Coach Derek Moves On

Earlier this month, Coach Derek accepted a job to be an assistant coach at the University of Charleston in West Virginia. Derek served as the head jv coach and assistant varsity coach at South for the last two years, but his role was much larger than that.

Coach Derek spent countless hours developing players, working travel tournaments, coaching off-season games, and traveling across the state for team camps. There were also many times Coach Derek would travel 40 minutes on a weeknight just to scout a game. These are things that basketball coaches do however, Derek took much more pride because he loved South so much.

Coach Derek played for South and graduated in 2003. He would always say how much he loved South and how much the school gave back to him. One of the things Derek would say to the players was to play hard because that's how its done at South. From the players perspective, they knew how much he cared especially because he wore his heart on his sleeve when it came to basketball. As emotional or into the game Derek got, the players always knew it was because he cared. Some of them would even find themselves saying his catch phrases like "SEE YA," "OC" and "I LOVE IT."

There are a lot of things South is going to miss about Derek, but the thing I will miss most is our basketball talks. It's hard to find another person that can talk strategy and plays for hours. Derek was that person. We ofter would talk after practices and games trying to figure out how to make the team better. Even after a win, we talk about things that we could have been better.

Even though we will miss Derek greatly, we know that he is moving on to better things. He is a young, passionate and gifted coach that will make a career out of this game we all love. On behalf of all of South, we would like to wish Derek the best in all of his endeavors.

Student Athletes

From left to right - Kenny Boynton, Florida • Chris Uz - Barry U, William Jewel • Arsenio Avant - NSU, Elms College

STUDENT ATHLETES

There are a few things each of the athletes above have in common - all three played in Broward County, all three played point guard, all three were team captains, all three played for me, and all three graduated high school with a GPA above a 3.5.

I have been coaching in Broward County since 1998, and in that short time many things have changed in high school sports. Without question the number of kids transferring to different high schools has grown and it can also be argued that travel sports influences where these kids go. However, the one thing that has remained consistent is academics and athletics go hand in hand and that will never change. 

At South I have an academic rule and its a simple one - if a players grades have gone down or they are not in good standing with School Board Policy it will affect your playing time or spot on the team. Most of my players in the past have understood this rule and have become better for it. Every now and then, there's a player that has a difficult time understanding this rule and has trouble finding the floor and/or staying on the team. This past year was unlike any other.

A good part of my players really struggled to "do the right thing" and forgot that academics and school comes first. This really hurt the program in terms of wins and losses, but in the long run it will hurt those players even more. I really believe that as a whole my best basketball players have also been players that did well in school. I think that the correlation comes from players that are both responsible and work hard will do so in any capacity. I'm not saying that a successful team is made up of a bunch of choir boys, but its crucial that players on a team care enough to do what is necessary for them and the betterment of the team. If that means keeping their grades up, being on time for class, or being able to manage time to complete homework and attend basketball activities. They do it because that is what's necessary.

Playing on a team is a privilege not a right. This past season, we had 26 players combined on the jv and varsity teams and we have over 2300 students. That means just about 1% of the students at our school gets the opportunity to play in our program. Regardless of anything else you need to be elite to play at South. With that being said, our players need to hold themselves in high regard and always be the best they can be. Kenny, Chris and Arsenio all knew what it meant to be part of a team and to be their best. Because of that they all reached their goal of playing at the collegiate level. If my players take on the same attitude as those three, I am convinced our program will be elite.

So this off-season, what I want to focus on is getting our players to understand that opportunities will be there to those that will be their best in the classroom and on the court. That includes the opportunity to play at South.