April 15, 2023 • 35 mins
Tim Cates talks with Dave Caetano about his 40+ years in education as a teacher and coach. He has coached middle school and high school girls basketball in Central California, winning over 750 games and 2 Central Section CIF Championships. Dave shares his wisdom from his years leading in the classroom and on the basketball court. He is also a graduate of the Masters in Coaching and Athletics Administration Program at Concordia University Irvine.
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(00:00):
Forty years as a teacher, fortyplus years as a basketball coach. Two
Central Section CIF Championships, a CentralSection runner up. He's also an alum
of the Masters in Coaching and AthleticsAdministration Program. He's had a distinguished career
and we talked to him next,Dave Katano episode fifty eight of the Masters
(00:21):
in Coaching Podcasts. Let's go well, Welcome into episode fifty eight of the
Masters in Coaching podcast Thank you forlistening, Thank you for watching wherever platform
you may be doing. So excitedto talk to this week's guest. Forty
years as an educator, over fortyyears as a coach of girls basketball.
(00:43):
He's been recognized as a Teacher ofExcellence by the California Agricultural Teachers Association,
a Worthy Outstanding FA Advisor by theCalifornia FA Association. Seven hundred and fifty
wins in his coaching career, twoCentral Section CIF Championships, a Central Section
runner up. He's also an alumof the Master's Coaching Athletics Administration Program at
Concordia University. He is Dave Katanoand he joins us now here on the
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Matters in Coaching Podcast Dave, Welcome, thanks for joining us. Well,
thanks for having me, Tim,It's an honor. Well here we are,
basketball seasons over with. You're aretired educator. How are you staying
busy right now? Well, uh, getting the travel ball team ready for
the spring and summer and uh,you know, it used to be a
long time ago that basketball was prettymuch a six or seven months sport.
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But like mostly sports now, youcould go year round if you really have
a you know, a desire todo that. And certainly, in order
to stay competitive in today's you knowcif basketball, you have to really kind
of get after it, and certainlywe're playing catchup. You know, COVID
has really kind of put a realkink in our normal flow of things in
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terms of having athletes come in withsome skill set, and that really on
this pretty good because we're still we'rekind of getting back on track and getting
back to you know, some assemblanceof normal. Boy, it's been it's
been up to the battle the lastcouple of years. For sure. We
want to touch upon something you talkedabout and how sports is a year round
thing now, whether you're playing onesport or multiple sports. Certainly used to
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go season to season as a asa kid going up into high school as
well. But now with sports beinga year round process and you've got au
basketball, you've got club basketball,you've got summer leagues. When you saw
this change, did you think thiswas for the good? And certainly you
have to embrace it if you're goingto continue coaching here in twenty twenty three.
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But it seems like it's just NonStop, whether it's baseball, football,
seven on seven, basketball, volleyball, the traveling. Uh, it's kind
of gotten crazy. And did youever see it getting this big? No?
No, I didn't. You know, I and I have been coaching
long enough that you know, you'reyou're right. It was a there were
seasonal sports and you had multi sportathletes, and we still have some,
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but you know, you see alot more of these kids that that are
really kind of they're focusing in onone sport or or or you know,
they're trying to really kind of justget locked into doing one thing. I
have a ten year old grandson andhe's in two sports right now, and
uh, you know, I thinkthere's a lot of value and you know,
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letting kids be kids and I andthat's one of the things I tell
my players is, look, Ihave I have several, uh, multi
sport athletes in my program, andI encourage that because you're only gonna be
in high school once. You know, you're gonna play competitive ball like that
once, unless you're you know,you're good enough to move on to the
next level and in a particular sportbook. So I hope that you know,
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it's it doesn't get so crazy andand we're golf awfully close to being
there where it's it's not only isit locking in these kids, Uh,
it's costly, you know some ofthe some of these families, they they
they put a lot of harder andmoney and those uh students, you know,
travel ball and some of the thingsthey're doing. So it's it is
changed. It has definitely changed overmy tenure as a coach. Yeah,
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it's crazy because my summer is thelast couple of years with girls playing sports.
It's all right, We're no longertaking a family vacation to the beach
as we're going to wear Indianapolis forthree days. We got a trip to
San Jose. Now we got Dallas. Because all these these tournaments that they
have to play in in order toplay on these club teams, which is
it's it's a crazy story. Butfor you forty years in education, retired
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now as a teacher. Well,going way back, Dave, how did
you get into teaching? How didyou get into education? Well, the
education part of it. I youknow, I was raised on a farm
and that's what I thought I wasgoing to do for the rest of my
life. And my senior year atschool, I had a really really good
teacher and he said, look,he says, you know, going choosing
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that career is fine. He said, but maybe look at this. And
he convinced me to take some collegescollege courses in education. And five years
later I was a teacher and fourtyyears later I'm retired. So it uh,
but it was, you know,he saw something in my ability as
as a as a communicator and asan as an educator that was you know,
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I was very fortunate and it turnedout to be a really really good
career, something that I uh,you know, thoroughly enjoyed and it was
very successful at and and I thinkalso it was you know, it kind
of keeps you young, and uh, you know, I retired four years
ago from full time teaching but Ihaven't retired from coaching, and I'm still
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working with some of the f fightkids and the competitive judge teams and speakers
things like that. So as longas I have the cognitive ability and the
physical ability to do the job,you know, it's it's it's it's still
fun. And I think as longas as you know you're doing anything in
life, I don't care what yourjob is. If it's fun you don't
look at it as work, thenyou know your days are going to go
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bar really quickly. Did the teachinglead to coaching or was the coaching something
like, Hey, it's got togo hand in hand. If I'm going
to get into education teaching, Iwant to be a coach as well.
Well, it actually happened by accident, because what happened was as as an
as an AGG educator, there's alot of time commitment beyond the classroom.
It's after school, it's evenings,it's weekends, it's summer. There's a
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lot of stuff that goes on withworking with those kids outside of the classroom,
and so it's very hard for alot of AG teachers to be able
to break away and have the timeto run an athletic program, especially as
your head coach you're an assistant,maybe you can sneak in. But actually
what happened was by accident with mywife started to teach at a private school
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and I had just started. We'veonly been teaching two years, and they
needed help. It was it wasit was a small Catholic school that that
needed coaches because the staff was prettypretty old, and so she said,
can you come in and give mea hand? I said, well,
I guess you know, I said, well you can help with that basketball.
So that started, and that was, you know, forty two years
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ago, and we started. Istarted coaching girls. In our first year,
we're awful. We went one andseven, and uh, you know,
I had there's no no, nodiscernable talent with any of those kids
who were there. And so Isaid, well, we're gonna do a
couple of things here. We canget our teeth kicked in for the you
know, the rest of the timeI do this, or we can try
to get better. And so Iuse some of those approaches that I have
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with the the ad kids and theand the f FA program and training judgee
teams and training teams no matter whetherit's for competitive speech or judging, or
if it's sports, there's a lotof correlation, you know, understanding the
fundamentals, making sure you're doing thetechnical things right and so on and so
forth. So as we got startedthat, you know, we started to
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get better and better, and thenwe had you know, some years where
we're going, you know, twentyfive and two and and uh and and
and had I had kids lined upto one to play. Not okay,
I just go out there running thecourt for a while. That's awesome.
The basketball part of it was thatsomething you always had a passion for.
But you you said, you mentionedyou kind of got thrown into it.
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But uh, coaching it was itfiguring out as it goes. Did you
have to keep learning what you weredoing or did you have a good basketball
foundation? Well? No, Idid have. I mean I enjoyed sports.
I didn't get a chance to playhim in high school because we had
a farm and we were the higherdeal and so that was the deal.
And so but I always enjoyed sports, and so when I played intermural sports
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when I went through college, andthat kind of got the you know,
the competitive juices flowing. As faras I just give me a lot of
fun. When I got into highschool, I did some US sports,
you know, started there, andthen I also coached my son and his
travel team, and so I didsome of that. And then after after
you know, twenty some years ofdoing it, twenty plus years of doing
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it at the junior high level,I finally decided I'm not getting any younger.
And I was asked several times tocoach the high school level throughout.
My agreement was just never the righttime. And then finally, after about
thirty years of teaching, I said, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna
go ahead and do this and justorganize things are different, and it's worked
out really well. And I've beenat the same school now this is going
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on my sixteenth year there, andthe school is brand new. So when
we started, we had to tryto put bodies in uniforms and and try
to get out there and field theteam, and and uh, I don't
even think we had any surely yearsthat first year, I wasn't sure,
you know, but you know,but now we're we're a very competitive program,
and we're established and we've created aculture and and so it's it's really
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been it's pat to been a funrun. Coaching at the junior high level.
What was that like? Is thatjust pure fundamentals, And we're working
to get these girls to learn thegame, take their game, if they've
already know about it, to thenext level, getting preparation for high school.
And you mentioned it was not theright time, you know, a
couple of opportunities what then finally madeit the right time to take that jump
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from coaching at the junior high levelto the high school level. Well,
getting back to the coaching part ofthe junior high level. That that's exactly
what I was trying to do isjust develop a skill set, let them,
let them really kind of get,you know, a handle on what
they were doing, and then youknow, move them on to whatever school
they were going to. The Airthree there were two high schools for the
most part in our community, andso because we're a private school, they
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got to go to whicheveryone that youknow, wherever they live. But I
think the more important thing, andthis is where I always felt like I
was doing the greatest service to thesekids, was I got them to develop
a love for the game. AndI think that was huge because then you
know, it wasn't okay, wegot to go to practice, No,
we can't wait to go to practice. And I think that was a monstrous
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thing that that happened early and Irealized it. And then it transitioned into
high school. And the only thingwas sometimes, you know, when you
have that common was a family atmospherein a private school like that, and
then they go off to, youknow, a much bigger public school,
that there was that transition, andthat transition sometimes was the biggest hurdle for
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them to overcome their skill set,and there their understanding of the game was
a plus. And so but Ihad a lot of kids that when I
was coaching at the junior high levelthat went on and uh and played at
the high school and several of themwent on to play college. So very
rewarding. And those are some really, really really good times. I don't
know if you ever, you know, anybody's ever had an opportunity to coach
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in a situation like that where youhave kids that are there from basically they
go from kindergarten eighth grade together,and especially if it's a smaller school and
there's no transition from an elementary schoolto a middle school, they stay in
the same school the whole time.It's a whole different dynamic. And uh,
you know, unfortunately, I thinkwhen you get into bigger communities,
some of that is lost because ofthe way they the educational structure is set
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up. It's it is too bad, because I think that really develops a
kid to to understanding the importance ofhome and and and their community and a
lot of those kinds of things whenthey're not being shuffled around. What about
that jump for you from junior highto high school. What was it that
you finally said, Okay, I'vehad the opportunities, but now is the
right time. Well, it wasbecause I was I had been teaching for
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thirty years and I was getting youknow, getting a normal most situations towards
the tail end of my career.But you know, but I just started
and we had some we had enoughof a transition of young influx of teachers
come into our program that allowed mea little bit of freedom and flexibility to
to take away some of that timethat I was locked into it with the
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daily job and you know, justsay I'm going to do it. You
know, I'm figuring out way todo it. And I'm glad I did
because it was something that I hadwanted to do for years, and I
probably would have jumped on it,you know, ten or fifteen years earlier,
when I was much younger. Butit actually, you know, it
was from a timing standpoint, itwas fine, and it worked out really
well. And I'm still there today. And and a matter of fact,
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as soon as I'm done here,I'm going to go open the gym up
for a while. Lets some ofthe kids come into on spring break.
So I'm gonna open the gym amid week. I told him for a
couple of hours. Let him comein, and I know the gym rats
will show up. Well, youtake over a new program. You mentioned
it's brand new at at at aMission Oak High School, and you've come
from the junior high level. Whatwhat what's that process? Like? You're
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starting a program from scratch. You'renot inheriting it from maybe somebody that's been
there and established a culture already.You're now establishing what you've done the junior
high level. Now at the highschool level. How did that go initially?
Well? A lot of rules therea lot there are a lot of
rules at the high school level CEIM. But when I was in a junior
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high, you know, trying tofind schools and would play us. And
that was the biggest transition, wasunderstanding you know, all the things and
things that you can and can't do, and the magnitude of things and and
and so. And then you're rightabout not having any anybody to follow,
whether there was no you know,you weren't trying to jump in anybody's shoes,
but were no shoes to jump into, right, it was your shoes.
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So so and it worked, okay, I mean, you know,
it took it took a couple ofyears to kind of establish which you wanted
to do. And when we firststarted, you know, we're trying to
put bodies in the uniforms just tofeel teams. And but after a while
you started to you know, andyou really maybe couldn't do everything you wanted
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to do in terms of the kindof students you wanted, the kind of
player you wanted, because you know, we we've emphasized and I've done it
because I was a you know,a teacher first and a coach later,
student athlete, and we emphasized thestudent first, and I think you know
that was the biggest thing, becauseyou know, we got players that didn't
have any kind of understanding because therewas there was no culture, and it
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was a brand new school, andso it was some things you had to
you had to kind of establish,and you know, every once in a
while you had to make some toughdecisions about you know, who you're going
to keep in the program and andand it's either you know, they didn't
have the character you know, uh, the character qualities that you were looking
for to establish that culture. Andit's tough, you know, because you
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certainly don't want to disillusion the kidor you know, make a kid feel
bad. But you know, whenyou when you get into this position,
especially something like basketball, you havea limited number of of you know,
you know, some sports don't doany cutting at all. They don't have
to. And once we got goingand got established, then it became even
you know, more difficult, becausethen you had if we were when you're
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winning, they're lined up out thedoor to them being part of the program.
Well, you know, if youhave if you have sixty kids and
forty five spots, it's you know, it's simple math. And so that's
always it's always the part I hatethe most. But at least now we
we have kids coming in, wedo have an established culture. You know,
there is an expectation of what youknow, when you get in there,
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this is what coach is gonna wantand and I don't have to do
much of that anymore because the players, the current players will let the incoming
players know this is what you're goingto do and that and that is again
that's that's a cross cultural thing becauseit also happened in the FAI program.
You know, when I got startedthere there it was not as h you
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know, it was there was somestuff, you know, rough shots,
stuff going onest, no, we'renot gonna happen. And I had to
make some tough decisions the first fewyears. And after those decisions were made,
you know, they said, Okay, this is what we're gonna have
to do in this And basketball wasthe same thing. I think any sport,
I think any coach goes through thatsame thing. I don't think it's
it's it's you know, it wasrelegated just to me. Who are some
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of the coaches, educators maybe mentorsthat that you kind of fall back on
and you have maybe either leaned onor read upon or kind of borrowed some
of their philosophies, coaching styles,the way they do things, practices to
to running an offense. Uh thatyou if you kind of look back now
on the year's coaching junior high leveland now the success at the high school
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level, are there are there certaincoaches or people that you can kind of
say, you know what, theseare people who really have been instrumental in
making me who I am as acoach. Well, I think the you
know, the the athletic director whowas who I had known for years and
years and years. He was sayingthe school system. When they opened the
new school, they took a peteacher department chair from one of the other
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other schools in the district and madein the athletic director. So he understood
the community and he understood the schoolsystem, and he's the one that kind
of convinced me to make that transitionfrom junior high to high school. So
and then he just you know,he had he was he was in education.
He was also at sports for almostforty years as well, you know,
and uh so you know he washe had a lot of good advice
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in terms of how to handle things, you know, being ready for you
know, you're gonna You're not gonnaplease everybody. It's a typical step that
you you know, you can expect. Sure, but you know, when
you look at your coaching, thetransition from coaching junior high sports and high
school sports, the principles are thesame. They got to have the fundamentals,
they gotta have a skill set,they gotta understand, you know,
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offense. Indeed, all that stuffwas relative. But I went to I
went to a few camps and Igot to listen to some some coaches,
and I mean, you know,the big, biggest name, and I
thought he was a master with withpeople was was Mike Schevsky. I went
to the camp that he was aspeaker at and to watch him, to
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listen to him talk, and thenyou you know, you go through his
some of his books and the thingsthat he says and how he really focuses.
He focused in on the what hecalled the whole person. And it
wasn't just the basketball player he was, you know, it was about their
family, their faith, you know, and and and being successful and the
high character person all those things.I thought, here's the guy at the
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highest level, you know, andand and that isn't important. It's not
the winning part of it. Andthen I had a chance to to go
to a another conference. And it'sfunny we talked because his son just won
the national championship on Monday. BobHurley I went to and he and it
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was at a it was at aCatholic school in Fresno, of all places.
He was there, Uh, puton a coach's conference. And I
went and you know, I listenedto his stories about and he coached at
the high school level for forty years, and his and what he had to
deal with the perseverance, because youwould think he's he'd be in this it
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wasn't modern day was at that level. But he was in you know,
in a rough, rough part ofNew York, and all the things that
he did was phenomenal. And Isaid, you know, and those are
the things that when you start tolisten to those, if you absorb what's
going on, what they're talking about, it's it's really you know, it
takes it takes basketball, it putsit on the back burner, and and
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it's it's all the other things thatthey're doing and really working with those kids,
and and you know, you listenand you listen to some of their
students and the stories they tell aboutthe impact that that coach had in their
lives. And I, you know, I've been fortunate because I've had students
like that in high school teaching.You know, they've gone on and been
very successful whatever they were going togo do. And you say, well,
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man, you know, I didn'tknow I was having that kind of
impact on them. I think sometimeswhen you look at teaching coaching, it's
it's all it's all relative that youhave to really be cognizant and aware of
which, you know, the impactthat you're having on kids. A lot
of times you don't even realize you'rehaving it, right, you know.
And and uh, And I've hada lot of kids come up to me
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and say, you know, youwere the most influential of this or that.
And my wife was the same way. She was a science teacher for
for thirty five years in the schooland she was sought after because she made
those kids want to come to classand because of the things she did.
You know, you know, ofcourse he was blowing up things and burning
things in the biology class, butyou know, but that got them there,
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that got them excited. And Ithink if you know, if you
get kids to fire up about somethingto get them where they're interested, you
know, they can't wait. AndI know that, you know, kids
have a lot of different avenues ofthings to do now than they did when
I started nineteen seventy eight. It'sjust a different it's a different dynamic.
But kids are still kids in termsof you know, wanting to learn,
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I think, and if something's interestingto them, they'll get you know,
and you've got to find whatever thattrigger is and get them going. And
I think, you know, that'sone of the things I try to keep
telling these young teachers now, youngcoaches, even you know that kid has
something that they are going to besuccessful at. There's something they they will
do, but you just got tofind it and then you got to direct
them and ignite them and and afterthat just get out of the way because
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they'll go, yeah, it's it'sit's funny because you don't realize how impressionable
young kids are. And having threegirls, two of them are in high
school now, and what the coachsays, how he says it, how
he coaches them, how how hesays the way he's coaching, and the
tone of boys can can really impacttheir love of the game and how they're
feeling and their respect for their coaches. And you know, it may not
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flack now. For me, Ihad a high school football coach who at
the time, you're like, man, this guy hates me, he hates
all of us. He's he's justthe worst person on earth. And and
then a few years later, it'slike, well, he taught you discipline,
he taught you this, he taughtyou that. I'm so thankful for
his leadership at the time and theway he kind of poured into us in
a way where at the time youdidn't think about it. But I think
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that's important, as you mentioned,for a lot of young coaches to realize.
You know, you get in itbecause you want to be successful,
you want to be the greatest coach, you want to get to that next
level. But you have to rememberwhat you're doing there, and you're you're
helping kids and molding them at ayoung age become better people. Well,
I think, and I think hekind of you touched on it. You
have to kind of be careful,you know, and how you approach things
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and handlings and and there's even adifference between coaching boys and girls. Yeah,
because you know, I you know, we we have one gym.
It's a big one. So whenafter school, we'll have boys and girls
practicing because we have free full courtsin there. And you know, and
and and the approach that the boyscoach uses is quite a bit different than
I use. But he, youknow, he has a good working relationship
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those those boys. But I don'tknow that I could use that same approach
in my girls program. And andI think that you know, you have
to you know, you know,you have to understand that there there is
somewhat of a difference. One yearin junior high, my my son's eighth
grade year, nobody wanted to coachthe boys, so I took on both
and we we had I had oneassistant, and he thought he thought I
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was crazy, and we probably were, because I think we coached, I
know, we coached over sixty gamesthat year, oh my gosh. And
because we we schedule schools and anduh, we'd go play, you know,
the varsity boys and varsity girls wouldplay, you know, right after
each other, or sometimes to thesame time on certain schools, and so
I'd say the assistant over for halfand he'd uh he coaching boys, and
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I had the girls for half andwe'd flip flop the next half. And
it was, yeah, it wasit was a you talk about a challenge.
It was a super super rewarding yearthough, because we were very successful,
you know, on both teams.But more importantly it was it was
such an eye opener for me becausethat's the only time I've hever ever coached
boys was that eighth grade year ofmy son's uh the junior high game,
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and and then I coach him someand his junior basketball stuff. But you
know, that's little, tiny kids. It's it's but it's a whole different
transition. But I think when youget into that, I think it's so
vital that you know your audience andand and and you know how you are
going to approach them because you know, and I've seen all the different kinds
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of coaches, the screamers, hollerers, the ones that probably use language that
I think is probably a little offbase, and and then you have the
soft spoken ones that don't say muchat all, and and you know,
maybe their own way, they're effective, you know, at a variety of
levels, but you know, thebottom line, is you have to know
you know who you're coaching one agelevel, how they're going to respond that
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type of thing. One thing thatis a common theme to the coaches and
administrators that we talked to here onthe podcast is no matter where they're at
in their career or education, they'realways striving to get better, whether they're
going to camps or going a highschool coach, going to watch a college
practice with whatever respective sport that they'recoaching. And the same as with education
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and concord A University, Urbine's Mastersand Coaching Athletics Administration program provides that for
people who already established educators and coachesor want to take that next jump to
an athletic director or administration job inyour career. You're established, you're you're
you're going through your education and inmany years teaching, and you decided to
go through the Masters and Coaching,Athletics and Illustration program. Why what was
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it about it and how did ithelp you? Well? A couple of
things. It was that same athleticdirector, you know, he was getting
towards the tail end of his career, and it was a lot, a
lot a lot of young teachers atour age. You know, once you
get done with the initial you getyour credential, you just teach and go,
or you're teaching and coaching, youdon't have time to continue your education.
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That was the biggest challenge was thetime. And I had been teaching
thirty years when I when I gotinto the Master's program, and as a
man, you know what, they'regonna be able to teach us old dog
new tricks and right. Uh.But uh, And for the other thing,
for some, for a lot ofteachers, especially high school teachers,
if you're not all the way overon your your pay scale, your district's
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pay scale, getting a master's alot of times will it is in you.
It's in advancement and pay. AndI was getting down to the tail
end, and I, you know, I've been a you know, I've
been at the bottom rung of thepay scale for so many years because I
just enjoyed what I was doing.I was having fun. You know,
we had a roof over our headand food on the table, so I
was happy as to plan. Butthen when you get closer to retirement,
(27:03):
you realize, well, you know, it's a it's a significant increase in
salary. And if I get thelast few years and get that, you
know, tied in it's all abouta numbers game. But I was glad
I did it because, you know, the thing I really enjoyed about the
Master's program, which I thought goinginto it, okay, I've got nine
classes to take, let's get throughthis. But you know the thing I
(27:25):
felt about the Master's program, andthis is why I think it's it's it's
it's really relevant because that class,the way it's designed, you know,
you can you can kind of toolit to what you're doing, if it's
being basketball, baseball, whatever itis. But the thing that I liked
about it was that, you know, you could be a first year coach
or you could be a guy withthirty years under your belt, and that
(27:48):
program had something for everybody. Imean some of the stuff, you know,
some of the basic stuff, especiallyOkay, I've had my teeth kicked
in by you know, other teamsand parents and administrators for it. So
you understand how to play the gamea little bit, but a young coach
wouldn't unless they were mentored by somebody. And the Master's program, I think
(28:10):
there were classes in there and theway they were designed that did a great
job in at least making them mustunderstand and be aware of what they had
to to do as a coach.Uh. There was one of the classes
that I took, and it wasabout the legal aspects of coaching. And
I think, you know, again, when I started in education, things
(28:33):
were a lot different forty plus yearsago and today, you know, you've
got to make sure every t iscrossed and every eyes dotted and everything else
you do within the structure of aneducational system. And I think, you
know, that class, even thoughI'd been, you know, in doing
things for a long time, evenI got a lot out of that class
in terms of Wow, I didn'tthink about that, I think. But
(28:56):
I mean, even though you know, I was fortunate that I was,
you know, you knew enough things, you know, not to get in
trouble, but but that that,you know, that class like that,
the weightlifting and the conditioning, thosekinds of things, that was nothing that
I really spent a lot of timeon because you're coaching, you know,
elementary school kids for so many years. But bet when you get in high
school, it's a different level competitionand nutrition and and UH and and proper
(29:21):
conditioning and weightlifting and uh, youknow, agility training, all that stuff
is so vital, and you know, so that that was probably the thing
I really enjoyed. The other thingI thought was really good that most of
the the the instructors of the classeswere people who were in the field,
uh, either had been or wereand and had a lot of just you
(29:44):
know, good solid, you know, practical common sense advice as you talk
to them, and and I meanthey try to you know, they did
a great job of trying to youknow, scoot the old guy along and
and and get you. Because Ihadn't written a paper in thirty some years,
so you know, that might havebeen the biggest challenging. And then
when I started teaching, there wereno computers, you know, I mean
there were, they were there,but we never used them. They were
just kind of a novelty item.Well now you don't you know, you
(30:07):
don't do anything without a computer,and so you know, to have to
write a pager and do all that, and you know, I never really
is a very good typer. Soyou know, so all those things,
you know, you learn as yougo along. The class itself, the
program and the classes they offered thevariety of classes. I thought that's what
made the you know, I'm gladI took it. Actually, I've I've
(30:29):
I've had two or three other peoplethat i know that I've I've had them
go, you know, I've recommendedthe class and they took it, and
it was kind of the same thing. Was one was a first year teacher,
former player of mine and she isa kindergarten teacher now and but a
coach as well. And then therewas a buddy of mine that you know,
he had been coaching for fifteen oreighteen years and he was kind of
needed the same thing. And bothyou know, came back afterwards and said,
(30:53):
man, we're glad we took that. It helped a lot. So
that's why I think that the waythat the program I'm designed, it's it's
it's absolutely sensational for whatever you know, level and an expertise and years and
all the rest of that. It'skind of it kind of faces everybody.
Well, I mean this in anice way, what's what's next for the
(31:14):
old dog? All right? Allright, how long do you see yourself
coaching? I mean you you canprobably do this forever. I mean,
you're winning, you're successful, andyou got the program has been you know,
going for for decades now, Imean forty two years, you know,
coaching seven hundred and fifty wins.Uh, how long do you see
yourself out there? Well? Ithink the key is like anything else,
(31:36):
you know, it has to befun and and and you have to have
passion. And I think those arethe driving things. I always use my
dad as an example. He waseighty six years old when he passed away,
and he farmed to the day hedied, and he lived eighty six
because I think, you know,he got to do something me really enjoyed.
And uh, you know, I'veI've you know, I've talked to
(31:59):
a lot of teachers that are tiredover the course of my career, and
you know, I asked them,what are you gonna do? I'm gonna
retire, Okay, that's great,But what are you gonna do? You
know with retirement? Right, youknow, and and I and you know
a lot of them, you know, didn't have a plan. And and
I don't know that I had agreat exit plan because I'm still here doing
the same thing. But but it'senjoyable. It keeps you going. Certainly,
(32:22):
working with the high school kids keepsyou young, you know. I
mean it's challenging sometimes because you know, you have to deal with so many
things that are outside of your control, families and those kinds of situations and
their home lives and everything else.But you know, when they get there,
they I think the reason it's it'sso good is because they want to
(32:42):
keep coming back because it's a it'sa safe environment, it's it's you know,
it's it's positive for them. Theygo home feeling the good about what
they're doing, and they get toescape for a little bit sometimes, and
uh, you know, when yousee all that going on, it just
makes it really really worthwhile. Andso I don't know that, you know,
I get asked that question a lotnow, tim and it seems like
more so every year. We're nottrying to push you out, coach,
(33:05):
I'm just you know, well,my assistants asked me, say how much
long are we gonna be doing this? They're a lot younger than I am.
But you know, and I don'thave a definitive answer. I think,
you know, I think you knowwhen it's time, uh, And
I think when I get up andI'm not excited about going and doing it,
I'm not you know, you know, decided about scheduling games and and
(33:25):
you know, drawing up a practiceplan and those kinds of things. I
think that then you know it's it'stime. But right now, you know,
I'm sixty six years old and I'mstill having a good time, and
I don't know, we'll see.Well, I'm telling my staff right now
it's year to year, well,sixty six years young, doing great things
(33:47):
and uh, just continued success toyour program and what you're doing with that
girl's basketball program. And again,thank you so much for telling your story
and talking about Concordy. We reallyappreciate joining us on the podcast. Well,
thank you very much for having me. I enjoyed this is fun.
Well, Mintie, Thanks to DaveKatano forty years as a teacher educator in
(34:07):
the Tularry School District recognizes the Teacherof the Year Outstanding FFA advisor by the
California FA Association. He's retired nowas an educator, but still going strong
as a girls basketball coach at MissionOak High School into Larry twenty seven years
at the junior high level, nowgoing into his sixteenth season as the girls
(34:29):
varsity basketball coach. Seven hundred andfifty wins when it's all said and done.
What a career he has had andstill going strong at the age of
sixties six. We thank Dave forhis time and great to hear his story
and how he got into education andcoaching and again now going into year sixteen
at Mission Oak High School there intoLarry Well Minnie. Thanks to you for
(34:50):
listening and watching this podcast. Ifyou want to find out more about the
Masters in Coaching and Athletics Administration Programat Concordia University, Irvine, go to
CEUI EU slash Coaching. That's CUIdot edu slash coaching. They got multiple
start times throughout the year. Theygot a one thousand dollars scholarship for all
you new students. Find out ifit's the right fit for you and what
(35:12):
the start time that's best for youto start this program which you can get
done online or in person in fifteenmonths so you can better your career no
matter where you're at in your educationalcareer. The Masters in Coaching Athletics Administration
Program again at Concordia University, Irvine, CUI dot EEDU slash Coaching. Thanks
to Dave Katano. Thanks to youfor listening and watching episode fifty eight,
(35:35):
and the Masters in Coaching podcast isin the books until next time. Tim
Kate's saying so long, everybody,
Forty years as a teacher, fortyplus years as a basketball coach. Two
Central Section CIF Championships, a CentralSection runner up. He's also an alum
of the Masters in Coaching and AthleticsAdministration Program. He's had a distinguished career
and we talked to him next,Dave Katano episode fifty eight of the Masters
(00:21):
in Coaching Podcasts. Let's go well, Welcome into episode fifty eight of the
Masters in Coaching podcast Thank you forlistening, Thank you for watching wherever platform
you may be doing. So excitedto talk to this week's guest. Forty
years as an educator, over fortyyears as a coach of girls basketball.
(00:43):
He's been recognized as a Teacher ofExcellence by the California Agricultural Teachers Association,
a Worthy Outstanding FA Advisor by theCalifornia FA Association. Seven hundred and fifty
wins in his coaching career, twoCentral Section CIF Championships, a Central Section
runner up. He's also an alumof the Master's Coaching Athletics Administration Program at
Concordia University. He is Dave Katanoand he joins us now here on the
(01:06):
Matters in Coaching Podcast Dave, Welcome, thanks for joining us. Well,
thanks for having me, Tim,It's an honor. Well here we are,
basketball seasons over with. You're aretired educator. How are you staying
busy right now? Well, uh, getting the travel ball team ready for
the spring and summer and uh,you know, it used to be a
long time ago that basketball was prettymuch a six or seven months sport.
(01:32):
But like mostly sports now, youcould go year round if you really have
a you know, a desire todo that. And certainly, in order
to stay competitive in today's you knowcif basketball, you have to really kind
of get after it, and certainlywe're playing catchup. You know, COVID
has really kind of put a realkink in our normal flow of things in
(01:55):
terms of having athletes come in withsome skill set, and that really on
this pretty good because we're still we'rekind of getting back on track and getting
back to you know, some assemblanceof normal. Boy, it's been it's
been up to the battle the lastcouple of years. For sure. We
want to touch upon something you talkedabout and how sports is a year round
thing now, whether you're playing onesport or multiple sports. Certainly used to
(02:17):
go season to season as a asa kid going up into high school as
well. But now with sports beinga year round process and you've got au
basketball, you've got club basketball,you've got summer leagues. When you saw
this change, did you think thiswas for the good? And certainly you
have to embrace it if you're goingto continue coaching here in twenty twenty three.
(02:37):
But it seems like it's just NonStop, whether it's baseball, football,
seven on seven, basketball, volleyball, the traveling. Uh, it's kind
of gotten crazy. And did youever see it getting this big? No?
No, I didn't. You know, I and I have been coaching
long enough that you know, you'reyou're right. It was a there were
seasonal sports and you had multi sportathletes, and we still have some,
(03:00):
but you know, you see alot more of these kids that that are
really kind of they're focusing in onone sport or or or you know,
they're trying to really kind of justget locked into doing one thing. I
have a ten year old grandson andhe's in two sports right now, and
uh, you know, I thinkthere's a lot of value and you know,
(03:23):
letting kids be kids and I andthat's one of the things I tell
my players is, look, Ihave I have several, uh, multi
sport athletes in my program, andI encourage that because you're only gonna be
in high school once. You know, you're gonna play competitive ball like that
once, unless you're you know,you're good enough to move on to the
next level and in a particular sportbook. So I hope that you know,
(03:44):
it's it doesn't get so crazy andand we're golf awfully close to being
there where it's it's not only isit locking in these kids, Uh,
it's costly, you know some ofthe some of these families, they they
they put a lot of harder andmoney and those uh students, you know,
travel ball and some of the thingsthey're doing. So it's it is
changed. It has definitely changed overmy tenure as a coach. Yeah,
(04:09):
it's crazy because my summer is thelast couple of years with girls playing sports.
It's all right, We're no longertaking a family vacation to the beach
as we're going to wear Indianapolis forthree days. We got a trip to
San Jose. Now we got Dallas. Because all these these tournaments that they
have to play in in order toplay on these club teams, which is
it's it's a crazy story. Butfor you forty years in education, retired
(04:30):
now as a teacher. Well,going way back, Dave, how did
you get into teaching? How didyou get into education? Well, the
education part of it. I youknow, I was raised on a farm
and that's what I thought I wasgoing to do for the rest of my
life. And my senior year atschool, I had a really really good
teacher and he said, look,he says, you know, going choosing
(04:51):
that career is fine. He said, but maybe look at this. And
he convinced me to take some collegescollege courses in education. And five years
later I was a teacher and fourtyyears later I'm retired. So it uh,
but it was, you know,he saw something in my ability as
as a as a communicator and asan as an educator that was you know,
(05:15):
I was very fortunate and it turnedout to be a really really good
career, something that I uh,you know, thoroughly enjoyed and it was
very successful at and and I thinkalso it was you know, it kind
of keeps you young, and uh, you know, I retired four years
ago from full time teaching but Ihaven't retired from coaching, and I'm still
(05:35):
working with some of the f fightkids and the competitive judge teams and speakers
things like that. So as longas I have the cognitive ability and the
physical ability to do the job,you know, it's it's it's it's still
fun. And I think as longas as you know you're doing anything in
life, I don't care what yourjob is. If it's fun you don't
look at it as work, thenyou know your days are going to go
(05:58):
bar really quickly. Did the teachinglead to coaching or was the coaching something
like, Hey, it's got togo hand in hand. If I'm going
to get into education teaching, Iwant to be a coach as well.
Well, it actually happened by accident, because what happened was as as an
as an AGG educator, there's alot of time commitment beyond the classroom.
It's after school, it's evenings,it's weekends, it's summer. There's a
(06:21):
lot of stuff that goes on withworking with those kids outside of the classroom,
and so it's very hard for alot of AG teachers to be able
to break away and have the timeto run an athletic program, especially as
your head coach you're an assistant,maybe you can sneak in. But actually
what happened was by accident with mywife started to teach at a private school
(06:42):
and I had just started. We'veonly been teaching two years, and they
needed help. It was it wasit was a small Catholic school that that
needed coaches because the staff was prettypretty old, and so she said,
can you come in and give mea hand? I said, well,
I guess you know, I said, well you can help with that basketball.
So that started, and that was, you know, forty two years
(07:04):
ago, and we started. Istarted coaching girls. In our first year,
we're awful. We went one andseven, and uh, you know,
I had there's no no, nodiscernable talent with any of those kids
who were there. And so Isaid, well, we're gonna do a
couple of things here. We canget our teeth kicked in for the you
know, the rest of the timeI do this, or we can try
to get better. And so Iuse some of those approaches that I have
(07:26):
with the the ad kids and theand the f FA program and training judgee
teams and training teams no matter whetherit's for competitive speech or judging, or
if it's sports, there's a lotof correlation, you know, understanding the
fundamentals, making sure you're doing thetechnical things right and so on and so
forth. So as we got startedthat, you know, we started to
(07:46):
get better and better, and thenwe had you know, some years where
we're going, you know, twentyfive and two and and uh and and
and had I had kids lined upto one to play. Not okay,
I just go out there running thecourt for a while. That's awesome.
The basketball part of it was thatsomething you always had a passion for.
But you you said, you mentionedyou kind of got thrown into it.
(08:07):
But uh, coaching it was itfiguring out as it goes. Did you
have to keep learning what you weredoing or did you have a good basketball
foundation? Well? No, Idid have. I mean I enjoyed sports.
I didn't get a chance to playhim in high school because we had
a farm and we were the higherdeal and so that was the deal.
And so but I always enjoyed sports, and so when I played intermural sports
(08:31):
when I went through college, andthat kind of got the you know,
the competitive juices flowing. As faras I just give me a lot of
fun. When I got into highschool, I did some US sports,
you know, started there, andthen I also coached my son and his
travel team, and so I didsome of that. And then after after
you know, twenty some years ofdoing it, twenty plus years of doing
(08:52):
it at the junior high level,I finally decided I'm not getting any younger.
And I was asked several times tocoach the high school level throughout.
My agreement was just never the righttime. And then finally, after about
thirty years of teaching, I said, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna
go ahead and do this and justorganize things are different, and it's worked
out really well. And I've beenat the same school now this is going
(09:13):
on my sixteenth year there, andthe school is brand new. So when
we started, we had to tryto put bodies in uniforms and and try
to get out there and field theteam, and and uh, I don't
even think we had any surely yearsthat first year, I wasn't sure,
you know, but you know,but now we're we're a very competitive program,
and we're established and we've created aculture and and so it's it's really
(09:37):
been it's pat to been a funrun. Coaching at the junior high level.
What was that like? Is thatjust pure fundamentals, And we're working
to get these girls to learn thegame, take their game, if they've
already know about it, to thenext level, getting preparation for high school.
And you mentioned it was not theright time, you know, a
couple of opportunities what then finally madeit the right time to take that jump
(09:58):
from coaching at the junior high levelto the high school level. Well,
getting back to the coaching part ofthe junior high level. That that's exactly
what I was trying to do isjust develop a skill set, let them,
let them really kind of get,you know, a handle on what
they were doing, and then youknow, move them on to whatever school
they were going to. The Airthree there were two high schools for the
most part in our community, andso because we're a private school, they
(10:20):
got to go to whicheveryone that youknow, wherever they live. But I
think the more important thing, andthis is where I always felt like I
was doing the greatest service to thesekids, was I got them to develop
a love for the game. AndI think that was huge because then you
know, it wasn't okay, wegot to go to practice, No,
we can't wait to go to practice. And I think that was a monstrous
(10:41):
thing that that happened early and Irealized it. And then it transitioned into
high school. And the only thingwas sometimes, you know, when you
have that common was a family atmospherein a private school like that, and
then they go off to, youknow, a much bigger public school,
that there was that transition, andthat transition sometimes was the biggest hurdle for
(11:03):
them to overcome their skill set,and there their understanding of the game was
a plus. And so but Ihad a lot of kids that when I
was coaching at the junior high levelthat went on and uh and played at
the high school and several of themwent on to play college. So very
rewarding. And those are some really, really really good times. I don't
know if you ever, you know, anybody's ever had an opportunity to coach
(11:24):
in a situation like that where youhave kids that are there from basically they
go from kindergarten eighth grade together,and especially if it's a smaller school and
there's no transition from an elementary schoolto a middle school, they stay in
the same school the whole time.It's a whole different dynamic. And uh,
you know, unfortunately, I thinkwhen you get into bigger communities,
some of that is lost because ofthe way they the educational structure is set
(11:48):
up. It's it is too bad, because I think that really develops a
kid to to understanding the importance ofhome and and and their community and a
lot of those kinds of things whenthey're not being shuffled around. What about
that jump for you from junior highto high school. What was it that
you finally said, Okay, I'vehad the opportunities, but now is the
right time. Well, it wasbecause I was I had been teaching for
(12:11):
thirty years and I was getting youknow, getting a normal most situations towards
the tail end of my career.But you know, but I just started
and we had some we had enoughof a transition of young influx of teachers
come into our program that allowed mea little bit of freedom and flexibility to
to take away some of that timethat I was locked into it with the
(12:33):
daily job and you know, justsay I'm going to do it. You
know, I'm figuring out way todo it. And I'm glad I did
because it was something that I hadwanted to do for years, and I
probably would have jumped on it,you know, ten or fifteen years earlier,
when I was much younger. Butit actually, you know, it
was from a timing standpoint, itwas fine, and it worked out really
well. And I'm still there today. And and a matter of fact,
(12:56):
as soon as I'm done here,I'm going to go open the gym up
for a while. Lets some ofthe kids come into on spring break.
So I'm gonna open the gym amid week. I told him for a
couple of hours. Let him comein, and I know the gym rats
will show up. Well, youtake over a new program. You mentioned
it's brand new at at at aMission Oak High School, and you've come
from the junior high level. Whatwhat what's that process? Like? You're
(13:16):
starting a program from scratch. You'renot inheriting it from maybe somebody that's been
there and established a culture already.You're now establishing what you've done the junior
high level. Now at the highschool level. How did that go initially?
Well? A lot of rules therea lot there are a lot of
rules at the high school level CEIM. But when I was in a junior
(13:39):
high, you know, trying tofind schools and would play us. And
that was the biggest transition, wasunderstanding you know, all the things and
things that you can and can't do, and the magnitude of things and and
and so. And then you're rightabout not having any anybody to follow,
whether there was no you know,you weren't trying to jump in anybody's shoes,
but were no shoes to jump into, right, it was your shoes.
(14:03):
So so and it worked, okay, I mean, you know,
it took it took a couple ofyears to kind of establish which you wanted
to do. And when we firststarted, you know, we're trying to
put bodies in the uniforms just tofeel teams. And but after a while
you started to you know, andyou really maybe couldn't do everything you wanted
(14:24):
to do in terms of the kindof students you wanted, the kind of
player you wanted, because you know, we we've emphasized and I've done it
because I was a you know,a teacher first and a coach later,
student athlete, and we emphasized thestudent first, and I think you know
that was the biggest thing, becauseyou know, we got players that didn't
have any kind of understanding because therewas there was no culture, and it
(14:48):
was a brand new school, andso it was some things you had to
you had to kind of establish,and you know, every once in a
while you had to make some toughdecisions about you know, who you're going
to keep in the program and andand it's either you know, they didn't
have the character you know, uh, the character qualities that you were looking
for to establish that culture. Andit's tough, you know, because you
(15:09):
certainly don't want to disillusion the kidor you know, make a kid feel
bad. But you know, whenyou when you get into this position,
especially something like basketball, you havea limited number of of you know,
you know, some sports don't doany cutting at all. They don't have
to. And once we got goingand got established, then it became even
you know, more difficult, becausethen you had if we were when you're
(15:33):
winning, they're lined up out thedoor to them being part of the program.
Well, you know, if youhave if you have sixty kids and
forty five spots, it's you know, it's simple math. And so that's
always it's always the part I hatethe most. But at least now we
we have kids coming in, wedo have an established culture. You know,
there is an expectation of what youknow, when you get in there,
(15:54):
this is what coach is gonna wantand and I don't have to do
much of that anymore because the players, the current players will let the incoming
players know this is what you're goingto do and that and that is again
that's that's a cross cultural thing becauseit also happened in the FAI program.
You know, when I got startedthere there it was not as h you
(16:18):
know, it was there was somestuff, you know, rough shots,
stuff going onest, no, we'renot gonna happen. And I had to
make some tough decisions the first fewyears. And after those decisions were made,
you know, they said, Okay, this is what we're gonna have
to do in this And basketball wasthe same thing. I think any sport,
I think any coach goes through thatsame thing. I don't think it's
it's it's you know, it wasrelegated just to me. Who are some
(16:41):
of the coaches, educators maybe mentorsthat that you kind of fall back on
and you have maybe either leaned onor read upon or kind of borrowed some
of their philosophies, coaching styles,the way they do things, practices to
to running an offense. Uh thatyou if you kind of look back now
on the year's coaching junior high leveland now the success at the high school
(17:02):
level, are there are there certaincoaches or people that you can kind of
say, you know what, theseare people who really have been instrumental in
making me who I am as acoach. Well, I think the you
know, the the athletic director whowas who I had known for years and
years and years. He was sayingthe school system. When they opened the
new school, they took a peteacher department chair from one of the other
(17:22):
other schools in the district and madein the athletic director. So he understood
the community and he understood the schoolsystem, and he's the one that kind
of convinced me to make that transitionfrom junior high to high school. So
and then he just you know,he had he was he was in education.
He was also at sports for almostforty years as well, you know,
and uh so you know he washe had a lot of good advice
(17:45):
in terms of how to handle things, you know, being ready for you
know, you're gonna You're not gonnaplease everybody. It's a typical step that
you you know, you can expect. Sure, but you know, when
you look at your coaching, thetransition from coaching junior high sports and high
school sports, the principles are thesame. They got to have the fundamentals,
they gotta have a skill set,they gotta understand, you know,
(18:07):
offense. Indeed, all that stuffwas relative. But I went to I
went to a few camps and Igot to listen to some some coaches,
and I mean, you know,the big, biggest name, and I
thought he was a master with withpeople was was Mike Schevsky. I went
to the camp that he was aspeaker at and to watch him, to
(18:29):
listen to him talk, and thenyou you know, you go through his
some of his books and the thingsthat he says and how he really focuses.
He focused in on the what hecalled the whole person. And it
wasn't just the basketball player he was, you know, it was about their
family, their faith, you know, and and and being successful and the
high character person all those things.I thought, here's the guy at the
(18:51):
highest level, you know, andand and that isn't important. It's not
the winning part of it. Andthen I had a chance to to go
to a another conference. And it'sfunny we talked because his son just won
the national championship on Monday. BobHurley I went to and he and it
(19:17):
was at a it was at aCatholic school in Fresno, of all places.
He was there, Uh, puton a coach's conference. And I
went and you know, I listenedto his stories about and he coached at
the high school level for forty years, and his and what he had to
deal with the perseverance, because youwould think he's he'd be in this it
(19:41):
wasn't modern day was at that level. But he was in you know,
in a rough, rough part ofNew York, and all the things that
he did was phenomenal. And Isaid, you know, and those are
the things that when you start tolisten to those, if you absorb what's
going on, what they're talking about, it's it's really you know, it
takes it takes basketball, it putsit on the back burner, and and
(20:04):
it's it's all the other things thatthey're doing and really working with those kids,
and and you know, you listenand you listen to some of their
students and the stories they tell aboutthe impact that that coach had in their
lives. And I, you know, I've been fortunate because I've had students
like that in high school teaching.You know, they've gone on and been
very successful whatever they were going togo do. And you say, well,
(20:26):
man, you know, I didn'tknow I was having that kind of
impact on them. I think sometimeswhen you look at teaching coaching, it's
it's all it's all relative that youhave to really be cognizant and aware of
which, you know, the impactthat you're having on kids. A lot
of times you don't even realize you'rehaving it, right, you know.
And and uh, And I've hada lot of kids come up to me
(20:47):
and say, you know, youwere the most influential of this or that.
And my wife was the same way. She was a science teacher for
for thirty five years in the schooland she was sought after because she made
those kids want to come to classand because of the things she did.
You know, you know, ofcourse he was blowing up things and burning
things in the biology class, butyou know, but that got them there,
(21:10):
that got them excited. And Ithink if you know, if you
get kids to fire up about somethingto get them where they're interested, you
know, they can't wait. AndI know that, you know, kids
have a lot of different avenues ofthings to do now than they did when
I started nineteen seventy eight. It'sjust a different it's a different dynamic.
But kids are still kids in termsof you know, wanting to learn,
(21:34):
I think, and if something's interestingto them, they'll get you know,
and you've got to find whatever thattrigger is and get them going. And
I think, you know, that'sone of the things I try to keep
telling these young teachers now, youngcoaches, even you know that kid has
something that they are going to besuccessful at. There's something they they will
do, but you just got tofind it and then you got to direct
them and ignite them and and afterthat just get out of the way because
(21:56):
they'll go, yeah, it's it'sit's funny because you don't realize how impressionable
young kids are. And having threegirls, two of them are in high
school now, and what the coachsays, how he says it, how
he coaches them, how how hesays the way he's coaching, and the
tone of boys can can really impacttheir love of the game and how they're
feeling and their respect for their coaches. And you know, it may not
(22:18):
flack now. For me, Ihad a high school football coach who at
the time, you're like, man, this guy hates me, he hates
all of us. He's he's justthe worst person on earth. And and
then a few years later, it'slike, well, he taught you discipline,
he taught you this, he taughtyou that. I'm so thankful for
his leadership at the time and theway he kind of poured into us in
a way where at the time youdidn't think about it. But I think
(22:38):
that's important, as you mentioned,for a lot of young coaches to realize.
You know, you get in itbecause you want to be successful,
you want to be the greatest coach, you want to get to that next
level. But you have to rememberwhat you're doing there, and you're you're
helping kids and molding them at ayoung age become better people. Well,
I think, and I think hekind of you touched on it. You
have to kind of be careful,you know, and how you approach things
(22:59):
and handlings and and there's even adifference between coaching boys and girls. Yeah,
because you know, I you know, we we have one gym.
It's a big one. So whenafter school, we'll have boys and girls
practicing because we have free full courtsin there. And you know, and
and and the approach that the boyscoach uses is quite a bit different than
I use. But he, youknow, he has a good working relationship
(23:22):
those those boys. But I don'tknow that I could use that same approach
in my girls program. And andI think that you know, you have
to you know, you know,you have to understand that there there is
somewhat of a difference. One yearin junior high, my my son's eighth
grade year, nobody wanted to coachthe boys, so I took on both
and we we had I had oneassistant, and he thought he thought I
(23:47):
was crazy, and we probably were, because I think we coached, I
know, we coached over sixty gamesthat year, oh my gosh. And
because we we schedule schools and anduh, we'd go play, you know,
the varsity boys and varsity girls wouldplay, you know, right after
each other, or sometimes to thesame time on certain schools, and so
I'd say the assistant over for halfand he'd uh he coaching boys, and
(24:10):
I had the girls for half andwe'd flip flop the next half. And
it was, yeah, it wasit was a you talk about a challenge.
It was a super super rewarding yearthough, because we were very successful,
you know, on both teams.But more importantly it was it was
such an eye opener for me becausethat's the only time I've hever ever coached
boys was that eighth grade year ofmy son's uh the junior high game,
(24:33):
and and then I coach him someand his junior basketball stuff. But you
know, that's little, tiny kids. It's it's but it's a whole different
transition. But I think when youget into that, I think it's so
vital that you know your audience andand and and you know how you are
going to approach them because you know, and I've seen all the different kinds
(24:56):
of coaches, the screamers, hollerers, the ones that probably use language that
I think is probably a little offbase, and and then you have the
soft spoken ones that don't say muchat all, and and you know,
maybe their own way, they're effective, you know, at a variety of
levels, but you know, thebottom line, is you have to know
you know who you're coaching one agelevel, how they're going to respond that
(25:17):
type of thing. One thing thatis a common theme to the coaches and
administrators that we talked to here onthe podcast is no matter where they're at
in their career or education, they'realways striving to get better, whether they're
going to camps or going a highschool coach, going to watch a college
practice with whatever respective sport that they'recoaching. And the same as with education
(25:38):
and concord A University, Urbine's Mastersand Coaching Athletics Administration program provides that for
people who already established educators and coachesor want to take that next jump to
an athletic director or administration job inyour career. You're established, you're you're
you're going through your education and inmany years teaching, and you decided to
go through the Masters and Coaching,Athletics and Illustration program. Why what was
(26:00):
it about it and how did ithelp you? Well? A couple of
things. It was that same athleticdirector, you know, he was getting
towards the tail end of his career, and it was a lot, a
lot a lot of young teachers atour age. You know, once you
get done with the initial you getyour credential, you just teach and go,
or you're teaching and coaching, youdon't have time to continue your education.
(26:21):
That was the biggest challenge was thetime. And I had been teaching
thirty years when I when I gotinto the Master's program, and as a
man, you know what, they'regonna be able to teach us old dog
new tricks and right. Uh.But uh, And for the other thing,
for some, for a lot ofteachers, especially high school teachers,
if you're not all the way overon your your pay scale, your district's
(26:41):
pay scale, getting a master's alot of times will it is in you.
It's in advancement and pay. AndI was getting down to the tail
end, and I, you know, I've been a you know, I've
been at the bottom rung of thepay scale for so many years because I
just enjoyed what I was doing.I was having fun. You know,
we had a roof over our headand food on the table, so I
was happy as to plan. Butthen when you get closer to retirement,
(27:03):
you realize, well, you know, it's a it's a significant increase in
salary. And if I get thelast few years and get that, you
know, tied in it's all abouta numbers game. But I was glad
I did it because, you know, the thing I really enjoyed about the
Master's program, which I thought goinginto it, okay, I've got nine
classes to take, let's get throughthis. But you know the thing I
(27:25):
felt about the Master's program, andthis is why I think it's it's it's
it's really relevant because that class,the way it's designed, you know,
you can you can kind of toolit to what you're doing, if it's
being basketball, baseball, whatever itis. But the thing that I liked
about it was that, you know, you could be a first year coach
or you could be a guy withthirty years under your belt, and that
(27:48):
program had something for everybody. Imean some of the stuff, you know,
some of the basic stuff, especiallyOkay, I've had my teeth kicked
in by you know, other teamsand parents and administrators for it. So
you understand how to play the gamea little bit, but a young coach
wouldn't unless they were mentored by somebody. And the Master's program, I think
(28:10):
there were classes in there and theway they were designed that did a great
job in at least making them mustunderstand and be aware of what they had
to to do as a coach.Uh. There was one of the classes
that I took, and it wasabout the legal aspects of coaching. And
I think, you know, again, when I started in education, things
(28:33):
were a lot different forty plus yearsago and today, you know, you've
got to make sure every t iscrossed and every eyes dotted and everything else
you do within the structure of aneducational system. And I think, you
know, that class, even thoughI'd been, you know, in doing
things for a long time, evenI got a lot out of that class
in terms of Wow, I didn'tthink about that, I think. But
(28:56):
I mean, even though you know, I was fortunate that I was,
you know, you knew enough things, you know, not to get in
trouble, but but that that,you know, that class like that,
the weightlifting and the conditioning, thosekinds of things, that was nothing that
I really spent a lot of timeon because you're coaching, you know,
elementary school kids for so many years. But bet when you get in high
school, it's a different level competitionand nutrition and and UH and and proper
(29:21):
conditioning and weightlifting and uh, youknow, agility training, all that stuff
is so vital, and you know, so that that was probably the thing
I really enjoyed. The other thingI thought was really good that most of
the the the instructors of the classeswere people who were in the field,
uh, either had been or wereand and had a lot of just you
(29:44):
know, good solid, you know, practical common sense advice as you talk
to them, and and I meanthey try to you know, they did
a great job of trying to youknow, scoot the old guy along and
and and get you. Because Ihadn't written a paper in thirty some years,
so you know, that might havebeen the biggest challenging. And then
when I started teaching, there wereno computers, you know, I mean
there were, they were there,but we never used them. They were
just kind of a novelty item.Well now you don't you know, you
(30:07):
don't do anything without a computer,and so you know, to have to
write a pager and do all that, and you know, I never really
is a very good typer. Soyou know, so all those things,
you know, you learn as yougo along. The class itself, the
program and the classes they offered thevariety of classes. I thought that's what
made the you know, I'm gladI took it. Actually, I've I've
(30:29):
I've had two or three other peoplethat i know that I've I've had them
go, you know, I've recommendedthe class and they took it, and
it was kind of the same thing. Was one was a first year teacher,
former player of mine and she isa kindergarten teacher now and but a
coach as well. And then therewas a buddy of mine that you know,
he had been coaching for fifteen oreighteen years and he was kind of
needed the same thing. And bothyou know, came back afterwards and said,
(30:53):
man, we're glad we took that. It helped a lot. So
that's why I think that the waythat the program I'm designed, it's it's
it's absolutely sensational for whatever you know, level and an expertise and years and
all the rest of that. It'skind of it kind of faces everybody.
Well, I mean this in anice way, what's what's next for the
(31:14):
old dog? All right? Allright, how long do you see yourself
coaching? I mean you you canprobably do this forever. I mean,
you're winning, you're successful, andyou got the program has been you know,
going for for decades now, Imean forty two years, you know,
coaching seven hundred and fifty wins.Uh, how long do you see
yourself out there? Well? Ithink the key is like anything else,
(31:36):
you know, it has to befun and and and you have to have
passion. And I think those arethe driving things. I always use my
dad as an example. He waseighty six years old when he passed away,
and he farmed to the day hedied, and he lived eighty six
because I think, you know,he got to do something me really enjoyed.
And uh, you know, I'veI've you know, I've talked to
(31:59):
a lot of teachers that are tiredover the course of my career, and
you know, I asked them,what are you gonna do? I'm gonna
retire, Okay, that's great,But what are you gonna do? You
know with retirement? Right, youknow, and and I and you know
a lot of them, you know, didn't have a plan. And and
I don't know that I had agreat exit plan because I'm still here doing
the same thing. But but it'senjoyable. It keeps you going. Certainly,
(32:22):
working with the high school kids keepsyou young, you know. I
mean it's challenging sometimes because you know, you have to deal with so many
things that are outside of your control, families and those kinds of situations and
their home lives and everything else.But you know, when they get there,
they I think the reason it's it'sso good is because they want to
(32:42):
keep coming back because it's a it'sa safe environment, it's it's you know,
it's it's positive for them. Theygo home feeling the good about what
they're doing, and they get toescape for a little bit sometimes, and
uh, you know, when yousee all that going on, it just
makes it really really worthwhile. Andso I don't know that, you know,
I get asked that question a lotnow, tim and it seems like
more so every year. We're nottrying to push you out, coach,
(33:05):
I'm just you know, well,my assistants asked me, say how much
long are we gonna be doing this? They're a lot younger than I am.
But you know, and I don'thave a definitive answer. I think,
you know, I think you knowwhen it's time, uh, And
I think when I get up andI'm not excited about going and doing it,
I'm not you know, you know, decided about scheduling games and and
(33:25):
you know, drawing up a practiceplan and those kinds of things. I
think that then you know it's it'stime. But right now, you know,
I'm sixty six years old and I'mstill having a good time, and
I don't know, we'll see.Well, I'm telling my staff right now
it's year to year, well,sixty six years young, doing great things
(33:47):
and uh, just continued success toyour program and what you're doing with that
girl's basketball program. And again,thank you so much for telling your story
and talking about Concordy. We reallyappreciate joining us on the podcast. Well,
thank you very much for having me. I enjoyed this is fun.
Well, Mintie, Thanks to DaveKatano forty years as a teacher educator in
(34:07):
the Tularry School District recognizes the Teacherof the Year Outstanding FFA advisor by the
California FA Association. He's retired nowas an educator, but still going strong
as a girls basketball coach at MissionOak High School into Larry twenty seven years
at the junior high level, nowgoing into his sixteenth season as the girls
(34:29):
varsity basketball coach. Seven hundred andfifty wins when it's all said and done.
What a career he has had andstill going strong at the age of
sixties six. We thank Dave forhis time and great to hear his story
and how he got into education andcoaching and again now going into year sixteen
at Mission Oak High School there intoLarry Well Minnie. Thanks to you for
(34:50):
listening and watching this podcast. Ifyou want to find out more about the
Masters in Coaching and Athletics Administration Programat Concordia University, Irvine, go to
CEUI EU slash Coaching. That's CUIdot edu slash coaching. They got multiple
start times throughout the year. Theygot a one thousand dollars scholarship for all
you new students. Find out ifit's the right fit for you and what
(35:12):
the start time that's best for youto start this program which you can get
done online or in person in fifteenmonths so you can better your career no
matter where you're at in your educationalcareer. The Masters in Coaching Athletics Administration
Program again at Concordia University, Irvine, CUI dot EEDU slash Coaching. Thanks
to Dave Katano. Thanks to youfor listening and watching episode fifty eight,
(35:35):
and the Masters in Coaching podcast isin the books until next time. Tim
Kate's saying so long, everybody,
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