Coaches give their all for the summer

Steve Carp

Friday, July 18, 1997 | 9:31 a.m.

One is a systems programmer for a bank on Wall Street. Another owns his own company that produces industrial coatings. A third is a principal at a junior high school.

But Gary Charles, Thad Foucher and Ron Montoya are linked by a common thread. They all love basketball to the point they dedicate a few weeks of each summer to coaching. And they believe that the game should be for the athletes, not the coaches.

Sometimes it seems like the guys who coach summer basketball teams are swimming upstream against a tide of negative publicity. Summer coaches have been stereotyped as greedy, selfish and power-hungry flesh peddlers trying to make a buck and a reputation at the expense of the kids.

Truth is, the vast majority of coaches don't fit that description. But the small minority that do seem to have more of an impact when it comes to publicizing summer basketball.

"I think most coaches are there for the kids," said Foucher, the co-owner of a Louisiana factory who has coached summer ball for nine years and is the guiding force behind the New Orleans Jazz at this week's adidas The Big Time tournament.

"I've seen the quality of coaching get better each year and the quality of play keeps improving."

Summertime is showtime

Montoya, who coaches the Las Vegas Heat, is a former high school coach. He spent five years at Basic High in Henderson. By being detached from high school ball, he can lend a more objective eye toward summer basketball.

"I think the kids trust me," said Montoya, who is the principal at Von Tobel Junior High. "They know I'm working for them, trying to get them a scholarship."

Because of the NCAA evaluation periods, the three-week window in July is a crucial element of the recruiting process. Like it or not, summer league coaches find themselves dealing with college coaches, trying to get a feel for where the kid is interested in going.

Jack McMahon, who coaches prep phenom Dan Gadzuric on the Greater Boston A.A. summer league team, spent a good half-hour after a game this week dealing with assistants who are trying to get their foot in the door with the 6-foot-11 center from the Netherlands.

Sonny Vaccaro, the executive director of The Big Time, says the NCAA has no one to blame but itself for the current state of affairs.

"The NCAA needs to do one of two things," he said. "Either eliminate the summer altogether or extend the evaluation period another month. You're putting tremendous pressure on the coaches and the players. For the players, it's their one chance to be on stage. That's a lot of pressure."

Kids come first

One way or another, hundreds of players are offered scholarships. How much control the summer league coach has over a kid varies. Some high school coaches like Mater Dei's (Calif.) Gary McKnight and St. Raymond's (N.Y.) Gary DeCesare put their own summer teams together and they're able to maintain control over who has access to their kids.

Montoya said as long as the coach has the player's best interests at heart, it shouldn't matter whether he's the high school or summer league coach.

"The kid should always come first," he said.

Charles, who has coached many talented players in his 10 years with the New York Panthers, agrees.

"To me, it's more than just basketball," said Charles, who works for The Bank of New York. "It's important for most of these kids to understand that most of them won't make it to the NBA and that it's important to enjoy their experience playing now.

"Ten years from now, it's not the games or the winning they'll remember. It'll be the traveling to Vegas, the friendships they made with their teammates and the places they visited together."

Charles said there's nothing wrong with helping a kid get to the next level and realizing his dream of playing college basketball.

"I'm not in this for me," he said. "I've had chances to coach at the college level. I want to see these kids get a shot of making it."

Fighting bad rap

But Charles admits he and other summer league coaches are fighting a negative reputation.

"If a high school coach gives a kid $5 to get something to eat, he's helping him out," he said. "If an AAU coach does that, then he's buying the kid.

"I think there's enough good coaches who are trying to do things right. But sometimes it takes time to shake a reputation."

Foucher contacts the high school coach of each of his prospective Jazz players and makes sure there is no problem before he coaches that kid during the summer.

"We're putting these players in opportunities to promote themselves," he said. "We want to enhance their opportunity for a scholarship.

"To me, the high school coach is the main guy. In no way am I the one controlling the kids."

That's not to say Foucher doesn't have influence. He has helped several kids move on to college, including UNLV's Greedy Daniels. But Foucher says the ultimate call on where to go to school is the player's, not his.

Adding structure

With each year, more programs are trying to provide a structured environment for their players. That means less helter-skelter basketball and more set plays, an emphasis on defense and an improved work ethic.

"We practice. We run plays. We have defensive sets," Charles said of his Panthers. "I know what the (college) coaches are looking for and we try and incorporate that into the way we play."

Foucher said: "I think the quality of play is getting better every year. We stress defense to our kids because that's what catches the college coaches' eyes."

Vaccaro said he has noticed the overall improvement of play in each of The Big Time's three years.

"I think the AAU coaches are doing a better job of grasping the team concepts," he said. "A lot of these teams have been together for a few years. They understand they can look good and still play team ball."

Perhaps as that kind of environment is noticed and publicized, the less notoriety and negativity will come the summer league coach's way.

"We had five kids from our program last year play collegiately this year," Montoya said. "To me, that's the most important thing. That's what this is supposed to be all about."