Kent State and Coach Christian

Kent State played their first round NCAA tournamnent game a couple weeks ago. The game was only a few miles from my house in Auburn Hills, MI. Of course, I was there and had a great time. I enjoyed the game but more importantly, I enjoyed seeing old friends. I saw some of the old players I coached; Antonio Gates, Demetrick Shaw, John Merritt and Nate Gerwig. I saw several friends; Debbie Dantz, Bob Heller, Deb Hummel, Tom Welsch, Vicki Nader, Lauren Senderoff and Mrs. Kennedy. It brought back a lot of memories, good memories. And some may think, "well of course it brought back good memories, you advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight." But in all honesty, it is the relationships that were formed that made the good memories.

Deb Hummell gave me an "all access" pass so I could go back to the locker room and visit with Coach Christian before tip-off. It is a moment I will always cherish. And would you believe we didn't say a word about the game...we spoke of our relationship.

A sports writer saw me at the game and asked me; "you're so young and had such a promising coaching career, how could you walk away after all the hard work it took to get where you were?" I reached into my left pocket and showed him a picture of Abbey and said..."It's about relationships."

**Pictures are myself at ACU, Coach Stan Heath (Univ. of Arkansas) and I and Coach Christian (sorry, I tried to make all these pictures the same size but this is the only format I could get to work).