Men’s Basketball Blog #3
Slippery Rock University Athletic Department: A Talent Hotbed
SRU’s men’s basketball coaches continued to work on many professional development activities during the season. During this past offseason, we visited the following Division I schools Akron, Duquesne, Pitt and Notre Dame. We watched practices, weight training and individual workouts. We had chalk talk meetings with other Division I coaching staffs.
One of my personnel goals during this past off-season was to read 15 books. I read an array of books by various authors and topics. I was intrigued by Talent Code: Greatness isn't Born, It's Grown, Here's How by Daniel Coyle.
Coyle drew on cutting-edge neurology and firsthand research gathered on journeys to nine of the world's talent hotbeds. He investigated these talent hotbeds to determine why the people in these areas were so talented in their respective disciplines. After completing the book and writing some notes to be used by our program and coaching staff, I reflected further on the book and I realized that the SRU Athletic Department is similar to those “hotbeds” of talent that Coyle wrote about.
In my four years at SRU, I have had the pleasure of working with and learning from many outstanding SRU coaches and administrator who have moved onto the Division I level. The list of people is quite impressive. Here is my unofficial list (if you see anyone I missed, please e-mail me @ kevin.reynolds@sru.edu):
Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay – SRU Football Asst. Coach is now at Elon (Freddie – You helped lead SRU to the #1 ranked defense for almost the whole year!)
Amy Badorf – SRU Asst. AD is now at Ohio State (Amy – Your good work did not go unnoticed – you are now at the largest NCAA compliance department in the country!)
Pat Cormac – SRU Men’s Soccer GA is now at UDC via Lees McRae (Pat – One of the best soccer tacticians I have ever met!)
Jareem Dowling – SRU Men’s Basketball Asst. Coach is now at Southern Mississippi (Reem- I look forward to seeing all of you in the NCAA Tourney!!)
Mike Gibbons – SRU Men’s Basketball GA is now at Southern Mississippi (Mike- I look forward to seeing the Golden Eagles in the Big Dance!!)
Tavares Jackson – SRU Women’s Basketball Asst. Coach is now at Youngstown State (T- One of the best recruiting classes in the country! Keep it up!)
Vashion Johnson – SRU Softball Head Coach is now at Montreat (Vashion- I think you will be the winningest softball coach down there as well!)
Rob Keys – SRU Football Asst. Coach is now at Findlay via New Hampshire (Rob – Great start @ Findlay…program changer!)
Chris Logan – SRU Men’s Soccer Asst. Coach is now at North Dakota State via Pitt (Logan - Two D. 1 jobs…wow!! Keep up the good work!!)
Andy Major – SRU Asst. AD is now with the Buffalo Bills (Andy – MLB & now NFL…impressive!)
Billy Messer – SRU Baseball player is now back at SRU via Virginia (Billy- I hope my friend Mac took good care of you at UVA…Congrats on returning to SRU! I am glad you are back!)
Eric Murphy – SRU Men’s Basketball GA is now at Wabash Valley (Eric- See you at Hutch at the NJCAA Nationals!!)
RJ Rush – SRU Men’s Basketball player is now at Southern Mississippi (Rush- I look forward to seeing the Golden Eagles in the NCAA Tourney!!)
Bryen Spriggs – SRU Men’s Basketball GA is now at Marshalltown (Spriggs- See you at Hutch at the NJCAA Nationals!! It would be great to have your teams match-up vs. Eric Murphy’s team!)
Matt Thompson – SRU Men’s Soccer Head Coach is now at UDC via Lees McRae (Matt – One of the best clinicians in the game! Keep it going!)
Al Washington – SRU Football Asst. Coach is now at Boston College via Elon (Al – The ACC…that’s big time! Great recommendation for Freddie at Elon!!)
SRU may be the only NCAA Division II School to have 3 coaches on the same NCAA Division I Basketball coaching staff with Dowling, Gibbons and Rush at Southern Miss.). I know I will not be the only SRU fan watching their game scores with great anticipation.
The above mentioned former SRU coaches, administrators and GA’s have earned all of the accolades they are receiving from the SRU community and the rest of the country. They continue to represent SRU well. All of the folks in SRU community are missing you and wishing you continued success with your current teams!
Good luck this season to all of you!
ROCK ON!
KR
