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Tommy DeSalme Talks Bruin Basketball · Tailgate Talk - Bartlesville Radio

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Evan for a back with Bartlesville Head boys basketball coach Tommy Dessom. And we're
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recording this interview in early May, coach, And you've been on the job
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for just a handful of days now, so you're actually here and and kind
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of full time. And just the first question, have the first handful of
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days been It's been great. Uh, it's more finding finding your way.
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Anytime you change a job, you know, it's just finding your way around.
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You know that that's the same high school that I went to, and
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I think I've been lost every day. You know. It's it's changed so
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much, But so as far as the logistics, it's been pretty smooth.
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Man. I mean from our administration with that and and and Chuck is the
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superintendent, they've made this transition really really seamless, you know. I mean
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it's from everybody, hr people, the principals, I mean they I can't
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ask for anything better. And and on the basketball side, it's been I've
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probably last three days been around the team a lot. First two just kind
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of sitting back and because I don't know any of them, you know,
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I don't know any of the players, and I know of them, I
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know a lot of their families. But I've just been sitting back and watching
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and then got a little more involved yesterday and then as the days ratch up,
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more and more involved, you know, and getting to learn the staff
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that's already here. There's a really good staff here, you know, people
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that really want Ruined Basketball to be successful, and so it's been a it's
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been awesome to get to know them, but just to being around those kids.
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Man's that's probably the longest I've been without being in a gym, you
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know. I mean, we coached I don't know what it was, March
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twenty six or something was. We've lost in the lead eight in the JUCO
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National Tournament, and I hadn't been back in a gym since, you know,
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and that's that's that's where I feel the best, you know, And
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so it's been great and it's pretty pretty cool to be We've been in the
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old field House this week and that's where you know, that's where I grew
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up. And it's been really really cool experience being back in there. And
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then all of a sudden, you kind of, hey, you're the coach
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here, you know. It's it's so I'm the excitement hadn't changed like I
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told you on our first interview, I know, I know the challenges ahead,
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but I'm I'm really excited and makes me even more excited when I'm around
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those those kids, you know, because they want to be good, they
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want to learn, they want to they want to listen, they want to
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everybody wants to get better, you know. But every coach and has a
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different style and a different approach. And that's why these you know, next
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two next two weeks are big while they're in school, and then why the
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summer is going to be so important. Talking with Tommy Dissolm here, I
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had a big off season for Bruin basketball, and you talked about getting to
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meet some of the kids. It's kind of logistically, how did that go
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down? I assume we've had some meetings with the parents and stuff like that.
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I think it was last Wednesday. I got to meet with anybody that
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was interested in playing basketball from the high school level. Not the eighth grader
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is going to be ninth graders. But we had a good turnout for that.
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I think we had eighteen kids show up and I got to talk to
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them, and then I met with most of the coaches. It was hard
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this time of year because some of them are doing so many different things.
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And then had a parent meeting for everybody from the grade school on up and
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had a great turnout for that in the evening at a tough time, six
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o'clock, and they asked a lot of good questions. It was, you
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know, a lot of these things are old hat to me, but a
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lot of them are different. And the excitement levels there, And as I
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told the parents, it's a it's a they're a huge part of this.
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I mean, you know how they handle when they're young. Young man comes
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home at night and I told them, hey, those they're gonna hate me
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a lot of days, but they're also going to know that I love them
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and and they've got to be really really strong, and because being on time,
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those kind of things, I know, it's it's a it's a family
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decision. It's a family commitment and committing to something, even if you're multiple
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sports. I mean, that's I want our kids to play all sports,
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you know. I mean people say you can't do that anymore, Yeah you
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can. I mean the best players I've had at the collegiate level, by
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far, at every position, played multiple sports in high school and it makes
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them and then you have a common theme going around. I think that's that's
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what you wants as an athletic department, is there's a common theme of how
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competitive you are and on your daily routines. You know, that doesn't matter
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if you're playing football, basketball, baseball, tennis. I mean, I
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played it all here, but those things every sport that I played helped me
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in every other sport. And so the parent meeting, I think that was
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really good and I can't wait to build those relationships again as the summer months
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go by, because it's summer in all sports is so important. Yeah,
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you touched on something I wanted to mention, and this will be something we
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probably talk about a lot the first year or so. Is the differences between
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coaching college basketball and high school basketball. But some of that which you just
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went through meeting with guys parents. You know, it's not the same as
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recruiting at the college level obviously, but it's building relationships and it's making sure
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that those guys and their families trust you. So there's got to be layover
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in there too, you know, crossover, I guess yeah, And it's
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there's a lot of similarities. I mean, I don't think people realize the
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parent commitment at the college level, you know. Yeah, like you said,
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you're you're trusting a coaching staff and some of them may be sending their
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kids halfway around the world or sixteen hours away or right down the road,
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but the parents are involved. I mean, it's daily you're talking to the
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parents just like you're going to do here. The good thing is you're all
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in the same town, you know, And I think that's and we're all
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we all got to be pulling the rope the same way. And like I
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said, things when you when you have changes in a staff or a head
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coach or whatever, there's change is hard, and there's going to be a
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different way of doing things. But I think that's that's going to be that's
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the fun part, you know, And you just want a buy in that
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when you change, sometimes you get worse and then you get better, you
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know, And that's that that when that happens, that young man comes home,
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that young athlete comes home, and and that's when those parents have got
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to say no, no, no, just keep going, keep going,
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show up, show up, because so much of it is just showing up
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and wanting to learn. But the parents are just an absolute huge part of
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it. And then I think that's what's going to breed the success. You
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know, it's we're all in this together, and we all, like I
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said, you all got to be pulling that rope the same way. Before
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we talk about the summer and some of the guys you've met and plans there.
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I know you already touched on working with Coach still Beck and mister McCauley,
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but your impressions of the district now that you've got to meet and spend
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some more time around some of those people, and the facilities as well.
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I know you talked about the old field House. I know that's where you
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played. I know you'd I'm sure been in the new field House, but
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I know that those are some of the things I kind of feel like our
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big advantages for our school district so much as you know, I come back
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in the day after the school board meeting, Chuck and I toured, you
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know, went to the different schools, and so much has changed, man,
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I mean, Madison's no longer there now. Madison's were I called the
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mid High but going around there and seeing, hey, the facilities, first
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of all, the high school facilities or Hey, they're They're better than a
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lot of college college facilities, locker rooms, the way things are done,
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the indoor facility, the weight facility, the strengthened conditioning coaches. I mean,
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there's a lot of places that don't have that. So that's a that's
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a great carrot out there for us to plug our kids and know that there's
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it's not just basketball, it's not just football. They're trying to better the
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better the athlete, you know, both male female, everywhere, and there's
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there's a real dedication to that. And I think that starts at the top
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with with Chuck, but just going around with some of the things that I
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love the most is just whether you went to Cane, Jane Phillips or the
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Mid High. I love the idea that we're all Bruins. You know,
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everything is labeled Bruins. It's not we don't all have our individual mascots,
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the you know they're wearing shirts. It's it's Barzil Bruins from from the top
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to the bottom, from the last grade to the first grade, you know.
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And that's that's something that's that's different than when I was here. But
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it's it's what a great what a great community. This community is always it's
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not just about winning, you know, it's it's yeah, everybody loves winners.
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But I've always said Barsville just there's a blue collar mentality in Barnsville that
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that's what they want. And then if and then if you buy into that
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thought process, it's really hard to do. I mean, like to be
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super competitive at everything you do, whether you're in the classroom, or how
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you handle yourself in the hallways, in the cafeteria or on in the in
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the sporting event that you're competing in, or if it's band orchestra, palm,
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all the different things that are out there, there's a level of competitiveness
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that you want to be as good as you can be on that day.
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But I think that that's what I really love about this town always have is
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they they you just got to put a product out there. They want to
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go watch, you know, and they want to see themselves through their their
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high school sports, you know, and and activities, and so with that
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it's I think that's that's a huge plus in this community. And that's that's
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what I can't wait to get started and build upon, because, uh,
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this is a great sports town, you know, that you've been covering it
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for a lot of years. They love their sports, whether it's back in
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the day of legion ball or high school sports or you know, anything and
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everything that they will support it and they just want to be proud of it.
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Let's talk about what the next few weeks and and and month or two
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kind of hold for you guys. You talked about how important the summer is.
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I know you've had a chance just to kind of hang around and watch
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some of the guys. I know you're probably not getting your nose in there
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a ton, but what it was it looked like so far from a basketball
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standpoint, and what will that look like over the next two to six weeks.
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Yeah, it's I've been pleasantly surprised. Like I said, I didn't
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I knew what I was coming into, but I didn't know any of the
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kids, and I probably call them the wrong name every other name, you
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know, And I said, I'll learn your names, don't worry, And
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I'm getting better at that. But I was surprised at the numbers that were
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out there, because again I didn't know. And and first and foremost you
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got to have players, I mean, doesn't matter their skill level at the
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moment. You got to have bodies out there to be able to get better.
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So I was pleasantly surprised with the numbers that are out there. And
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there's more out there that are playing other sports right now. So that's been
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that's been pretty cool for me. And there's there's a skill level in that
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gym. You know, I don't think Bartisville you got to get lucky to
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get size, and so we're never going to depend on size. And that's
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talking from a guy who was a six foot post player here at Bartsville.
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So that stuff's overrated in my book. It's great if you have it,
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but you can still you can still compete at a high level if you don't
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have it. And I'm I'm excited where we are at the moment. Just
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to get to watch them. I think you got to sit back and look
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at it as a whole and then go and break it down every day till
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school is out, just we have about an hour with them, you know,
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hour and ten minutes and just kind of adding a little bit more each
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day and then the biggest time is gonna be you know, from after Memorial
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Day. That month of June is so big and just developing who what our
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culture is going to be, you know, and we're gonna here in the
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next hopefully by Wednesday, we'll have things set on, you know, camps
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and what are summer is gonna look like to get that thing plans, so
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parents can adjust their schedules because it's always a busy time in the summer.
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But I can't wait till the month of June because we're going to do some
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things. Have a camp for our varsity team so they get to know what's
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expected out of them and then hopefully build up to where it leads, you
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know, like a two week window where it leads to something at the end,
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whether it's oh Auru team camp or some sort of team camp. But
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we can go compete, not worried about winning, but just see if what
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those previous two weeks that if we're starting to learn some things. And so
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I'm excited about that. And I just again the summer times where players are
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made at all sports. And like I said, you can you can be
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a football player that plays basketball. You can be a basketball player that plays
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football or other baseball or tennis or golf or any of these things. But
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there's time enough in the day to get all those things done if it's a
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priority of yours. And I'm really excited about what the month of June looks
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like and seeing the development on a daily deal, because it's I'm a guy
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who breaks I'm a guy that breaks the game down to real simple and fundamentals
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are huge, and these kids get bored sometimes, Oh we're doing fundamentals,
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But man, it's done at the highest of high levels of skill development and
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adding that skill that you're working on into playing and getting better and competing,
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and a lot of this is about how competitive you are, and so that's
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what that that's what you're going to find out as a coach. For me,
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is I think the summer months prove to prove to a coach which players
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is it really important to? Who's going to show up early in the morning
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on a summer day where it's pretty easy to press the snooze button and want
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to stay in bed. But you're going to find out who it's important to.
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And then you start developing that chemistry because that's the cool part of high
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school. You've got a group moving up that can play varsity and and you
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know everybody's moving up a class and then you got a bunch of guys that
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don't know each other and you're trying to get them know. And then for
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us this year, you got a bunch of guys that, including our staff,
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that don't know anything to what I'm going to do. So it's that's
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to me, that's the fun part. That's the challenge, and I look,
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I really look forward to it, you know. And there's, like
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I said, this this town and the people in this town, and I'm
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real lucky. Wanted to have a great set of parents that are still here,
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but also a great set of of friends that I have, whether they're
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from our class of ninety one or people that are associated with that class.
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But there's a there's a such a great core group of bruins in this town
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that went to that school, went to this school district and care about it,
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or some great people who married Bruins, you know, And it's those
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are the people that that carry on the excitement of what Bartlesville's about. And
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I can't I can't thank those people enough for being a part of getting me
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here. But just since I've been here, the number of people that have
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reached out, they say, hey, man, whatever, whatever we can
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do, to help because putting this together will be it's hard, but it's
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fun too. And then we're gonna learn and live and learn through a lot
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of things. And I'm gonna make a lot of mistakes. That's what I
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told the players yesterday. I said, we're gonna make a ton of mistakes.
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We just got to admit them and move on. And I'll be the
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first one to We're gonna We're gonna touch that hot stove a lot and get
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burnt. But that's part of building a program. Talking with Tommy Desam,
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Bartlesville boys basketball coach, after a handful of days on the job, briefly
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before we get into some other big picture stuff. I think most people listening
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probably know your your background, but let's just run through it. If someone
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listening did not know obviously, Bartlesville guy, you were a part of maybe
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the most successful three four year period in Brewin basketball history in the late eighties
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early nineties, and that kind of spurred onto coaching. But if you will,
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Cliff does virgion, Tommy desaw him in basketball from when he was a
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Brewin up until now. Yeah, it was I was extremely lucky, you
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know, the culture. I was right at the very beginning of when when
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Brown basketballs has a storied history, but for me, it was all under
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Steve Hesser. And I was lucky that my sister who's four years older.
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I have three older sisters. I was the baby boy, so but my
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sister that was closest to me in age was four years older than me,
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and she was a tennis player here in town, but she was also a
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cheerleader. So I was in the backseat of station wagons going to with my
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mom and dad with my sister to all these games. And that coincided at
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the same time Coachester came into this town and he developed a great basketball program,
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and I saw it from afar at first, just a little kid,
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a fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth grader sitting right behind his bench,
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and all I ever wanted to do was play for him as a young age.
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And then when those opportunities came and we had a great core group of
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three or four years there that those guys played all sports, were successful in
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a lot of sports, but the basketball was something really special. And to
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have played for Coachess and that great coaching staff, which I'm still close to
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every one of them today, that led me to want to become a basketball
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coach. And I was a pretty good baseball player and had probably more opportunities
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to go play baseball in college, but I knew I wanted to coach basketball.
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So I went from here to Southeastern Oklahoma State and ran Oklahoma, walked
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on there and then earned a scholarship, played four years there. Then immediately
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after I was done, I was named assistant coach there at Southeastern first as
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only as a gap, but I was the assistant coach. Got my master's
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there, So for six years after my four years of playing there, I
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was the assistant coach and teacher at Southeastern Oklahoma State, and then got lucky
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working in a team camp. Got lucky to be get involved at the chance
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to be the head coach at Stirling College, little place in Kansas. I'd
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never really been in Kansas that much other than to go visit friends, and
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then was able to be named the head coach there in two thousand and one.
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We had a lot of success and a lot of success with the Oklahoma
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players. Recruited Tulsa really hard and spent five years there, had a ton
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of success, and then spent a year at Kansas Westland and we had a
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great team, there was only one. I was not playing it on just
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being one year, but then an opportunity arose late in the summer to get
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the Independence Community College job. Its something that after being in Kansas, people
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that know the state of Kansas, junior college basketball is it. It's like
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football in Oklahoma, football in Texas. I mean it's it is the highest
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of high levels there. And so I took the job at Independence, had
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two good years there, and then got offered the job at Cali County Community
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College, the same league as Indy, just a two hour drive over to
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Arc City. Spent twelve great years there and had a great run there.
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In the last three or four years. We made a kind of a stylistic
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change, not our core values or anything, but a stylistic change on the
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basketball court, and boy, it took off, and we lost in the
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national championship game to another Jayhawk school, the Coffeeville Red Ravens. That still
20:51
haunts me to this day, you know, but it's we lost in the
20:55
championship game. And right after that, I was offered the job at Hutcheson
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Community College, which in the junior college level, Hutchinson's a blue blood school.
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It's like a Kentucky a ku or Ou football. I mean, that's
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the top of the top. And I spent three great years there, went
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the two national tournaments, and we made a run to the lead eight,
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which is really hard to do. This year with a team that was I
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thought we were going to be really good, but then we got really injured,
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and then we just we found a way to keep winning games, which
21:26
was a compliment to the players that we had and my coaches. And then
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to the course of this year, you know, rumors were having to a
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Clint was probably going to get out of it, and so people would ask
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me, and you know, and I was just trying to keep everything quiet,
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so let me just get through this season. And they'd ask if I
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had interest in this job. I've always had interest in this, in this
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because of I'm from here and this place means so much to me, and
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this program means so much to me because it it made a lot of us
21:56
who we were, you know, and who we became. And there's so
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many success stories out of that ninety one basketball team that it's amazing how many
22:06
coaches are from that team, you know, And and it took a lot
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of self reflection by me, just what do I want to do here?
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Is this an opportunity, And at the end of the day, it was
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an opportunity that I didn't want to pass on. I didn't know if it
22:19
ever come back around, and it's not people would say. A lot of
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people have asked, why would you leave college to come back to high school.
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I don't think of it that way. I think of it as a
22:29
great opportunity and an incredible challenge. And the people that truly know me as
22:33
a coach know that's right up my alley. I've got an underdog mentality because
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of who I am and how I grew up, And so when the opportunity
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arose, at first I was just man, am I gonna do it?
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Am I gonna do it? And then finally I just had a just a
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night, a full day with just me and just really my thoughts and what
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I wanted to do. And like I said that, the people that were
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involved in getting me here really made it hard to say no. But when
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you have, when you have the administration that it's here again, it starts.
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And I've known Chuck for a long time and he is he is a
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big leaguer you know. I mean he's at the college level. He's a
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high major dude, you know. I mean, he's a guy, and
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we've got one of the best. He's the best superintendent in the state.
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Maybe you're in this in the whole region, man, And like I said,
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I know what he stands for. I know what he's about, and
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he's a good friend as well. But I know what he's about in running
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a school district. And we have some very similar alignment there and what we
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are thoughts, and then we all have similar friends. And so that group
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of people who's really special to me made it an opportunity I couldn't refuse.
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Talking with Tommy Dessam, Bartlesville boys basketball coach here in early May as we
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approach a first off season with him at the Helm, you talked about a
24:03
stylistic change you made at Cali late in your tenure there. I assume a
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lot of it depends upon personnel, but you're just kind of thirty thousand foot
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view again of how you like to play basketball. I like to play as
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fast as we can, both offensively and defensively, and like you said,
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it's all dictated on personnel. At the college level, you can go recruit,
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but sometimes that doesn't work out either. I mean, it's a twenty
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percent crap shoot. But there's a style that you can play defensively and it's
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it's not talent dependent. In my mind, defense is there's a fun way
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to play it and it's fast and chaotic. For some people out there that
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remember Nolan Richardson's forty Minutes of Hell, I mean that's what they called it.
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But it's similar to that. But it's a full court pressure dictating the
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tempo defensively to not let teams be comfortable. That's the goal. Yeah,
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I'd love to play fast, spread the floor, shoot a lot of three,
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share the ball. My teams have always been tops in the country and
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assist but that's going to come with time. But defensively, we're going into
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this with our program here for Barnsville Brown Basketball is we're gonna we're going to
25:18
be We're going to be a defensive minded team. But it's not able running
25:22
back to his zone or half court. It's going to be pick up,
25:23
full made or missed. And there's it is. It is a It takes
25:29
time, and it takes It doesn't just start out and you throw the ball
25:33
out there and say this is what we're doing. I mean, you have
25:34
to start off on one on one, two on two, three on three,
25:37
four, and you build it up and it's a constant, it's something
25:42
you do every day. I mean, it's it becomes who you are.
25:45
And that's that's what we want to be on how hard we play. Like
25:48
I said, does talent help, Absolutely, everybody knows that. But also
25:52
it just comes down to a special competitiveness of who you are and your your
25:59
willingness to to play really, really hard and will you change your level of
26:03
what's expected of yourself. And that's that's the process that we're just now starting
26:10
and and but that's that's the style we want to play. And it's a
26:12
real fun I think it draws fan interest. I think it it draws a
26:22
enthusiasm from your players. It allows people that maybe aren't great offensive players to
26:27
play. It allows you to play a lot of players, keeps people on
26:30
their toes. Everybody knows when they walk in the gym they're going to have
26:33
an opportunity to play. It's not just hey, this guy is gonna play
26:37
all the minutes or get all the points or any of that. It's a
26:40
it's a team idea and it's a team mojo of what you're doing every day.
26:45
And then the offense will always be last. I mean, I just
26:48
know we're going to share the ball and we're going to spread the floor.
26:52
And part of both offense and defensive styles is just the ability of no matter
27:00
what your size is, is the chase the chase of the ball, you
27:06
know, whether that's rebounding or defense or when that shot goes up. You
27:10
know, for us to be successful no matter what our size is, the
27:15
want to go get the ball in all sports is huge. When that ball
27:21
leaves a guy's hands, it's anybody's ball, or that ball hits the floor,
27:25
it's anybody's ball. That that's got to be a constant trade of our
27:30
teams. And like I said, offenses is a different animal. We may
27:36
not be set up to play really fast offensively, and I would say right
27:40
now we're not. That's okay. We can play extremely fast and create the
27:44
tempo that we want defensively, and you're hoping that that style creates points because
27:49
we may be you know, you've talked about it where a scoring points has
27:55
been hard for this team, and I think it's going to get better just
27:57
because some classes coming up and there's some people in that gym, and stylistically
28:03
things and change. But defensively, if we do those things, we can
28:07
steal a lot of points and create a lot of turnovers and more possessions,
28:10
and then learning how to get a great shot on the offensive end. Bartlesville
28:15
boys basketball coach telling me to soam with us. Last thing I wanted to
28:18
talk about, you hit on Stylistically, that's a style that people like to
28:23
watch. I've been here for ten years and there's been a handful of years
28:27
with the Bruins. Were pretty good. Obviously, David Castillo's sophomore year they
28:33
were above five hundred and then the girls made a run to the state tournament,
28:37
went undefeated throughout the regular season a few years ago, and I can
28:41
remember going down to Memorial for that state tournament game and the whole gym was
28:48
powder blue. And I know that that seems to be something that means something
28:52
to you. So let's talk about, you know, how much the community
28:56
can get involved in how much that would help from the start, filling up
28:59
the stands, just getting involved supporting all that good stuff. Yeah, it's
29:03
it, and it's it's a two way street. You got to give them
29:06
something to want to cheer about. And to me, first and foremost is
29:10
having a great pride us as a basketball team of how hard we play.
29:15
And you can see that from a fan perspective, a student fan perspective,
29:22
and an adult fan perspective or little kids when they come, they you want
29:26
to be a part of something, and we're not even talking wins and losses.
29:30
Those things will come if you if you lay it on the line for
29:33
your people, for your school, and that means everything to me, and
29:38
I think it starts with you know, with the students. First, they
29:42
want they want to be You got to have good people that do good things,
29:45
that are community driven. You know that we're going to go to the
29:49
football games, you know, so we want the football guys that don't play
29:52
basketball to come to us and those the general students that don't play sports,
29:56
they want to. You want them to want to be a part of something,
30:00
and it's a huge part. It's going to be a huge part of
30:03
our success because there's nothing worse than walking out to an empty arena. So
30:08
if you if you create that excitement in that energy level as that as that
30:15
so called six man. I know at firsthand that the energy from a home
30:22
court is second to none. And then Bartisville, the community of Barsville is
30:30
man. They follow their sports. And if you create that excitement to where
30:33
you go on somebody else's home court and you've got more people there, there's
30:37
nothing better than that, where you create a home court advantagy when you're on
30:41
the road or even in an area tournament or regional tournament or state tournament hopefully.
30:45
I mean, there's there's nothing like Barnsville and and and it's still here.
30:51
It's still here in the want to and the passion in this town for
30:53
all sports. I just think it's so important that first and foremost you've got
31:00
to give them the effort they deserve for coming out. And if we do
31:07
that, then all of a sudden, the crowd starts getting bigger and the
31:11
word of mouth starts spreading. Hey man, this team is fun to watch.
31:14
They play really, really hard. They're they're high five in each other,
31:18
the bench is involved, everybody's involved. There's a discipline about them.
31:21
They look good, you know, all those things, all those things matter,
31:25
and that's a that's a community buy in, just like we're going to
31:29
ask the players to buy into a culture that we're hoping to create that that
31:33
includes the players, the student, all the students in all over town,
31:37
you know, creating an elementary night, you know, whatever, whatever it
31:41
takes. And then it leads to these these great people of Barnesville that I
31:45
know will show up, but you've got to give them a reason to show
31:48
up. And again, it's not it's never been about wins and losses in
31:52
Barnsville. It's about the product and they want You got to give them something
31:57
they want to come watch. And I think that's the first and foremost thing
32:02
we've got to do. Then the wins will come, okay, and then
32:06
it gets Then it gets passed down from year to year of whether it's the
32:10
brew crew, man, it's passed down because I want to be a part
32:13
of that. Man. I want to help our team win, whatever team
32:15
that is. Uh and that level of excitement that all it takes is one
32:22
night, you know, and then it starts happening. And that's that's going
32:23
to be our drive, our driving force every day for me and every day
32:29
hopefully for our players. That you don't just do that on November whatever it
32:34
starts right now, in May and June, July, August to create that
32:38
excitement and also getting out of the community and and doing things for the community,
32:43
whether it's homecoming or just a day in August that you want to go
32:46
help help somebody, you know. I mean, that's that's how you gain
32:50
fans, because fans want to be proud of who they're cheering for. Coach,
32:54
we appreciate the time thinks so much, sir. I have you here
32:58
anytime, and I appreciate you you taking the time to do this to help
33:00
support Brewin Athletics and Bruin Basketball.