Coach: Ray VanHeukelem
High school: Littleton
Sport: boys basketball
What made you decide you wanted to become a coach in your
present sport?
I loved competing in basketball and wanted to see if I could
stay involved and relevant for the players. I decided to hang out
with good coaches and find out what made them different from bad
coaches, and I loved the opportunity to teach players to compete
and to succeed.
Describe one of the best moments you can remember from your
coaching career?
As an assistant, it was the first state championship in
basketball that I was part of. As a head coach, it was the first
state championship in soccer when I got to coach my own
children.
What was one of the most heartbreaking moments of your coaching
career?
It wasn’t the losing, but it was the heartache of having an
athlete suffer a major injury and not get to participate in sports
any longer.
If a young athlete came to you and said he/she was interested in
a career as a coach, what advice would you give him/her?
Go for it. Give back to the activity you love and help younger
players do it the right way.
What do you do for fun that isn’t related to the sport you
presently coach?
I love to fly fish. Whenever we don’t have something going on in
basketball, I do something with fly fishing.
What is the toughest decision a coach in your sport has to make
on a fairly consistent basis?
Cutting kids is tough, but “cutting” kids every night by playing
time decisions is still the toughest, especially when some don’t
get in the game.
If you could coach for any professional sports team for one
year, which would it be and what changes would you make?
The Nuggets. I would have them doing more variations on their
defenses. Some zones and some combination defenses, add presses,
get fired and take my contract money and go fly fishing in New
Zealand.
Your present team just won the state championship. What do you
(and/or the team) do to celebrate the achievement?
Have a parade, go out to dinner, ask for a new gym.