A season ago, Hersey Hawkins kept quiet on the sidelines while his son Brandon played basketball for Estrella Foothills.
After being named an assistant by head coach Ty Amundsen, Hawkins, a former NBA all-star, will take a much more active role with the squad.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be good or bad,” Hawkins joked. “Before I did this thing, I went to both Brandon and my other son [Corey], who will be starting with the team this year, and asked them would they really want me to coach, and seriously think about it. Now I have to really critique them in a way they’ve never been critiqued before.
“They said, ‘Yeah, we want you to come up there,’ so hopefully they meant what they said and they can take it because I already told them, they’re not going to get away with a lot of the stuff they’ve done in the past. It’s different leadership now. Things will change.”
Amundsen decided to bring on Hawkins because they “saw eye to eye,” he said.
“We’re basically on the same page with the development of players and philosophies and the game plans and things like that,” Amundsen said. “Some people might think that your job would be threatened by having an NBA ex-player be your assistant, but I didn’t feel that way at all with Hersey. We’ve had several conversations about what his motivation is in coaching. During our talks together it was nothing but positive things. I’m real lucky to have somebody like Hersey Hawkins help me out.”
Former Buckeye assistant varsity coach Lamar Early will lead the JV team, while Matt Lees is going to coach the freshman squad. Lees was Estrella’s JV coach last year.
“Matt’s one of those guys that, he wanted to fit anywhere in the program,” Amundsen said. “It wasn’t a demotion, it’s just, I think JV was set for Lamar because of his experience and his years of working with kids.”
Lamar was hired after a phone interview with Amundsen.
“We’re lucky to have him,” Amundsen said. “Just by talking to him and hearing the passion in his voice, I’m real excited to have him.”
Summer schedule
Amundsen, who coached at Healdsburg High School in California last year, is preparing for his first season at the helm of the Wolves, but is not yet residing in Arizona. The school year in California ended the middle of June, and Amundsen’s wife Diane just gave birth to their second child, J.T., on May 31. He’s finally in the process of packing up and moving, anxious to get under way.
“Things are a little overwhelming here,” he said. “We’re packing, trying to get the truck together, and all along we got two small kids and their needs need to be met too, and all I’ve been thinking about is basketball. That’s kind of tough. The program is in place. The plan is set, it’s already there, I just need to get there and implement it, and that’s what I’m getting excited about.”
In the meantime Hawkins and Lees have been helping out. Both have been present at open gyms, and they coached the Wolves during a summer tournament at Fountain Hills where they finished in third place out of 16 teams.
“It went OK,” Hawkins said. “We played pretty good for what we had. The problem with summertime is you don’t have your full team, with guys traveling and other guys having jobs. So we were pretty short-handed, but we still took third, which was good. The guys that played really played well.”
Although not completely satisfied, Hawkins is pleased with the enthusiasm he has seen from the kids.
“They really haven’t been around each other enough, but what I do see is finally some excitement,” he said. “Having the open gyms and playing in a tournament, you finally see guys having fun, excited and enjoying playing basketball, enjoying coming to the gym, and that’s what we’re trying to get them back to. This game is supposed to be fun, and everybody seems to be excited about the upcoming year.”
Amundsen said he is especially pumped for the new season, even though he hasn’t been able to spend time with the team.
“That’s the hardest thing about me getting hired, the timing, just getting me over there was the tough thing because I knew this summer would kind of be a wash,” Amundsen said. “But as soon as we start school we’re going to go hard in the weight room, and we’ll get a lot accomplished before our first game starts, for sure.”
Casey Pritchard can be reached by e-mail at cpritchard@westvalleyview.com.
