with no knowledge of, and you're like, man, this kid can play, and then all of a sudden started following them throughout the year?

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Yeah, yeah, it happens all the time. So, I mean, the thing about recruiting is you just have to be recruited. You have to be out, you have to be around, you have to be talking to people, and and uh a lot of times who we think our list is now could change a lot in the next two or three months, but that's kind of how you work through the process, and it might lead us to somebody else or something else. So it really rarely kind of holds completely from the beginning, and you start to get so we're not the only ones doing this now, and there's a trickle down from the levels, you know. The scholarship schools kind of set the level on who they want, where guys are, um, and then it kind of cascades down, which creates where we are. Now, part of this is hopefully we're not wasting our time identifying the wrong guys, we're getting guys in the right academic fits, but part of it also we'll sit and talk to other coaches. I mean, who are you looking at from different levels so we get kind of an idea of where guys sit. You have to go to a few tournaments sometimes because you know, when really, really good teams uh play each other, it sort of dumbs down the level and and you may misevaluate guys, you may think either not as good or better than what they what they are. You need to see them play a few times at different settings so that you can actually get an accurate uh evaluation. Because if it's super good competition, you know that guy may be a scholarship guy and he's not aware he's out there because they they kind of negate each other, or vice versa. You're at a bad tournament, the guy looks great, you gotta go see him against better guys. So seeing him in high school live periods and in IAU live periods, you try to see both to try to get a comparison. Likewise, like the high school stuff, you see guys in completely different roles, usually the main guy was a little more cohesion. You may get a better sense of how you would use them or how they react in those six segments, and then you know, we have you know, we hopefully know something about most programs or or who they're being coached by and how that translates. So, I mean it's just an ongoing process. It's part of the fun part about it, and uh seeing where it goes. I like it.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

Yes, sir.

A New Production Partner

SPEAKER_03 6:21

All right, we gotta start the season with a a question. I feel like this one was a little bit like you guys that you guys know this guy. He sent in a question. His name's Greg A. I'll leave it at that. Greg A. Boy, and he said, guys, anything up your sleeves for season five. I can answer that.

SPEAKER_04 6:38

I mean, you're you're the uh executive producer, director, and host of the show.

SPEAKER_03 6:43

So hey, we we're gonna make a quick announcement here, guys. This is the first time ever said we have a new production partner. We have a production partner. 1683 Media is in conjunction now with Merrick Studios. There's gonna be a lot more to come about that, so stay tuned. Ooh, this is big. And from what I heard, there is an educational book on how other sports programs might be able to do something that we've done here that could be in the works. So there's a lot to come. And a lot to outstanding in season five of the Junietta men's basketball show.

SPEAKER_04 7:19

I mean, uh, should have been 16, 8, 5, 1, but we'll we'll go with we'll we'll we'll we'll we'll we'll give the backstory of that as we continue to go throughout the season. It's a very interesting backstory. It's a very interesting

Coaching Staff of the Year: Bull & Markey Arrive

SPEAKER_04 7:29

one.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

We should kick it off with the with the PIAA boys basketball coaching staff of the year. That's what I think we should kick it off with. That is what we're gonna kick it off.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

We got we got basketball alumni in the house. We got Mr. Garrett Bull, class of 2008, and Mr. Nathan Markey, class of 2020. Garrett currently teaches in the Red Lion School District where he lives with his wife, Jennifer, also a 2008 Junietta graduate, and their three children, daughter Audrey, who is seven years old, son Lawson, who is five years old, and son Beckett, who is two years old. Nathan is an elementary school teacher in the West York school district where he resides with his wife. Is it Marianna? Am I saying that right?

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Marlena.

SPEAKER_03 8:13

Marlena? All right. All right. I want to get things right.

SPEAKER_04 8:16

I mean, that's par for the course.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

That's part for the course. Okay. So Garrett is currently the head boys' varsity basketball coach at West York High School, where Nathan serves as a varsity assistant this past season. Garrett and Nathan and the rest of their staff were named the PIAA 5A State Boys Basketball Coaching Staff of the Year. Holy crape. That's a big deal, fellas. That's a big deal. Their team finished the season with a 29-3 record, won the District 3-5-A championship, and advanced to the Pennsylvania State Championship game against Bonner Pendergast. In the past five years, their program also won five straight division titles, earning a YA. What is this? A YAIAA? Could we have any more initials? League County Championship and advance to the Pennsylvania Elite Eight in 24-25 season. Do we not have a championship yet, though? A state championship?

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Well, we lost we lost the state championship game this year.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

All right, we're gonna get into that. During their time at Junietta, Garrett and Nathan helped Juniatt advance to three conference finals and earned three ECAC bids in 2007, 2008, and 2018. Let's welcome our reigning PIWA coaches of the year, Garrett and Nathan. How are you guys doing? Wow, we got royalty on this.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

We do have royalty. Great, excited to be here. Good to see you all right.

SPEAKER_04 9:40

And now we got two that might be at the top. Curly's got a better coaching tree than Mike Tomlin does. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

Remember, Shawley was the was a 6A PIAA boys basketball coaching staff of the year also at State College a few years ago. That's right. I forget in Pennsylvania we had now have three guys that share that title, which is really pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

That is pretty remarkable.

SPEAKER_04 10:04

Do we have any do we have any other the A's?

SPEAKER_03 10:07

Can we get some other coaches? Yeah, can we get a whole tree of 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A? How many We need a sweep? How far does it go in Pennsylvania? The 6A in? One to six. All right. Well, guys, congratulations. That's a pretty amazing honor.

Why Juniata? Two Recruiting Stories

SPEAKER_03 10:22

Thank you. So, guys, let's let we gotta start at the beginning here. Why in the world did either one of you come to Juniata to play for this guy?

SPEAKER_01 10:31

I'll let you do all four. Yeah, I'm older, so I'll go first. That's a great question. Uh my my journey has actually started more with football. You know, coach knows this. I played football and and they they kind of started recruiting me, but I didn't really want to play football anymore. I just kind of used this used the recruiting trip for football to get to meet the basketball coach. Although you do have a great last name for football. Yeah, what position did you play in football? Center and defensive tackle, and then like a shooting guard in basketball.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

So that is an interesting combination right there.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

We had a spot and an opportunity for him, and uh long story short, he became Brian Cannon's roommate. So history. We have to we have to name drop Cannon on this episode, or we all get in trouble. And you you stayed for the whole time too.

SPEAKER_04 11:34

He didn't drive you out.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

I can't we we stayed together for four years. I got some great stories. I don't know if they're podcast appropriate or not, but oh you're gonna have regulatory stories, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

So four years you had the room with that guy.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Yeah. It was good, it was a good time. He's a great dude. Ryan is a great dude.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

All right, you gotta tell us your your yeah, how did you get the junior?

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah, so mine's a little different. It was when I was a junior in high school playing summer AAU, I remember getting some email from Coach Hager at the time. And before my senior year fall is when he took the job at Bethany and left. And it was when Shali came back to be Coach Curley's assistant for the first year he was back, and things kind of went cold like recruiting-wise with the turnover, and I didn't really hear anything, and then I was like, I remember hearing from Junior, I was checking out some different campuses, so I kind of came up, reached out to coach, came up kind of on a whim just to see what it was like, ended up falling in love with it, loving the team. Uh guys play a little pickup with them, had a really good time, and things kind of fell into place from there, and ended up coming up and stayed all four years, and it was awesome. I loved it.

SPEAKER_03 12:45

What schools for both of you guys did it come down to between that you that you had to like choose between what and junior?

SPEAKER_01 12:53

For me, Dickinson, I was l I looked at a little bit. For football or for basketball? Kind of both too, but yeah, I was you know, I I might I'm similar to Nate. When I got on campus and came, I came back for an overnight visit uh and stayed with actually with Nick Hager and and Chris Jazz Iota and got to play pickup with the guy. It's just everything clicked and felt right. And I did the same at Dickinson and it it didn't feel right. Uh I so I tell my players all the time, I was like, you know, visit a couple schools, but if you narrow it down, you know, do an overnight, get to meet the players, and and then you'll have you'll it'll it'll click for you, it'll feel right. You know.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Then I guess. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. I came down to kind of Messiah and Junietta were my two, and I remember I never did an overnight at Messiah, but I remember going up there and playing pickup with the guys a couple times, and it was kind of the same thing Garrett said. Like just never really felt right, and I came up once to Junietta and it fell into place.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

You guys are from two very different eras. I mean, uh first when Curly said you he was putting you both on, I assumed you guys were in the same era, but you you have ten years between you guys, and that both very good classes. Tell us a little bit, let's

Two Eras: The '07-'08 & 2018 Teams

SPEAKER_03 14:05

start with the 2007-2008 teams. Like, tell me a little bit about those teams, who your who your teammates were, what what kind of uh, you know, what your records were, that kind of stuff, what success you had.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Our first two years, we were we was curly was it was yo early, you know. We were still struggling. And our junior year, we were struggling at the beginning of the year, and I guess it was probably sometime after Christmas when things started to turn around and the team got hot and and made a run in in playoffs and made the championship game. And um, then my senior year, I think things were kind of we were pretty good most of the year long. You know, made a run back to the conference championship game again. But like I said, Nick Hager was a year ahead of me, Chris Jazz Yoda, but in my class would have been like Brian Cannon, Kyle Wopitz, Brent Furco. Oh wow, all these guys.

SPEAKER_03 14:54

And so you played for back-to-back conference championships.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Yeah, and then we it was when it switched, so we were in the in the Mac up until my senior year. So then my senior year was the first year of the landmark.

SPEAKER_03 15:07

Oh wow. Oh, you were in that transition, okay. Was that the last time that we that Juniata was in back-to-back conference championships?

SPEAKER_02 15:15

I think 13-14 was like Raymond. Yeah, Raymond 2013 and 14, but that was uh Alex Raymond and Nate Higgins and 14, and the year before was Dan Sikolsky and Austin Higgins, seniors and those groups.

SPEAKER_03 15:31

But Bull era could have arguably been one of the one of the better ones of in your history.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

It was, I mean, Garrett was right at the beginning of this. I mean, they yeah, this thing, uh, I mean, the guys ahead of him, like Tom and Connell and those guys when he came in. I mean, that was the first winning season since 1988-89, first back-to-back winning seasons uh in over 25 years. Uh it was the first time we ever won a conference playoff game in the history of school. Uh, we did that two years ago, first time in in conference finals, first guy in the postseason. He was an integral part of that. Uh matter of fact, we don't go to the second championship. Garrett had one of those nights when we played Susquehanna in the first round of the playoffs on the road. I don't know, what did you have? 22 or something like that, Garrett, but Nick just came out. Yeah, he was in the zone, let's put it that way. We kept running the same action to him over and over again and kind of gave us separation that first half and allowed us to get there back to back. So he was a big part of all that with those guys. The guys you mentioned are kind of the guys that first got us into this situation and gave us that opportunity. And then Nathan's team, he'll he can talk to you about his group, but he was part of that 2018 team, was the first team to be ever ever been nationally ranked. It's win 23 games, so the score records was those kinds of so these guys, and there's no there's no uh coincidence, whatever program they touch, they're winning. So they they do well. So those guys bring up.

SPEAKER_04 16:52

No doubt. The groundwork was laid, man.

SPEAKER_03 16:54

That's cool. So Marky, tell us a little bit about your team. He's kind of told us a little here.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Yeah, so uh freshman year, uh it was kind of fun to watch the transition a little bit. Freshman year, the group we had, we definitely had talent, but for whatever reason I remember we we had some games where we looked really good, and then for whatever reason, we just didn't quite gel the way that kind of the locker room thought we should that year. And then the next season we just came out like a house on fire. And I remember we won, what was it, Coach 12 straight games to start the season, beat Randolph Macon in our Christmas tournament, who I want to say was ranked in like the top 15 at the time. And I just remember that season being so much fun. Um winning the first regular season title in school history, I want to say, and then making the conference championship game, losing a heartbreaker at the end. But that that season was just such a blast. It was so much fun, and playing with guys like Seth Brewer, who I really looked up to being a couple years behind him just for his toughness, his mentality going into practice, going in games, and Marcus Lee, who I don't know, Bull and I from time to time talk between him and Cannon, who gives each other a run for one of the better player in school history. But yeah, Marcus was unreal to play with. Uh Damon Rickens was in that class as a senior. Uh Will Peralta, Brandon Martinazzi, Paul Martello, a lot of those guys were a year or two ahead of me. But yeah, that was a really fun group to play with.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

He's basically going down my roster for the alumni game, Bez. I didn't know if you noticed that. Yeah, I hear I hear. Yeah. Don't worry. I'm coming back after you. I feel like I if Marky comes back, I automatically get him.

SPEAKER_04 18:28

That's no, that's not happening. That's how it works. That's a different show.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

That's not cool scheduling games away from the alumni game. That's the problem with coaches, right? Yeah, yeah. You guys gotta get on that.

SPEAKER_03 18:39

Yeah, we're never gonna get these guys. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

We were back, what was it, Nate, two, three years ago we came up? Because we didn't have a game, but the last two Saturdays we've had games the same day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Yeah, I think we drove up together two or three years ago. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_03 18:53

Work that schedule out this year. Yeah, we're gonna have to work it out. We'll coordinate with you guys. All right, so you gotta give us some stories. You gotta give us some good

Coach Curley Stories: Cannon & the Film Session

SPEAKER_03 19:00

stories of your roommates, of your teammates, of this guy as a coach. Like what you give us something good here. Bull, you got you have to have some. I mean, he's he's dripping stories.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

You want stories on Curly or or I'll take it?

SPEAKER_03 19:12

I'll take the the the best, the best. Coach Curly story.

SPEAKER_04 19:16

Let's let's do the best Coach Curly story first. Okay, there we go.

SPEAKER_03 19:19

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

And remember, we're not regulated, so you can say, you know, I always tell Nathan he got lucky. Curly seems to be a lot nicer than what I'm, you know, and easier on him than what I think. Um we all I I just heard the nightmare story like from the guys ahead of me when I came in, is you know, they scrimmaged Gay Udet uh the year before, and I guess got their tails handed to them and drove home from DC, got back, and went in the gym and practiced for like three hours after the scrimmage on a Saturday night. So that's all my class ever heard about. Was like, you know, no matter what's going on now, he's he's a little bit easier or nicer than the year before. So I didn't experience that, but that's a vivid story in my mind because I didn't want that to happen. Yeah, he scared straight. That's right. Maybe it worked.

SPEAKER_04 20:13

All right. Do you have I mean you said you would lead can't canon stories out the wazoo?

SPEAKER_03 20:17

What yeah, we guess we'd like to go after Canon a little bit. So yeah, let's let's let's hear it.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

I'll say I'll save you know the the non-PG ones for after the podcast, but I'll give you one is our freshman year. We were uh we were sitting just in our dorm, and we were probably two months into school, and there was a class that every freshman had to take. It was called I think it was called uh IA or AI, like it was like information. It's the easiest class in the world. It meets once a week, and it's like keyboarding and computer stuff, right? Everybody's gotta do it. Uh and I get up on, I don't know, Thursday at three o'clock and start to hit out the door, throw my book bag on, and Canon turns around from playing his video game and looks at me and he's like, Where the hell are you going? And I'm going to go, I'm going to information access. Is that what it was called, Coach? I and his face goes ghostly white because he's realized now he has forgotten to go to this class for the last seven or eight weeks in a row.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

Hold on now. This was a one-credit elective. You could do a lot of the work out of the classroom. This isn't one on the uh radar of the coaching staff. This makes me you just have to turn everything in.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

So it's supposed to be an an A minus at worst, maybe a B plus, you know, and he forgot to go for seven or eight weeks and uh I think pulled off a C minus or something in the class, and like it was supposed to be the easiest class, you know, your freshman year. I like that.

SPEAKER_04 21:49

That's good.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

Yeah. Marky, you gotta have some good stories about Coach Curly.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

So I'll I don't even know if Coach knows this one, so I'll get I'll give you guys this one. But this was a sophomore year story. We had gone to Drew that year. They were really good. I want to say we beat them at home later in the season. It was our trip to Drew, four and a half hours or whatever. And we end up losing. I want to say it was like a buzzer beater or something, if I remember correctly. And we get back from that game thinking, like, okay, it's a good conference opponent. We played pretty well, lost on a heartbreaker. And I remember guys were just, it was like the last weekend of winter break. We had the next day off, so a lot of guys were like, all right, we're just going to go home for the night. So a ton of us end up going, just driving back to our family's house to stay in the night. And the next morning, I want to say there was like seven of us on a text from Coach Curly. And we had gotten home probably after midnight that night. Film 10 o'clock in the locker room on a Sunday morning or something like that. And all of us have driven an hour, two hours, three hours back home. We're like, oh boy, how are we going to get back to campus to go watch film? And I remember getting back to the campus, and we it was a pretty, pretty good film session from Coach. Let's just say that. And then we routed off a couple wins after that, got us back to where we need to be. But that was a pretty good one.

SPEAKER_03 23:10

Coach, what are we doing here?

SPEAKER_02 23:11

The guys have winter break, they have their last weekend. It's winter break. So again, winter break, the the idea is that guys are commuting going back and forth. So this is a little different circumstance than the normal time. So as I tell guys, and they know it winter break, schedules change and and it's up to us. We also give guys days off they don't expect, uh, but obviously adding if we just drove to New Jersey and guys are driving three hours home, that doesn't actually help with uh rest recovery and the things we're trying to to meet. So that was that I I I remember losing that game. I I don't remember the film session, but it's it's a definite possibility. And as Marky said, it seemed to pay off. So sometimes you get what you gotta do.

SPEAKER_04 23:54

Now, Coach, the question is, did you know they all went home? No. Is that why you know? All right. I didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

He may have learned that tonight bring them back to campus. It wouldn't have been something I would have expected with that, especially when we get back so late, you just figure you send them a text and bring them in in the morning because they all went to bed. But college students will be college students at times, and then we'll run out of here. So that that stuff happens.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

All right, so we got to talk about your coaching here. We're gonna get back

Coaching Together at West York

SPEAKER_03 24:20

to Juni at a minute, but so you guys are 10 years apart. How did you guys end up coaching together? Like what's the what's the what's the what's the coaching story there?

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Well, I was actually gonna say earlier, I've known Nathan for a long time. So he's from York, I'm from the York area. He used to come to a summer workout that I was part of when I was kind of first starting to coach. So I've known got to know him and his family. So when he was actually kind of thinking about going to Juniata, I was kind of on the side going, yeah, I think that'd be a good fit. You know, that that that was a good fit for you. And then when he finished coaching, he he was looking for an elementary teacher job, and you know, he didn't go to West York, but uh West York's close to where he was from, and he applied, and we were actually playing pickup one day, and I said to him, All right, if you if you get the job, you're now my JV coach too. And he's like, Okay, and I think it was two days later he texted me or something. He's like, I got the job. I'm like, All right, I got a new JV coach because I needed one at the time. Yeah. So we've been together ever since, and uh how many years have you been together now?

SPEAKER_00 25:24

This is going on event seven? I want to say because I would have started in COVID year was my JV the basketball with mass psalm is my first year coaching JV. Oh god. Yeah, we had to do that a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 25:36

So are you still coaching JV or are you guys just are you both on varsity? Coach just coaching varsity at this point?

SPEAKER_00 25:42

Just varsity. Uh I want to say, how many years do you think I coached JV Bull? Was it three years before I made the switch to just come up with a something like that?

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Yeah, when he coached JV, we practiced we practiced together, and he's giving me all the input he thinks for varsity, anyways. Just over time, he was kind of like, I'd rather be, we had a paid varsity open, I'd rather be just that than the JV. So, you know, it's kind of worked out that he can, you know, devote even more time to help me with varsity. Any of your offensive defensive philosophy come from your days at Juniana? I mean, there's definitely drills and principles and things we will do that I I remember and learning and and even as simple as like how to set a screen properly, you know. And sometimes I talk to my guys about that. I'm like, man, I sound like I sound like Curly right now.

SPEAKER_05 26:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

You know, we run motion offense. You know, I know Curly's motion has changed a little bit over time since when I was there, but there are principles uh we like to try to incorporate some some back screens, and I remember setting a lot of back screens for coach uh back in the day. Um certainly defensively, I think there's probably some principles. Uh Nate, it's probably you know, I get mixed up sometimes in my head of of what comes from my high school playing days and what comes from my college playing days and my coach because they're both were running motion offense and playing 95% man-to-man defense, which I think is has been beneficial for me as a coach to develop and get better at too.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

So, as as coaches, how how much did you get to watch the the last couple years uh of Junior? Do you get to watch the games quite a bit or or how much do you get to see them?

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Occasionally I'll tune in. It's harder. I mean, Nate Landmark's got a paywall, I think, right, Nate? No, yeah. We complain about that a lot.

SPEAKER_04 27:23

Yeah, we've been over that one.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

Yeah. I mean, he's got three kids at home, so he's a lot busier than me. I remember when the paywall came up. I want to say I didn't for like the first year or two, and then I couldn't stay away, and I've bought it the last couple years. And my subscription in March, pick it back up in November. I'm with you on that.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

That sounds familiar. You would you would think that maybe Coach would get us all some kind of access, you know, with his deal, his big deal with uh with sports NIL something with that.

SPEAKER_04 27:52

Come on. We'll we'll work on that. But now have you guys have you guys sent any players up to the coach for uh to play Junietta?

SPEAKER_02 27:59

These guys were instrumental. So Marky played at Central York, and so he started the lineage, and that that's Evan Eisenhart, Gabe Gettinger. So they've helped us with a number of guys. Anybody from New York area, um, we're in pretty constant contact. So these guys have been great.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Yeah. I mean, I I honestly in ten years at West York, I've only had up until now one to three kids that I thought could even really play at the college competitive level, you know, to even and there's one or two guys where I'm like, eh, I don't think it would be a good fit. So I don't, you know, I don't I'm not gonna tell coach someone I don't think it would be a good fit. Now I have two guys now that are that are that are legit D3 college players that I think would be a good fit. Um, but it's tough. I mean, people don't realize how good D3 basketball is at times. It's not like I have a a D3 guy on my team every year. You know, we're just kind of fortunate right now we do. That's a great point.

SPEAKER_03 28:53

Yeah. So if you had to give any advice to some of these these guys, you know, we we we we have we've had a young team the last couple years. There we're we're starting to see some come together, some gel. What do you got? What kind of advice do you give these guys uh going into this season to really start bringing it together? I think we got a chance here. I think we had a chance to make a little bit more of a run than we've had in the last couple years.

SPEAKER_00 29:16

Completely agree. Marky, you want to start that one? Well, I can leave that off, I guess. I mean, watching the team play and stuff like that uh last year and in previous years, I know it's been such a young group. Last year, what did you have, Coach? Two or three juniors, most of your rotation was freshmen and sophomores, right? So, I mean, the biggest thing I would say from my time up there is if I if I could change one thing about my career, it's the amount of time I spend in the gym outside of practice hours and continuing to develop your game and continuing to do all the right things to work on your game as an individual so that when you come into practice, you've gained extra skills and you can be more ready to go on top of what you're already doing in practice. We talk about that with our players all the time. Like we work out our guys during the summer three times a week. We'll have summer league games two, three nights a week, and we tell them constantly like, if you're sitting around not practicing and not getting better, somebody else is. And I think that holds true at every level of basketball. So I think if I had to give one thing, that would probably be my one thing.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

I mean, for me, I know they're gonna work hard. I mean, that's just gonna be a staple of Coach Curley's program. It's that guys are gonna work hard in the fall and in the in the season is is you know, if and I don't know the team as well that Nate does, and I'll check in the box scores pretty much regularly to see how they're doing. Um, but if they if they do have a good bit of pieces coming back, then it's it's to me it's confidence and belief in themselves. You know, to take the next step is confidence and and who they are as a group. You know, without that, it's you know, you're kind of limited. It's good advice.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

Very good advice. Yeah, it's about West

The Championship Run & Public vs Private

SPEAKER_02 30:48

York and the season they just had and how it's built the last few years. What do you hope for the next few and what you expect coming into this year? Especially this run you went on this past season. What do I expect for this year? Let's talk about the run this past year and how we got in the last couple years and how it's developed, and what do you expect next?

SPEAKER_01 31:10

We we just had a really cohesive group of kids that you know when you talk about like we don't get to recruit, so the pieces don't always fit together. You know, we've had years where you know we had a point guard Terry's ACL in football and missed the whole season, so now we got a guy playing point guard who's not a point guard. You know, we're just making do. This year's team, everything fit. You had a great point guard, great shooting guard, great wing, great four man, great center, and two great players off the bench that can back up what they need. So it really fit well. We knew we had talent. You don't know how good you're gonna be, though. Um, the run we had, I never would have expected. I thought we could win, make a run of winning our district championship, which is a pretty big deal. We have a big district three, it's huge. We we got lost a close one to Hershey to get to the district championship the year before, and we kind of made it an emphasis to get past them this year because their their best player was still coming back. He was very, very good. And we ended up seeing them in the same game, the semifinal, at their place again to try to get to the district championship, and this time we were able to beat them on their court. Nice, but that was hard. I mean, it was it was sketchy at times. We were leading the whole game, but they made a run. And then, you know, we played Mill and Hershey in a district championship, who's rivals with Hershey, and we probably played our best game all year. Um and we we won by 25, basically, I think it was in the end. Oh wow. So now you go into states and you got to kind of reset and and state playoffs. It's you know, we just we just played at this level where you win a district championship by 25, and you know, you don't know what's gonna happen after that. And the first game was shaky. You know, we played Ring Gold from Pittsburgh area. Oh yeah. They were actually, I think, up one or two at halftime on us. That was the last time we trailed the whole state playoffs. Uh, we found a way to win that game and then kind of kept starting to play a little better as we went. I still don't think we ever played as well as we did in that district championship, state championship game. We were playing Bonner Fendergrass, like you mentioned, but that you know, they're they're a private school from the Philly Catholic League. They recruit guys, you know, we were up one at halftime, and then you know, just kind of eventually, you know, they have they have two D1 guys, you know, one guy's getting, you know, starting to get some big time D1 looks that's coming back for them, and and you know, eventually I think talent will talent won out in that game.

SPEAKER_03 33:31

You know, you bring up an interesting point though. I was just talking to somebody about this the other day, because I I in I'm in the state of Maryland and they keep private schools and public schools very separate. In Pennsylvania, there you you play them all, right? Right. What do you think about that? Because that's kind of interesting that they're out there recruiting. You, as you said, can't recruit. Almost doesn't seem right.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

It's it's not quite, you know, it's not cool. We're not complaining about it or anything. Like we we thought we could win the game, and we had our guys believe we could win the game, but in the end, you know, it's not a quite equal playing field, especially with the Philly Catholic League that's now in our our playoffs, you know, and you run into one of them. You know, they're they got guys that are going D1. I found out this summer that uh the team we lost to, their top seven players are all from Delaware. They're not even from Pennsylvania, you know, and it's uh my guys have gone to West York their whole lives. Yeah. There is a bill right now, though, in the state house in Pennsylvania to separate into what they're gonna call you know boundary and non-boundary schools. And uh it passed the House. I think it's in the PA state senate, maybe, you know, we're hoping it passes to give at least our PIAA the power to separate it. That was always a thing, is yeah, the PIAA didn't think they had the power or they would get a lawsuit if they tried to separate it. So if there can be legislation in place to separate it, you know, maybe we'll see that down the road, you know. But uh we don't run into too many in the regular season. I won't really typically schedule playing anybody that's not a you know a public school pretty much, but then in the state, even in the district playoffs, like Milton Hershey that we beat, that's non-boundary. I mean school too. Okay. Yeah, I mean, they're kid their kids come from all over the country. It's you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 35:11

Not that they're recruiting, but that's where they come from. My thought on this is this if you want to pass it on to legislation. I've always thought they should have a public and private, whatever you want to call it, non-boundary boundary, declare a champion and then have those two champions play. Because I guess I think that at least you get a champion and you get to see what would really happen if they went.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

Yeah, I think you I think you could do that. It'd just be an extra week, and and it's it's the stake gets so big that like you're bringing a school from Philly and you could be bringing a school from Pittsburgh to play a game in Hershey, then you might have to try to do it all over again. I do think they could do that though, and I think that'd be fun. People would like that.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

I think it'd be fun, yeah. Play all the games in the middle of the state, somewhere in Harrisburg or wherever, Hershey, and and go from there. Yeah, totally agree. Are you in on that, Biz? Maybe you get that passed. I'm not a Pennsylvania wrestler.

SPEAKER_04 36:00

I'm in on well, we get our football-wise, our high school here in North Allegheny. They kick butt all year and then they get run up against St. Joseph's prep. Right. And it's the same damn thing as basketball, man. I mean, they got you know, out of what, 22 starters, like 16 are going D1. Yeah, it's like a tri tri-state recruiting.

All-Time Starting Five: The Draft

SPEAKER_04 36:23

It's yeah. It's crazy. It is crazy. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

All right. I gotta get to the question. Um I'm very interested in hearing from both of you now. Two different eras. You said you already you already go back and forth on this. You gotta name your starting five, your top five in school history. Any era from your perspective, who do we start with? We we'll we'll start with the older guy. We gotta start with bull.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

I mean, I got I gotta go, I gotta go with my roommate first, you know. I mean, you better put him on there.

SPEAKER_03 36:57

You'll hear it immediately afterwards.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

You know, even though I will rag on him at times, you know. I I'll get a text or a call if I don't take him number one. So I gotta take him. So we're going back and forth here, or do you want me to keep going?

SPEAKER_03 37:10

Oh, we're gonna go back. We can go back and forth. All right. We could we'll go canon on both sides.

SPEAKER_00 37:15

Oh, wait, so it's like a draft, so I can't. Yeah, we're gonna draft.

SPEAKER_03 37:19

We're changing the rules here. I like this.

SPEAKER_00 37:21

Okay. So it's like a snake draft.

SPEAKER_03 37:23

Yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

So do I get two or one? You get two. All right. All right. Yeah, I'll take give me Seth Brewer and Marcus Lee. I played with them for two years and they did alright. So Brewer and Lee. We got Cameron on this side.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

Oh, you got two, Bull. Am I allowed to take one that he took as well? It is our top five, right?

SPEAKER_03 37:44

We're making the rules up as we go here. So uh what do you think, Biz? Oh, you're the PID coach there. You can do whatever you can take, you can take his players.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

I'd probably take I'd probably take Lee too, you know, to pair with Cannon. You know, let them play together. We always compare the two. Why not play them, you know, together? Uh might not have a guy through center. No. But man. This is this is get tough because I mean I play with a lot of good players, and then I just watch the other guys, you know, so it gets tricky. Um, I'll go with my point guard and I play with Kyle Opitz. I'll let him, I'll I'll go with Opus at the point guard spot. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

Back to Marky. All right. I think I'm gonna have to take Canon 2 based on all the stories down the year, so I'll have to take him. And then I will I'm gonna go out on a whim here. I'm gonna go out and take a pickup legend. I remember there was times where he was unguardable in pickup games. Give me Trevor Clun. How's that? Wow, he was unbelievable in pickup games. I remember the best player I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_03 38:51

That is the first time we've heard him on the uh the starting five. We're gonna have to play with him.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

What era is he was a senior when I was a freshman? So thousand.

SPEAKER_02 39:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:06

All right. I think that pick we go back to bull to finish off his round out his five.

SPEAKER_01 39:11

We got Cannon, Lee, and then his pick there just wrapped us up for me, though. That c that, you know, so I'm my five will be better. I gotta go Shaley. All right. Yes. Oh yeah. All right, and I'm gonna go one that Nate doesn't know. I didn't play with him, but he would come back to alumni games. You know, he was a pretty good player. I'm going with Craig Biller. Oh, yeah, okay. Curly, what'd you coach him?

SPEAKER_03 39:38

One or two years? All right, Mark, you gotta end, you gotta round out your five. You got Brewerly, Cannon, and Gloon.

SPEAKER_00 39:47

Okay. Give me uh let me think here. Need an off-guard. Why don't you give me Damon Rickens? He can shoot it. I'll take him.

SPEAKER_03 39:55

Rickens. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

Take yourself, mate.

SPEAKER_03 39:59

Curly, who wins in a matchup? There's gonna be a lot of people that are that are not on this list that are gonna be best. It's it's individual. It's alright.

SPEAKER_04 40:09

Bez, who you got in this matchup? I gotta go with Coach Bull on this one. I've never you know, although if it's a pickup game, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 40:18

I don't know. I like I like Brewer and and Ritkins on that uh Rickens on that other team. Oh Rickens, yeah. Yeah.

Advice for Year 26 & the 6 A.M. Mile

SPEAKER_03 40:25

I like it. That's two good teams. We're gonna end with this. If you if you can give one piece of advice to coach going into what what year are we going into, currently? This is the 25th, right? 26 years at one place. If you give him any advice going into his 26th year, what are you telling him?

SPEAKER_01 40:45

You know, I think if you got a solid team coming back, you like your guys coming back. I think you need to go back old school. Are we running miles still at 6 a.m.? Are we doing hills? Do they have to get the mile on 5 30? And if they don't, they got to run it again after practice once preseason starts. Like, are we still doing all that stuff? Very happy to know. We brought it back this year.

SPEAKER_02 41:06

Last year, so yes, right now our guys should, if they're listening to this, we should be tracking where we are. And uh at some point the fall will ask what you've been doing all summer, right? Boy, so we'll see what they're gonna be doing here.

SPEAKER_03 41:18

When will their first uh recorded time run timed run occur?

SPEAKER_02 41:24

Uh, whenever our first day is trying to condition again, it's trying to condition. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 41:29

Second day back. We might have to be there with the stop stopwatches.

SPEAKER_04 41:34

You know, I think I still think we need to like get in on this.

SPEAKER_03 41:37

What I gotta run a five five minutes.

SPEAKER_04 41:40

No, no, god no. Like we get double or half of what they're doing. I think double. Well, no, double time on the mile, but if they're lifting or push-ups, we get have to do half of them. All right, I can be in on that. We're not college athletes.

SPEAKER_02 41:53

We're not I'm 50 years old now, maybe a little older. Pull always made it. The point guard on his dream team had a hard time, but uh pole always made it. No, I never made it. We're hoping this down in the Oak Arena ever again, but that's all right. You never made it for real? You were 5'3 low or something? You were close.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

Yeah, Kyle used to get so mad he just, you know, I can't, I'm never gonna make this. What the hell does this have to do with me putting the ball in the basket? I can still do.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

So wait, what's the penalty if you what's the penalty if you didn't make it? Keep running until we decide you're in shape?

SPEAKER_01 42:27

Yeah. After we've already started real practices. This is not like you know, you don't make it the last day of fall before real practices start. You keep doing it, you know, until he thinks we're in shape. So he thinks you're in shape. All right.

SPEAKER_04 42:40

This is like mirac this is like miracle ask already. Yeah, I kind of like it. Again.

SPEAKER_03 42:45

Alright, Marky, what do you got?

SPEAKER_00 42:48

Uh I would just say the biggest thing for me is just find the enjoyment in the daily process. I think Coach does a pretty good job of that already, but that's one thing I've found like since I've started coaching that kind of keeps me going, is just finding the enjoyment and going to practice every day. And I know Coach loves that already, but that's kind of my piece.

SPEAKER_03 43:06

That's pretty good. Coach, you got any words for these guys?

SPEAKER_02 43:10

I always want to let them know how proud we are of those guys. For everybody here that they're doing it together. Two days having that kind of success and uh what they mean in that community, the impact they made there. So uh we're just all proud of them. I I don't get these guys, like I said, they brought more to our program, and it's obviously carried that forward to what they're doing. And I think we probably provided them. But you know, for those guys touching us and being a part of our program and then uh the success they've had together, it's really really cool, and uh, we're all just really proud of it.

SPEAKER_03 43:40

Thank you, guys. I love it. It's very admirable that you guys are you guys are doing this together at a high level. We got you got to be checking in with us every or we'll be checking in with you every once in a while, see how the season goes and see what happens this upcoming year.

SPEAKER_02 43:53

One last thing, I've I've tried, I've text Phil about this repeatedly.

Raises, College Dreams & Wrapping Up

SPEAKER_02 43:57

We need to get Marky a raise because he's clearly he's clearly one of the top assistants in the state, and I'm I'm uh adamant about this. I just want to put this on record. Marky, I'm in your corner. I think we need to get you a raise, man.

SPEAKER_00 44:11

Been asking for years, coach.

SPEAKER_04 44:14

Is Coach trying to poach here? Is he trying to poach the country?

SPEAKER_02 44:17

No, no, we want him there. We just want we just want him uh taken care of appropriately.

SPEAKER_03 44:22

Yeah. Hey, which does which just does bring a question up. Would either one of are are you guys aspirationally, do you want to, and I know this is a tough question to ask, is you're happy where you are, you're doing well. Aspirationally, though, do you ever want to get into a kind of a college level or go beyond what you're doing now?

SPEAKER_01 44:40

It's so different. People ask me that all the time. They think because we had success this year in high school, like that you know, college is our colony or something. I'm like, that doesn't happen, you know. They want the guys that are coming out of college, you know, grinding, you know, whether it's to make the you know, D3 head coach or to be an assistant at the D1. They want there's a thousand of guys that that are trying to do that, that you know, play D1 basketball, you know. Um so that leap is just not really realistic, I don't think. Uh and most of the places, coach, you would know better. Like they even to be a coach, they want you to have five years of assistant coaching experience before you can even apply, you know, at a lot of places. It's just not a realistic jump, especially with a family.

SPEAKER_03 45:24

Yeah, I guess you're gonna have to get into that grind when you're young of that of being an assistant and working your way up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:31

That was gonna be my answer. I don't think either of our lives, our lives and our wives would like that very much if we made that jump.

SPEAKER_03 45:37

Yeah. All right, guys. Well, hey, thank you, Garrett and Nathan. It's been uh awesome. We're gonna be watching for you guys all year long. Maybe you get maybe you make it back for the alumni this game this year. We'll we'll we'll we'll see what we can we can work on. Work that schedule, boys. Yeah. That's all that's all that's all Hager. Well, we'll we'll we'll we'll we'll give him some suggestions though.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

Tell Hager to send it out. There we go. I can work on it here for my I you know try to free up a Saturday for us.

SPEAKER_03 46:04

All right, so yeah, Hager, if you're listening, come on. Come on, Hager. You gotta get this out way more in advance. What do you mean if he's listening? He better be listening. Well, he better be listening, yeah. All right, guys, follow the show on Instagram at the Junietta Basketball Show. Subscribe to the Junietta Men's Basketball Show on Apple Spotify, where if you listen to podcasts, we're on YouTube now, too. So you can now watch this as well as listen to it. Leave us a rating on Apple and spread the word Junietta Nation. I'm Tom Frank.