James DiNicola, middle left, varsity boys basketball assistant coach, and Leonard Taylor, right middle, varsity boys basketball head coach, talk with their players at Basic Academy Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021.
Saturday, Dec. 25, 2021 | 2 a.m.
The Basic Academy basketball team had just finished a day of games in a preseason tournament when coaches suggested the journey back to Henderson first include a stop at In-N-Out Burger.
The group occupied a section of the restaurant, polishing off double-double combo meals and rehashing the games. When they finished eating, something unexpected happened: Everyone kept talking, seemingly losing track of time and genuinely enjoying the evening with each other.
Leonard Taylor, the Wolves’ longtime coach, glanced around the restaurant and couldn’t help feeling that he was looking into a mirror.
Each of those players reminded Taylor, a 1995 Basic graduate, of himself. The teens have the same hopes and dreams, same underdog mentality on the court, and they are being raised in the same Henderson neighborhoods.
“What a brotherhood,” he said.
Basic, with a history dating to the 1940s, is unlike most Southern Nevada schools in that alumni like Taylor always seem to find their way back. Two other coaches in the program — varsity assistant James DiNicola and freshman head coach Tyler Dobbins — are also graduates of the school. Bart Black, the junior varsity coach, has taught at Basic for nearly three decades and in the fall he coached the tennis team to its first state championship.
It doesn’t stop there. Football coach Jeff Cahill, girls basketball coach Reese Candelaria, volleyball coach Robin Wood and baseball coach Scott Baker are all Basic alumni. Same for principal Gerald Bustamante, as well as many of the academy’s teachers and assistant coaches.
That sense of community pride you may find in many small towns across the nation — but is often missing in metro Las Vegas — is alive and well in Henderson. The high school, rightfully so, is the centerpiece of the community.
And what happens there matters to many in the neighborhood, from nearby restaurants like Johnny Mac’s and Friendly Donut House, where the walls are adorned with Basic memorabilia, to packed bleachers at Don Taylor Stadium on a football Friday night.
“When you have a new player come in, (they) are getting the same coach that coached one of (their) siblings,” said DiNicola, a 2002 graduate. “That tradition set us apart.”
About a third of the basketball program’s 45 players have parents who are Basic graduates, including ninth-grader Kayden Bentz, “whose dad was my shooting guard,” Taylor says with a proud grin about Steve Bentz. Bentz was also the Basic head coach before Taylor.
It’s a fraternity unlike any other, as Taylor says his Basic teammates, including Dobbins’ uncle, are still his closest friends. He knew Dobbins as a small child, eventually became his high school coach and then welcomed him back to the program to start his coaching career.
Dobbins’ fiancee is a Basic graduate. Same with Taylor’s wife.
Senior center David Estes remembers coming to Basic games when he was in grade school, envisioning a day when it would be his turn to represent the neighborhood team. After all, it’s the school his parents met at and graduated from.
“Now I am part of that tradition I grew up watching,” Estes said. “I’m part of the team I grew up cheering for.”
Taylor as a teenager idolized Basic physical education teacher John Wise, who occupied the corner desk in the coaches’ office and was so well-respected by students everyone simply called him, “Coach.” Even though there were many other coaches at the school, if you said “Coach” everyone knew you were talking about Wise.
At the end of Wise’s career, Taylor “came out to see me one day while I was teaching, asked me if he could do his student teaching with me. He did. I retired, he took my spot in boys’ PE,” Wise said.
Taylor has been coaching in the program for 15 years, the last 10 as its head coach. He doesn’t know his exact overall record but admits it’s likely more defeats than victories.
And, he refreshingly says, that’s just fine. You can’t measure a successful high school experience exclusively by the results on game days, although he liked his team’s chances to win the state title last year in the first season of reimagined class 4A, where neighborhood schools such as Basic didn’t have to play powers like Bishop Gorman or Coronado. The season, however, was canceled because of the pandemic.
“We all grew up like these kids dreaming of wearing the Basic jersey,” Taylor said. “I am proud of where I am from. I am a Wolf and this is my family.”
Giving players that memorable experience is made easier by supporters of the Basic community. Taylor raves about how the program has many financial backers, helping eliminate the costs of equipment and uniforms — or picking up the tab for the occasional postgame meal. That includes families, businesses and notable alumni, such as Clark County Commissioner Jim Gibson.
It’s a support-system that is like-minded, Taylor stresses, because many of their fondest childhood memories came from competing in high school events for the Wolves. Taylor and his coaching staff could talk for days about those games from yesteryear, trying to determine whose team won the most games or replaying victories over rivals.
It’s the kind of conversations that kept the group longer-than expected that evening during the postgame meal.
“We are here to make better husbands, fathers and members of our community,” Taylor said. “If we accomplish that, the rest will take care of itself.”
