Spending Time with My Favorite Coach

I recently attended a basketball game at my alma mater, Saguaro High, with my old coach, Mike Cady. I first played for him on the junior varsity (JV) team my sophomore year. I made the varsity team my junior year but Coach Cady recommended that I “come down” and play an extra year of JV. I was discouraged initially, but he implored to me, “You are going to rot away on the bench up there. Come down and play for me and work on your overall game.” He got promoted to varsity head coach before my senior year, so I ended up playing three years for Coach. Between summer camps in the mornings and open gyms in the afternoons and Saturdays, I often say that I spent far more time with Coach during my last three years of high school than my own parents.

I have stayed in touch with Coach regularly over the years, attending a game with him at least annually before Covid caused that to pause. When I was in high school, he taught Industrial Arts (also known as “shop” back in the day). He was beloved by the students he taught as well as the athletes he coached primarily in basketball (both boys and girls) and some football. He retired from coaching and teaching in 1999. He is 88 years old now and still serves as a substitute teacher at Saguaro almost every day. He “subbed” in the entire Scottsdale district for many years and had many of my children, nieces and nephews in classes over the years.

Back in the mid-1980s, there was no internet, limited home video games, and few of the entertainment options young people have today. My friends and I spent a lot of time in the gym or even outside shooting hoops and developing our games.

Coach always told us to show up (and show up early)…”Good things will happen if you make yourself available.” He impressed upon us to work hard…harder than others were working at that time. We would be hustling during a drill and he would bark out, “Do you think the Chaparral kids are working harder than you right now? Who wants it more?!” He taught us to compete giving our best effort but always conducting ourselves like gentlemen. He was the nicest man I knew but had a streak of toughness that was contagious. He rarely, if ever, used foul language. Every player I know who ever played for Coach Cady has nothing but great things to say about him.

A few years ago, I was attending the RJ Summer Development Conference and ESPN’s Dick Vitale was speaking as one of the keynotes. He was passionately talking about the influence good coaches have on young people…I took out my phone and sent a text to Coach Cady, thanking him for all he did for me and letting him know that I owe a lot of the success I have in my life to the things I picked up while spending so much time under his guidance. We have shared a nice relationship over the last 40 years.

At the game we recently attended, he was talking about the state of schools today…the lack of respect that students have for teachers, the foul language he hears everywhere (even in the teachers’ lounge), and the rudeness of meddlesome parents. He predicts that teachers are going to be the next profession to go through a “great resignation,” just as we are seeing in the restaurant/hospitality industry today. He thinks teachers have simply “had enough” and are going to be leaving in droves. We spoke about all of the great teachers that I had at Saguaro and how good teachers make such an impact on young people. Hopefully, there will be practical changes in our education systems and a material wage increase so that top talent is incentivized to remain as teachers.

I rarely post on Facebook, but I am part of a “Saguaro Class of ‘86” group and I posted about attending the recent game with Coach. The comments that came in were flattering…things like, “My freshman girls hoop coach! He changed my life!” I took a screenshot of some and texted them to him, reminding him to “Never underestimate the positive impact you have made on so many!!!”

I have solicited “group projects” in this space in the past and am doing so again now. Please send me your favorite story, life lesson or meaningful experience you recall from a coach or educator. I will share them in a future column.

-Gary Weiss, February 2022