Latest / Committee 215 / Chris McNesby

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Chris McNesby · Committee 215

• Joseph A. Sinni Jr: committee 215. The committee, which we actually won it for the last three years, is gone. So someone took that. So this is what we came up with. Palestra, blah blah blah. I'm rattled the committee's gone. So I have Chris McNesby here with me. super good friend. he can't believe he's in here doing this. Yeah, I don't I can't believe I'm doing this. we're hoping that our friend groups re-r watches this. Yeah. So I'm gonna embarrass Chris to start and talk about all the things he did. So you just relax, drink your water. This is gonna be a while. It's AI. So it unless something's grossly wrong, let me know. Okay. you're you played for Roman Catholic from 91 to 95. Correct? Correct. Okay. Starting point guard for a PCL championship team. No appearance, appearance, right? Senior year. But you won two or you won three? We won my sophomore and junior year loss to Carol in my senior year. All right, we'll get back to that game. Yeah, we will definitely get back to so Satin was your coach, he won a million champ chips. I think it's it says ten here. I just want to go over a couple of guys you play with, which is awesome. and I think about the guys I play with. So two years before that, but you had Larry Kettner, Rashule, Rashuel Butler, Curtis King, Yah Davis, and of course Donnie Carr. Donnie Carr. Who I'm missing that should be mentioned. man. to put you on the spot. Yeah. guys a Denny Bond, very good player. heck soccer coach at Lafayette now. Dwayne Sugar. Was he a Jersey kid? Yeah, Del Grand, New Jersey. Yeah. Dwayne Sugar Hill. baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He had a scholarship to LaSalle but told Speedy he took his S C T's and never did. really? So Sugar Hill was good, bro. He was tough. Was he my year? He was yes. Yeah. Yeah. I know we're missing other guys, but yeah, Mike Tab was good. player gene he's just saying by the way mike tab's a good player yeah ya davis was a guy who was very good for one year then went to Frankfurt okay yeah all right so that's so already winning culture no you didn't say Mark Mark obviously mark AI doesn't get everybody right okay and now I'm gonna do the coaching piece not just the background I think like of course as a player always super jealous when you see those names, but it is what it is. You guys won, man. You so PCL. I have four PCL titles. Three state titles. This is the best. This this the one, this is my favorite fucking chat stat. Overall coaching record, not this one, 20 270 and 73. Sound about right? I think so. Yeah. Okay. This is the one that's insane. And this is why you're here today. Yeah. If it was less than 80, if it was less than 80%, you wouldn't be my friend. PCL coaching record, 136 and 22. Is that real? Yeah. So For those of you at home, that's 86% win rate. That's great. Doesn't even make sense. Doesn't even make sense. won district 12 five times. in your I think at least in your first tenure. I think you won it more after that. Okay. and I'm not even gonna get into coach of the year stuff because you did a lot. and then just I don't know that much about your coaching career, so that's insane. I also want to mention a couple of kids that you coached, and I'm gonna forget a lot because it's AI. And I will briefly talk about college. So I have Malik Waynes, Shep, Shep Gardner, Tony Carr, one of my favorites. Loved him. Nazir Bostik, Lim Lamar Stevens, Skillings, Daniel Stillings. Was it Danny or Dan? Or what did he go by? Daniel. All right, Skillings, yeah. Killel Farmer, Xavier Brown, again, another of my favorites. What a what a dog. He was awesome. And then the Jacksons, Sharif and Sammy. Yep. Anyone that you like right now you're like they they should absolutely be mentioned or do you want to come back? Those are the guys that everyone would know, the the the headliners. But I think as any coach, you'd like there's all those guys that helped you win. like Dre Vilmer and and Jamil Holbrook and Bobby Cottrell recently, you know, Hunter Johnson. So so a lot of like Trey, you know, Trey Wilkerson, so a lot of Manny Taylor guys that helped win. but just kind of weren't the the high headlines. Yeah. I mean we could be here forever, right? Yeah. so if you missed you, we apologize. you're if you're a young guy, you're not gonna see this anyway. so the one thing I I really don't know, we you and I never really talked about is your coaching at the college level. Just give us a little background on like what you did there. Yep. So and maybe we get into this, but I I I wanted to coach in college when I I I graduated. college. I wanted to be a college coach. I was fortunate enough to get a graduate assistant job at Lehigh University. went to graduate school and coached at the division one level at that time, Patriot League. So a lot of good experience. And then a job opened up at Drexel, where I was offered an opportunity to be a third assistant at Drexel. So I just thought get back home, coach at Drexel. At that time, that third assistant job, I made like $8,000, lived at home, but it was coaching. It was great. Crazy. Yeah. not today. Yeah, not today. Those guys were making money. but then, you know, we were 15 and 12, good team. but lost in the first round of the at the time the America East Conference. and I thought it was good. Next year, coach calls everyone in, A D's there, we got fired and gone. Bruiser comes in after that, but I thought, okay, maybe I want to still stay in college, and I got offered a job at Cornell with Steve Dunhoo, but my five thousand dollars third assistant. And to you know, make it work, he goes, I got you a job at a bakery, you'll be making donuts. That's awesome. Yeah. And I'm like, you know what? Maybe I'll kind of stay in the local area and coach. That's the reality though, right? And I think a lot of guys that, and maybe you'll get into this like a that. come to Philly college coaches, they're like nobody has what you guys have. a lot of times the colleges are at these obscure the farm system? Yeah. they're in these obscure areas. a college coach, Temple, Saint Joe's, they can leave their job and and go to unbelievable high school games in the area. Right. Where if you're at Colgate, yeah, or Leehop, there's nothing there. there's there's no basketball like the Catholic League or public in the area that that is that competitive. So and that's where it was like, you know what? I'm just gonna stay local, jump back into high school and kind of went from there. Okay, cool. Yeah, I didn't I we never really talked about yeah it was a great experience. I mean then and I think that helped me a lot. I was gonna ask that. So while we're talking about college, like and I want to get into your like, you know, how became a coach. You sound like you're like in college you knew you wanted to be a coach, but how did your college high school Then college and then your actual college experience, help you figure out what you wanted to do as a coach, or and more importantly, not what you wanted to do. Sure. Not the neat I played for a college coach that ran and pressed the entire time. Who not I love that. 94 feet. East Strailsburg University. The current coach there plays the same style. They play 12 guys. They get guys to play. 15 minutes game and buy in. So that was a style that was interesting. and then Drexel, like from Bill Hurry and Steve Seymour, they were like defensive guys, half court, man to man, like just build a wall, you know, keep everyone under fifty. so I got all the defensive stuff from that, and that was really good. so just you know, all along the way you're taking little bits of pieces. It's a pieces, yeah. For sure. Okay, cool. I wanna go backwards a little bit too. it's hard, it's hard not to jump around. But I think, you know, we went we grew up in a a pretty big parish, our native Calvary, right? always joke around about Shafa on our rec center, but I think you did something that most kids didn't at the time. back then you went to your grade school and it was a theater school for your high school, right? It's probably foreign to most people today. you didn't really have a lot of choice. There was some. Sure. You might get grabbed by an interact or something. Yeah, Holy Ghost might ask you to come. But I know Sean was before you and he went to Roman first. and Sean, I hope you watch this. why Roman? Like what made you think that's for me? It's funny. one Sean, my older brother Sean almost didn't have a choice to go to ride. He was not the the the the best student and and discipline guy at at our our grade school so my dad was you're not going to Ryan you gotta get away from your friends you got a new environment well your dad's a smart guy and my dad with the north so and it's funny how we're all kind of connected, you know my dad was a North Catholic but all boys and I I think Roman at the time was going open in Roman. It was nineteen ninety or ninety one and you know they were giving out scholarship money and just different atmosphere. So that was that was one of the reasons to check it out. And then we went to the palestra for to watch Roman play LaSalle. It's over. And that was like, wow, like I would love to have an opportunity to be in this environment. And and we'll talk about I mean, I was not that good of a player. I was around very good players. I think I played a nice role, but it just that Roman atmosphere, the palestra, seeing that was that kind of that kind of got me. That was the hook. Yeah, I I say on when I'm doing the Ryan games. I remember my father dragging me to to games. football at Northeast, going with you in the van to watch Jimmy play. Yep. When we were in grade school. Yeah. and then being up Ryan and watching, you know, the older guys play. Yeah. And it was familiar. I don't think I ever went I walked in judges gymnasium. as a as a teen as a as a grade school kid. We had tournaments there. It was like, I don't know if that that happens enough today. Sure. I think if you're a high school program, you just gotta and I know it's everything's portable and kids are bouncing all over the place now, but you gotta find a way to get those kids in the gym and see your school early. Right. even though it the system's gonna be different. But I that was I just felt like at home. Yeah to be honest with you. okay, so we talked about that. so if what would you say? This is one of my questions. What would you how would you evaluate yourself as a player now that you have all this basketball? What would you say? I would say that This is the tough one. Yeah, I was a better coach than I was a player. I knew you're gonna say that. That's great. Again, we kind of hit on it. yeah, yeah. Just with Roman, you got on the court to play defense and and I was fortunate enough to have a coach like Dennis Sedden who like valued a guy who had good IQ, could make the right play. He knew he had horses, he had Mark Jackson, Donnie Carr. Like he didn't didn't want another guy in the court who wanted to score. Yeah. So if I defend it, didn't turn the ball over, you know, try to run the team, make the right play, there was there was a spot for you. So that was the you know, that was kind of my my journey. And I was Really happy to have that role. but just you're a coach on the floor. Yeah. And I think that's what kind of like being around that back then. Yeah, got got me thinking that way is is being a coach. Yeah, I I I also I don't think we'll get to this today, but I just remember how you in the Catholic league as a point guard in the nineties, how much value was on the basketball and not turning it over, like you said, high IQ, someone's gotta run the squad. Someone's gotta run the show. And the and the coaches back then I think valued it. I don't know if it was overvalued, but I think there were definitely there was a spot for that to get quality minutes to be part of a a successful team. And like you said, you're you're getting everywhere where they need to be and you're dogged on the defensive end. Right. To get out there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah because just a turnover ratio. and back then with Mark Jackson Larry Kettner, it's like If you're playing with sometimes Donnie or Yan Davis, guess what? they're not swinging the ball or throwing it inside. And, for me, different than probably you had. I'll I I could throw it into a six eight guy and throw it a little high and it's not gonna get stolen where your every post entry pass you probably made had be perfect on on a right here on their I don't know. Yeah, guys I was I but we played I think you guys were a little ahead of your time to transition to That goddamn gym you played in was insane. The press it's not even fair to be honest. Third to nothing before before everyone knew. You didn't have enough timeouts. Like you walk in that gym, you should get extra five timeouts. But there was a thing Coach Fox used to say when he'd bring judge down. It's like just come down to Roman, keep the bus running an hour later, just get out of there. Get out of there. Yeah. tough place to play. but yeah, I mean, I think as far as Getting the ball to my players. and Mahan was my coach, but he spected a lot out of me. and not only how I delivered, if a big eye didn't catch it, it was my fault. Right. If I gave him the ball in the wrong spot, wrong time, my fault. Right. I'm like, he's open. Right, right. Like he has to just catch it one dribble, like, you know. But like that's what made me a a pretty good leader. You know what mean? and it it kind of shapes you. And then I said, you carry that on. You have so many good point guards that you coached. Yeah. It's it's awesome. Yeah. so yeah you definitely took that with you. So Let's talk about Roman for a little bit and then we'll get in the Catholic League. So just so people understand, you were play at Roman. You you already told us why you chose to go there. it sounds like it was because Sean was a poor student, but at the end of the day, you're like, I'm in. why is Roman Catholic so special? the tradition is amazing. It's like playing for the Yankees. you're you're every day you walk in the gym, you see the championships that were won. over and over and over. And and at any alumni event, there's Speedy, there's Dallas Comagies, there's guys that played before you. And not just, guys that just played a little bit of basketball. guys that played high level college basketball, guys that played in the NBA, Jim O'Brien, coached the Sixers, John Griffin, Coach St. Joe's. Or pro overseas. Right. You had a bunch. So and they always came back with a lot of pride and they would talk to the guys and and and even I stole that where when Anybody would come back and they would always be talking to our team. The kids, yeah. Yeah. So I just felt like, man, there was such a tradition. And even what Coach Zen did a great job of is like every year was the same. you almost knew how to do things, how the program was run, what was expected. you know, this didn't happen. Here was the discipline with that. so I just it I really kind of thought that was a pretty cool experience. so that's what made it special, and you know There it's it's still a premier program. You recently walked away, on top. not happy. Tough one in the last year though. Yeah. So do you feel like it's still in good hands and i if you could are you are you still part of it, you know? so yeah, so at at any at any level. We probably won't get into this, but it's changed the Catholic League. We probably in the late eighties, early nineties, Roman was the only school that had open enrollment. Yeah. So where to your point, Ryan would get the feeder kids, Judge would get the feeder kids, O'Hara's get the feeder kids, Bonners get the feeder kids. For Roman, we were at ahead of the curve with many kids from Jersey, South Philly, North Philly. So now The landscape has changed and everybody equal playing field. Yeah. So now you can see that it's it's it's so much more competitive. you know, everybody's out getting good players and there's a lot of great coaches. So so I think there's been that change over the years that that now it's a more level playing field, but but it it it makes it a really, really great league. Yeah, it's still that's the other thing. for people who don't know. It may not even be in basketball. Like you said, I feel like we're spoiled. And I think you would agree. We are completely spoiled. Can you talk about really quickly why the Philadelphia Catholic League going to the palestra is just far and away better than almost all the high school leagues in the nation. Sure. Why are we in the why are we? I keep I'm part, but I played like, why are we at the top? Why why is that? I I think it started way back with one the tradition, all the schools, the feeders. I there's but there were such rivalries, right? So probably guys you played against, right played against, those rivalries started in grade school. Yeah. And then they carry into high school and the level of competition is so high. And then the coaches are phenomenal. yeah, I got better as a coach because of the guys that I coached against. Like I would steal ideas from Of course borrow. Borrow from every coach. Speedy was in our league at the time. yeah, St. Joe's, right? Yeah, it's in St. Joe's every year. I'm always stealing something from him. you know, and but even as a player, Heimer Nigger, Coach Fox, Coach Sedden, you know, names that and I think the way they coached, the way they ran their teams, their programs, and and back then the kids it like the competitiveness, like the tryout for a team. Probably a seven, eighty kids trying out. So yeah, the bar was high. and then I think you know, the the our teams when we would go on the road, like Roman, we would go to DC or Hawaii, Florida. I know Bonner traveled, Newman traveled, like we would do pretty well on the national circuit. Like we've won a national tournament Hawaii, Newman won the tournament in Hawaii, Woods had success, judges are having success. So I mean. that the our league is super competitive every night, but when we take our show on the road and we showcase the Catholic League elsewhere, we we do pretty well against the DC Catholic League, the New York Catholic League, the the Chicago Catholic League. So I think it speaks for itself. And then and then the other thing too is I I agree. I feel like I don't I think people don't realize how good the players are, how good the coaches are. Refs, but And then you but then you start today and you start seeing so many kids go to the next level. Yeah. That, you know, and I are just surprised all the time. Like, well, I did that, you know, not minimizing anyone's talent. We're just that kid got picked up. Yeah. This kid got picked up. they're all going somewhere. Yeah. and the college coaches are coming here to grab players. There's no question about it. I mean, he find you. Yeah. Right. But I think it's amazing. Just to add on that one last thing. Yeah. We're we're both Catholic League guys, right? So at the end the day, we we want to see the Catholic League do well. And I think the last piece that's probably the most important that makes the Catholic League so special is obviously the opportunity to play at the palestrum. for all these kids that get to that final four, yeah, to play there in front of seven, eight thousand, whatever it is. I mean, that's a sell for our league. Like you still have to sell your league. Yeah, yeah. All as coaches, we all want to beat each other up in the league, but it's important that we all sell the league. And any eighth grader that you're bringing in that happened to me and others, like what you said, we're the only league in the area that can play at the Palestra and fill it on a Monday night or Sunday afternoon. That's a big sell. it's that noise, that crowd. Most kids when they leave that, like I want to play in that environment. yeah. And the only entryway to that is the Catholic League. And I also think guys grow up as basketball players on that stage. I've seen a lot of guys it's a high level. It's a high level and they and their games grow because it's sink or swim too. you you have one game, maybe two. Yeah. Right. that's a year. If you're lucky, you might go back a second time. Yeah. Which and people don't realize how hard it is to get there. It's hard to get there. And how close you can come and just fall short. Yep. You know? hard to get there and the game itself feels like it goes by in twenty minutes. I couldn't imagine fifteen minutes. You put all this time in prep and it's like before you know it, it's over, right? And it's like wow. And I early on in my coaching, some of those games, losing, and wow, it it changes your approach as you prepare for that, those games because of the setting and the environment. But yeah, the Palestra is is a big thing with ethnic league. Yeah, I I will do anything I can to get a seat. I cash in all my favors. calling Dr. Cook, whoever needs to talk to yourself, Joey Z, like how can I get in there? and then yeah, it's it's it's amazing. It's an it's a crazy experience and crazy things happen. and I and even all the college coaches that come from all over, everyone's no one has this. Like no one has a league that can have their final four be that way. you know. That's it's pretty amazing. I think there's always stats that get thrown out that of other conference championships in college that are stacked up to the the championship the palestra is is is the attendance is higher than some conference tournaments in college. Of course, yeah, I believe it. Yeah. the other thing too, kids walk in there, they make it to the palestra, they start off with four, then there's two, and that's the chip. Kids walk out of there with offers. I know they can happen anywhere, but it definitely happens at the palestra. You play if you play big. You catch a coach's eye the next day, it's ping on Instagram. I got an offer. Yeah. That's true for sure. Absolutely. okay. So we talked about the Catholic League. We talked about Roman. if I just to I don't want to get too far into this, and I think when we get with Tommy and Rat, we'll talk about like the playoffs and like the seating and how well we don't do that today. but like can you just get into coaching, like maybe just 'Cause we could do this for hours. But as far as your coaching style, what are your must-haves you never bend backwards on and other things you're flexible on? Like, you can talk about the guys who helped you over the years, but just give, you know, these folks like an understanding of how you prefer to do it. Mm-hmm. from practice approach to g you know, whatever, whatever you're willing to offer. I mean, I think it's just trying to prepare the guys for the league, the the the gauntlet, and from a non negotiable, it's always like play hard, play hard play hard, play smart, play together. But in that, playing hard, it's like be first to the deck, like loose ball, don't be second. Yeah, you're not gonna coach effort at this at this level, right? Yeah, you're out if you're not recording. Yeah, exactly. Be first to the deck. never miss a charge opportunity, you know, and and maybe that was my style like of coaching, and we took a lot of pride in like refs love it though. Catholic league refs love the charge. They love it. Yeah. but yeah, just like that mentality. you know, just the defensively, just kinda, you know, we we always try to keep teams under fifty and but I think our practices and our our non negotiables were always set for that. so I guess that was kind of you know, my style and I thought the offense would just come off the defense. Yeah. when you have different pla you have different pieces for every year, right? Yeah. You gotta play your strengths. For sure. And I think that's like You gotta be flexible. College, right? high school, we take the best that we can get. College, you can really recruit to your style. Yeah. Your system. Yeah. So like year to year, you might tweak things a little bit from a from a style just on personnel, which I think is fun from high school. But I think college is like you you can really just, hey, I'm a running impressing guy. I'm CRQs. We're gonna be long in the back, play two, three zone. you know, so Little different in high school. I remember talking with you. it was probably like in Foss's yard or something one time and I don't know where we're at. And I said, I got this team, I was coaching girls grade school. I got one girl can go right, one girl can only go left. And I'm like, We're and I'm talking with Chris Black. I'm like, what are we gonna do? And I was telling you about it, and you're like, See, that's the best part. Right. Like that's the best part. Yeah. So I'm like, okay, so she can only go right. So let's put her on the on the left hash. And the other one and we would do weave. just just just what are you gonna do? You gotta work with it, right? You gotta figure it out. It was and they had they it was fun. It was fun, but it is a challenge. but like what are you gonna do? It's not limitations, it's like you gotta figure out what and I know that changes dramatically today for high school coaches, right? kids come, kids go. Right. That's the fun of it of and how do you guys do like is that just you in the lab or is is it you and Billy and that's that's I'll just bounce this stuff off? Like it's our staff. I mean that's the fun of it of like all day long, all night, spending time, overthinking it. Of course, of course, an idea. You live and breathe it, right? Live and breathe it. I mean, it's the long hours of it. but when you go through it together like that and you're tweaking, changing based on, you know, all that. And I think that's a lot and I think having a staff of guys that you had a lot of stability. You're very fortunate. Yeah, very loyally. as far as high school, you gotta have the time and flexibility. But if you get guys that are loyal and can be there and and and they enjoy being together, nothing better because they got your back, everyone's got they keep everything in house and they but it's those conversations that you have over and over and over about this guy can't go left, Scout report defense how we are at this guy. We going under this ball screen, we blitzing this ball screen, it's just and everyone has an opinion. So, but that's the fun of it, you know. So yeah, I yeah, remember interviewing Billy before like a Ryan game. you guys must have been at our place or something. And that's that's Chris's long-term assistant, a great guy, great basketball guy. and he said, I'm like, is there anyone you want to kind of thank? Right. And I'll I'm gonna get this at the end with you, but He I'll give you the opportunity. he said, My wife, we're basically gone from I think he said, I don't know if he said November to March or October to March. Does that sound about right? you're there, but like you said, you're just breathing, it just sucks everything out of you. Yeah. Right. and I don't I again that's to that's the way it is. It's even even a little bit more now. Yeah, there's no real off season because you're recruiting rules, right? So yeah, it's a it's a lot. Okay. All right. So we talked we got a lot, Don. so I'm gonna just g go into a couple humor me, some questions like what is what's what's the craziest thing that you've seen in a Catholic League game? Any like any game. Wow. We were part of a game versus St. Joe Prep playoff game and quarter final at Archbishop Carroll. We scored a basket with five seconds ago to go up one, five, four, three. Kid Joe Nardy dribbling the ball to court. He literally picks it up, looks around. We're trapping him at half court. He puts it back down. As my dad would say, discontinue. Discontinue. big Joe. Banks it in for the win. And we lose. We don't go to the palestra. The kid talks to Ted Solari and says, I double dribbled. I didn't, I don't know why they didn't call it. Kept playing though. Kept playing. And then That's a heartbreaker. That was a heartbreaker, but a crazy one. Right, a crazy one. that as a player, Larry Kettner broke the backboards. That was interesting. Where at White Marsh. smash the thing. Back then that was big bucks. And the game's over, like you can't play. that was preseason or tourney. Preseason. without without talking about the individual or their parents, tell me I know you have plenty of crazy parent story. Just pluck one or two. Wow. Wow. Remember, no one's gonna watch this. It's like me, you, Tommy, rat, my god. So wow. Wow. So many. or or just something like crazy that parents do today that no one who is not listening, who's not involved as a coach would not would never guess. Wow. I know one story you told me. I mean, just like how we probably go up playing and we thought like doing things the right way, like hour before a game, like you know. pair getting good sleep pre-game meal literally player not to be named shows up eating Kentucky fried chicken and McDonald's like in a half hour rather play I'm like this isn't breakfast of champions right here but you know it it is whatever works man just get in the game let's go so yeah yeah definitely like you know some definitely some wild stories with with some of the parents But it's funny, when you win, everyone's on board when you lose. Well, I just said I just gave him your goddamn number. It was eighty-six percent. So right. But I remember you telling me as I know I'm gonna tell you a Chris story that he won't tell you. So I remember you telling me, and again, I'm not this is just parents today. I'm generalizing. I've talked to other coaches and it's very similar. I think twenty years ago, thirty years ago was I think my kid should play more. Right. That's what a parent would complain about. I wish my kid would be in in more. Right. Don't we all right as parents? And then it be and then it got to shots. You know, minutes. And then it's like, well, I think it's I not only they they I demand the minutes, but my kid needs to get X amount of shots per game. And parents do think like this today. and then the the the the farthest I ever heard, and you tell me if you and anyone's going farther with your experience is Touches. My kids not get enough touches. So they're counting on the sidelines. Not how much they played, not how many shots they're getting. Right. It's touches. Sure. And again, I this may be naive. I don't know what could be the next what my kids not getting. Right. Because now they can just take them and go. Right. But it I mean, you I'm sure you experience that to some degree. Yeah. I mean, you get the text after games or, you know, the next day. Which is routine today. Right. Yeah. And I'm sure any coach or recently, yeah. Yeah. you would hear coaches say, Hey, a twenty four hour rule to any parents hey, after a game, just just within twenty four hours, emotions are high. Let's try to just not do anything until the next day, communication wise, but that's not stopping a parent who's yeah. Like who's furious. They're just waiting in the gym for you to walk out. yeah. They're gonna play up hey, talk to your site coach and then it's on. Yeah. Billy's Billy's not taking those conversations. I remember Chris Black told me that before. And again, I'm c I'm talking about the you know, youth coach. Right. somebody asked him a question about like playing time and he was he just immediately deferred them to me. You gotta talk to Joe about that. Yeah, he's the head coach. Yeah. Yeah. But he's like, I'll be number two without blessing. Great assistant do great job of like protecting me on that. So I think a couple more and we can kind of wrap up. This is we're going pretty good. And I hopefully technology is working. It looks like it. remember, that's where we're gonna post this stuff. I don't we I'm recording this. The Phillies just won four three game two against the Braves today. I'm gonna do another interview. I don't know which order I'm gonna post it. I had to figure out how to post it. I don't even know how to post it. So we're gonna figure that Phillies and us. Yeah. Exactly. So these are kind of these are tough questions. I only get a couple left. I'm gonna have a couple general questions about players that And then a rapid fire, I'm calling it presto where I gotta ask I'm gonna say something and you gotta respond. If it sucks, we'll just we'll take it out. All right. So the first thing is if you had press over now? No, not yet. This is this is this is fucking tough. All right. So I want to know if you could pick five players, right? That you personally played with or coached, who would be your top five? Wow. So you not against played with or coached. This this is tough for you. So you need a big man, or go Larry Kettner. Okay. All right. A man. He was a man child, by the way. Go Mark Larry. I'll just make it him. Lamar Stevens. Yeah. You know, we can play him at the four. Stretch four. Yeah. And then we can go this is tough because you know, someone's left get left out. yeah. But I feel like if I'm just you got Malik and X and one two Tony. Yeah, Tony kinda three point cards. Yeah. That's what we're talking about. Yeah, exactly. I wouldn't even grab a big guy, but you had Kettner, yeah, Jackson. Yeah. And obviously I left Donnie Carr with six man, and that's okay. That was my follow up. It would be your six man. Yeah. Donnie Carr, who's one of the legends of the Catholic League who won ridiculous amounts of game, flat out winner. he's your guy off the bench. But yeah, but like to have guards of X and Malik and Tony together. I just to spread you out and I would I would have picked all I would have picked five point cards. exactly with that crew you probably don't need even Mark you're off. He's a pro. Yeah. You know. And then here's a spin to that. Okay, so who would coach them? Who would coach that team? In your opinion, who's a who's the best coach you played for or yeah. not including myself, man. I would you can put yourself in Again, no one's watching. Yeah, but not crew. man. could be s it could be someone you coached against or someone someone you played for. I feel like It's a cool one. I got you on this one. Well, I always appreciated the way Carl Aragel let his guards play. Yeah. Right. And they and those guys just went and they defended for him for sure. But they I feel like if I'm gonna have a Ford guard team, let him that's where it should be. And their gym, yeah, unstoppable. Yeah. Unstoppable. I like it. I like it. if he watches that, I'm sure he'll be very happy and not surprised. I don't think he'd be surprised, right? Okay, so here's the like the quick hitter, you know, most champions. Wins, yeah. Yeah, so I I believe that. Not a crazy guess. He knows what he's doing. Right. I would yeah, love to have you. again, don't know what I'm doing. You don't have to come here to my house. Yeah, go You can just call you can just call me, dude. Just call me. I'll put you on. I got this. I figure this out with the staff. All right, so this is kind of fast, ready. I'm gonna just you as soon as you're answering, I'm going to the next one. All right, ready? Best PCL player ever. Golem. Best coach ever. Speedy. Best Jim. Roman. Best, that's bullshit. Best rivalry. Roman Newman. Best trash talker. Nasbostic. The horse. Best teammate. Hmm. Tony Carr. Toughest player. Jaquan Newton. He was a tough basketball. Yeah. best basketball mind. Steve Astoria. Wow. It's a good one. Yeah. Notre Dame, right? player you wish you could coach. Player you wish you could coach today that's in the league. Not graduated, but in the league this year. I like that point guard from Wood, Lundy, right? I I I always like a I always like a a point guard to coach. I feel like if if you can get him connected with you, that controls the team. Yeah. I think Corey Francis is a great player. I I obviously you'd love to play coach against him. but to coach him would be awesome. He plays downhill competes, but I feel like yeah for me, point guard very excellent. Yeah. Very excellent. Yeah. He's fun to watch. Yeah. He killed Ryan. Killed Ryan this year. if there's one thing you could change about the Catholic League, and it could be anything, it doesn't be rules, it could be anything. What would it be? I would say probably two things talking. Shock clock. Yeah, I know. Everyone, yeah, yeah, that's coming. really? What year is that? Two years? I think it's next year. Next year? Yeah. So that would be good. And then two, I I think a lot of cry babies about that. It's common guys. Relax. Yeah. and then the other part would be I just think from the coaching standpoint, like the Bring the fraternity back of coaches. why you you're saying it's soured in recent years? Like it's not as close as it once was. I mean, again, talking about the things that used to happen back in the day, like speedy coaching a Roman and and No Heimeninger talks about this a lot. Like after Friday nights, after a game, like we would be at a bar, you know, all the coaches would meet somewhere, whether it's a you know, raw and pub around the gym, right? Around the gym. Or like not just your staffs or but like Coaches in the northeast, yeah, Dockerty, Judge, you would meet places and we did a little of that too. and we used to this is like internal, but like we we would have little get-togethers, you know, each year for like coaches, you know, to meetings, we'd have to have like the meetings. But like now, like coaches don't even show up, they'll send an assistant or they'll just do it Zoom. I feel like our leg it kind of mirrors. where everything's going in the latest ten to fifteen. But I I I I hear I Heiner speaks about those times. Yeah. And and I I absolutely think he enjoyed it. Yeah. and they had a ball. Yeah. I mean, as much as we're all like trying to beat each other up and and kill each other every night. I mean, same thing. That's the best part. You have your staff that you that you're that you guys are going to with. But then like appreciation of other coaches. I remember as a young assistant coach, being in a in a room with Speedy and Heimiger and Bernie and all these you're just kinda like looking up romantic. Like you're just kinda like, man, like this is a everyone played in this league. Everyone had success in this league. Yeah. You know, and I just wish the fraternity of coaching because some guys come in the league and yeah they could care less. It's just about their program. But if you could go back to one game one game, player or coach. Which one would it be? Well, the I know Joey Z followed me up, but the the game winner at the Palestra, that was that was a that was a a great game to be a part of. the the game winner. you know, that was a game, you know, amazing game back and forth, but they make a shot and then you know, don't have time to think, we come down and hit a game winner. I mean that when going back to just experience that again was pretty cool. And then I've been on the other side of that, like hit people hit bank shots against us. You just told it the the car the game of Carol. Yeah. Right. So it's like, man, as you do it long enough, you get both sides of it. So yeah. still think you should have called timeout. all right. And then like the last part you kind of wrap up with Don. Thank you so much for doing this. like like I said, Chris is gonna be part of a panel where we're gonna try we're gonna go back and review weekly if we can yeah, and talk about what happened and we're gonna kind of share with anybody who's willing to listen or watch. so yeah, talk. Talk about your family. Yeah. they're very special to me. I I like I said Chris and I grew up together, did a lot of things as kids together. his his family's always opened their doors to me and my family. so we were pretty close. but just talk about like this coaching journey, this player journey, talk about your mom and your dad and and of course your your wife Lisa. Yeah. I mean, when you're coaching in Catholic League, you're coaching at schools at need support and fundraising and anytime, whether it was a golf outing or a poker night or something that you had like my family was always there, you know, whether it was my mom, you know, selling the chances, beating people up to buy a chance fifty fifty. Fifty fifty. Yeah. you know, my brother's just writing random checks that just help support the thing. so that's huge. And then, your own internal family, my median, my kids and my wife Lisa, yeah, they're part of it. They're part of it. They see the the ups and downs of it. my Allie, she wrote her her her essay to get into Penn State. And one of the things she was writing about was how she remembers her like high school experience of like her dad in a room always on an iPad, and she just hear squeaking. of the shoes. Sneakers? Sneakers. Yeah. And I didn't ever I don't think about that. I didn't know that that's what she saw. Yeah. Right. And that was a section of her, you know, essay to get into Penn State of like she got in, by the way. Yeah, she got in and you know the the and yes, it's me not with her and doing but she saw work ethic. She saw a passion for something. We have that in our families. You gotta you gotta you can outwork anybody. Exactly. So it's like funny that you know but but The support of the family was like the whole thing. And then you have some moments. And if we've won and you see your family there and they're so happy for you, it's it's nothing better. Yeah. And but it's so hard to do without them.