East Hamilton head coach Rodney English rallies his team to a one-point win during a timeout against Cleveland late in the regular season.
photo by Dennis Norwood/File Photo
Walking into the East Hamilton gymnasium Monday morning, the sound of basketballs banging off the hardwood provided a familiar greeting.
The Hurricanes, one day from a date with program history in a District 5-3A championship game against Cleveland, were about to start 90-minute practice.
Coach Rodney English, who has transformed the ‘Canes into a title-contending squad in three short years, had already done his homework. After beating Bradley Central in Saturday’s tournament semifinals, English didn’t celebrate, but studied three Cleveland game tapes, making note of every Blue Raiders player, team schemes and tendencies, plus anything else that caught his eye.
“I paid close attention to the Cleveland defense,” English said. “If we cut down on our negative plays that can lead to excitable plays for Cleveland, we’ll be OK.”
On Sunday, he contacted his top five players and asked each if he would come to the gym for a little work. The reply from all five was: “Coach, I’ll be right up there.” Before they left the gym each had taken 800 shots.
A day later, they’re back in the gym installing a game plan for what is without question the most important game in the program’s eight-year history.
English got the players in a circle at mid-court for a pre-practice talk session.
They jogged while dribbling the ball and broke into high-knee kicks. Noah Fager, a 6-foot-4 forward and one of only two seniors on the team roster, went hop-scotching down the far sideline looking more like a high-stepping gazelle than a high school hoopster.
They shoot layups on each side of the basket. The class-change buzzer goes off, but no one pays attention. School is out.
More running.
“Let’s wake those legs up,” English shouts.
Six basketballs are placed on the perimeter behind the 3-point line. The sneakers are really squeaking and sound like a thousand crickets in distress.
English stops one of the drills because a player is hobbled. “You OK?” the coach asks. There is no audible response. “Go see Megan (trainer Gibson).” The player goes and quickly returns.
The teams break down for 5-on-5 scrimmage work. The five starters wear East Hamilton green jerseys. The other five wear gray and simulate Cleveland starters.
The grays score. “Let’s don’t compromise our defense,” English said.
English dresses down a starter for not boxing out. “Give me 15,” he says. That’s 15 pushups. On two other occasions, players gave English 15.
“I love how he approaches the players,” Fager would say later. “He expects excellence and that’s what we try to give him. We do pretty much the same thing in every practice.”
The workouts are instructive but intense.
A peep into the gym rafters explains why. The Lady Hurricanes have three District 6-2A championship banners from 2011-13hanging up there. There are none for the boys.
“Our goal is to win the district tournament,” junior point guard Justin Dozier said. “One more win and we’ll get a banner.”
The coach stops the five-on-five action and lectured front-line players.
“We had three opportunities there. They (Cleveland) scored twice and we failed to finish on the third. Every possession counts.”
Clearly, the No. 2-seeded Hurricanes (21-9) are about to play the most important game in the program’s eight-year history. In seven previous appearances, the first four in District 6-2A, East Hamilton lost its opening tournament game.
Saturday’s 70-63 win over Bradley Central snapped that negative streak.
“This is a big moment for our school,” English said. “With all the stuff that goes on at schools, all the dynamics, we’ve been able to keep a group of kids together with the same goal in mind and we pushed them to get here. I’m so proud of them it’s not even funny. This is awesome.”
It’s about that missing banner.
“That’s the whole point of all of this,” the coach said. “I’m a little country boy from Denmark, South Carolina and basketball has given me everything. My mom once told me, ‘If you want different, work.’ I came in here and went to work. I told people I want a ceremony when (principal Gail) Chuy hangs that banner and praises our kids. It’s got nothing to do with me. It’s about these kids.”
Top-seeded Cleveland and No. 2 East Hamilton split regular-season games. The Blue Raiders won 79-71 in the Hurricanes’ gym. The ‘Canes won 78-77 in Raider Arena when 5-9 sophomore guard Cameron Montgomery made two free throws with 2.2 seconds left.
That was Cleveland’s only league loss of the season.
So, the two fairly new 5-3A rivals clash again Tuesday night at Soddy-Daisy High School with the Blue Raiders holding a 6-2 lead in the short series. East Hamilton’s other win came in December 2013.
“We’re hungry,” said DaVae Hughley, a 6-4 junior forward. “It’s a championship game obviously and we just have to play our game. We beat them earlier this year, so we know they’re not unbeatable. We have the players and tools on this team to do that.”
After East Hamilton defeated Cleveland on Feb. 3, the Hurricanes lost their next three games against 6-2A power Tyner and league foes Bradley Central and Walker Valley, setbacks that gave the regular-season title to Cleveland.
The Hurricanes haven’t completely discarded the sting of those final two losses.
“I think we treated that last Cleveland game like our championship before we finished the season out,” said Fager, one of the league’s top 3-point shooters. “We snapped out of it and we’re back on track now.”
English coached at the high school and college level before he took the East Hamilton job, with stops at Gordon Central (Ga.) High School, East Tennessee State as a women’s assistant – he played basketball for two seasons at ETSU – and left an assistant men’s coach at UT-Chattanooga to become boys coach at East Hamilton.
It’s also of note that English once played with the Harlem Globetrotters.
“I coach as a high school coach,” he said. “It’s my program and I told parents that when I got the job. Our parents are involved in other ways, like running the concession stand, things like that, but I’m the coach. We play the game and are raise funds.”
On at least one occasion, a father sought a meeting with English, who obliged. The father complained about his son’s playing time. English listened and as the meeting broke up delivered his answer.
To paraphrase that statement, English told the dad to have a nice day and please take his son with him out of the building. That son, who had given English some angst, was no longer on the team.
“I’m focused on my players,” the coach said. “I’m about making them better men and better basketball and I don’t care what the parents think.”
Rodney English is also making his players winners on the court and in the classroom. One of his players had two physical education blocks on his schedule. After talking to English that player’s schedule changed to include a class more worthy of his study.
“I love what we’ve been able to do with this group,” he said. “I love what we’re doing with the next group coming along. We have an eighth-grade group that is phenomenal. Our program is now stable. We couldn’t do all this without the support of Chuy and her administration team. I love where we are.”
The Hurricanes are on the verge of possibly winning their first district tournament championship.
“That means we’ve done our job as a team up to this point,” Dozier said. “We thought we did something special when we beat Cleveland, but we didn’t. So the game coming up means a lot.”
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)