Columnist Spencer Patterson: Ousted Gorman coach puzzled by move

Spencer Patterson

Friday, June 15, 2001 | 10:47 a.m.

Spencer Patterson covers high school sports for the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at 259-4085 or at spencer@lasvegassun.com.

One week after being forced out as boys basketball coach at Bishop Gorman High School, Bob Hubbard says he was blindsided by the move.

"I never said that I would resign. That's their story," said Hubbard, who guided the Gaels to a 29-3 record and a runner-up finish at the 4A State Tournament last winter.

"I thought it was a terrific family at Gorman, a great environment, and I was looking forward to spending my whole career there. ... When you're in a Christian environment, you have to treat people the right way, and they didn't do that with me."

Hubbard, a former collegiate coach at Alabama and South Alabama, joined the Gaels last year, becoming the school's third coach in less than six months.

Last Thursday, he was called into athletic director Kevin Hickman's office, where Hubbard said he was asked, and declined, to resign his coaching and teaching positions at the school.

"It was my decision," said Hickman, a former NFL tight end who came to the school last spring after an internship with the short-lived XFL. "After meeting with Bob a few times, we couldn't seem to meet on common ground on a lot of issues I thought were important."

The next day, Gorman named Grant Rice -- a Hubbard assistant last season and a former UNLV player -- as Hubbard's successor, opting not to open the position up to applicants.

"I don't know why, but from the first day Kevin got there, he had it in for me, without knowing me as a coach or as a person," Hubbard said. "It's like he had a hidden agenda."

Despite his feelings about last week's decision, Hubbard will coach some of the Gaels one more time, at a University of Alabama basketball camp that begins today and concludes next Friday.

"I still have a relationship with the kids, and that's why I'm honoring my commitment to take them to Alabama," Hubbard said.

Guard C.J. Watson, one of the players who will accompany Hubbard on that trip, got the news of Gorman's coaching change Thursday after returning from a Five-Star Basketball Camp in Virginia.

"I didn't see it coming at all. It was pretty shocking," said Watson, an incoming senior widely considered Nevada's top collegiate prospect. "I've always been able to talk to (Hubbard), get advice from him. When I need him he's there for me."

Rice will be Watson's fourth head coach in three seasons. Jeff Wagonseller resigned after coaching the Gaels to the 2000 state title. He was replaced by assistant Robert Smith, who left after a brief summer stint to join the staff of the now-defunct Las Vegas Bandits of the IBL.

"It's tough to switch coaches every year, trying to learn a new system every time," Watson said. "But I'll deal with it."

Hubbard, who was heading up Gorman's summer basketball camp, will hold his own session -- "Coach Hubbard's Camp of Champions" -- June 25-29 from 5-8 p.m. at Warren-Walker Upper School for boys and girls in grades four and up. For more information, call 497-6131.

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