“Rising Stars”
BasketballScoop.com and ONS Performance™, makers of Critical Reload™, announced today the winners of the “Rising Stars” awards. The awards recognize those assistant coaches who are some of the best in the business as determined by their peers.
“The best part about these awards is that the process is entirely driven by coaches. To even be considered for the awards each coach had to have been nominated by another coach in the game. The winners were then selected by a panel of current head and assistant coaches,” said Scott Roussel, President of BasketballScoop.
Michael Bewley, President and CEO of ONS Performance™ added, “ONS Performance’s Critical Reload would like to congratulate this year’s nominees and winners. Recognized by their peers for their talent, effort and dedication, Critical Reload is proud to be a sponsor of this elite selection of coaches. Much like these coaches, at ONS Performance our commitment to the athlete is clearly demonstrated in our product design, testing and certification efforts to ensure athletes and coaches receive top-quality health, safety and performance nutrition. Congratulations again to this years winners!”
Roussel added, “Each Finalist is extremely well thought of in the profession and we have received nothing but positive feedback about the awards and each coach. Our panel felt strongly that each Finalist was deserving and thus in addition to announcing the five Rising Stars we are also naming a second team.”
The BasketballScoop 2009 Coaches of the Year powered by Critical Reload™ are:
Charlie Ernst – Associate Head Coach – University of Findlay
Chris Mack – Head Coach – Xavier University
Leon Rice – Associate Head Coach – Gonzaga
Billy Schmidt – Assistant Coach – University of Dayton
Dedrique Taylor – Associate Head Coach – Arizona St. University
Coaches were evaluated in the following areas: Recruiting, Player Development, Team Development / Scouting, Leadership and Administration.
Charlie Ernst – Coach Ernst represents the University of Findlay with great pride. Ernst played and Findlay and has been there ever since. With nearly 20 years of coaching experience under his belt, Ernst and the Oilers had their most successful season on the court this season. The Oilers went 36-0 and won the D-II National Championship. Ernst, who leads the defense and is the recruiting coordinator, “deserves a huge amount of credit” says head coach Ron Niekamp. Niekamp told BasketballScoop, “Charlie is a great coach and a great person. He has done everything we have ever asked of him and more. The players love him and he does a great job on the court. Charlie is a great ambassador for the University of Findlay.”
Chris Mack – At the time of his nomination, Chris Mack was the Associate Head Coach to Xavier. Sean Miller left to take the job at Arizona and Athletic Director Mike Bobinski performed a thorough due diligence and came to the decision that Mack was the best person to replace Miller as head coach at Xavier. Mack, a two time captain while playing at Xavier, coached first under Skip Prosser at Xavier and Wake Forest and had been on Miller’s staff at Xavier for the last five seasons. Bobinski told BasketballScoop, “I was fortunate to have the opportunity to evaluate a number of highly qualified individuals for our head coaching position. The position our program occupies in the college basketball world today generated a quality group of candidates and any number of them could clearly have been a solid choice. In the end, however, the most impressive candidate, and the person best equipped to lead our program to even greater success in the years ahead, happened to be someone we know very well. I’ve known for some time that Chris was ready to be a successful head coach. I’m very excited to say that he will do so at Xavier.”
Leon Rice – Head Coach Mark Few hired Leon Rice four days after being named head coach in 1999. Few told BasketballScoop that, “Leon has been so instrumental in helping us do all that we have at Gonzaga. We couldn’t have done it without him. Leon’s positive attitude and enthusiasm shine through in everything he does. He’s a real leader.” Since Rice came to Gonzaga the Bulldogs have gone 236-60. Few and Rice have grown the Bulldogs into a nationally respected program that can compete with (and beat) any team they play.
Billy Schmidt – Head Coach Brian Gregory tells BasketballScoop that “Billy Schmidt is truly one of the elite assistant coaches in the country. He is very dependable and has a great basketball mind. He knows the right way to run a program on and off the court and he represents our program very well. Billy’s work ethic is second to none.” One of Gregory’s first moves when named head coach in 2003 was to hire Schmidt away from Tommy Amaker’s who Schmidt had been with at Seton Hall and Michigan. Together, Gregory and Schmidt have improved Dayton into a powerhouse in the A-10. Gregory added, “Billy’s going to do great things in this game for a long, long time.”
Dedrique Taylor – “Dedrique is a coach that parents want their boys to play for and to be around because they know he’s going to teach them the right way” Arizona St. head coach Herb Sendek recently told BasketballScoop. Sendek went on to say, “Dedrique really is the complete package. He recruits extremely well, he develops athletes into great players, he can breakdown an opponent better than most and his game prep is excellent. He really can do it all.” In the three seasons that Taylor has been at Arizona St. the Sun Devils have seen their win total rise from 8 to 25 and the future looks bright.
The Second Team consists of Ron Bradley (Clemson), Wayne McClain (Illinois), Dave Rice (BYU), Brian Wardle (Wisc. Green Bay) and Michael White (Ole Miss). Regarding this group, Roussel added, “Dr. Bradley has been successful everywhere he has been, certainly including his years as head coach at Radford. His current and former players speak very proudly of coach Bradley. Coach McClain is like a father to many of his former players and receives (and deserves) praise from the rest of the coaches on his staff and in his conference frequently. Coach Rice does it the right way and has BYU playing at a higher level than they have in decades. Coach Wardle is a great up and coming coach. You’ll be hearing his name for a long time. And Michael White, who couldn’t be a better person, is very deserving of recognition. What he and the staff at Ole Miss have done is really impressive. Look for White to continue to do great things for his team, and his alma mater, for a long time.”
To read more about these awards, click here for the original announcment.