Thursday, May 27, 2010

Glad to have some help around the office

Finally it is really going to happen. After two months on the job I am going to finally be able to unveil my new assistant coaches. Coach Bobby Williams and Ms. Bobbie Hilliard were very gracious in letting me get the two candidates that I wanted from the beginning.

I am so excited about these two young, energetic and hard working guys. They both have been in winning programs, and worked under some great head coaches already at such an early stage in their careers. They will officially begin working Monday June 1. They have officially been hired so I can release there names at this time, Alvin Brooks III and Chris Mudge.

Alvin has been at Bradley University the past three years, and before that won a national championship as an assistant at Arkansas Fort Smith and Midland College. Back to back years at two different places is pretty amazing! He will bring a lot of great things to the table: recruiting, coaching, player development, academic monitoring and the list goes on and on. Alvin is a young guy who we coaches call a budding star. I am looking forward to working with him and hopefully helping his career grow even more. He is really excited to be at Sam Houston State and back at HOME!!!

Chris Mudge is what we coaches in the business call a GRINDER! He works 24-7 and loves the game of basketball. He will always turn over every rock and never leave a loose end untied. I am really excited about Chris because in essence he really reminds me of myself when I was that age many moons ago. His tireless work ethic will come in handy with recruiting, film preparation, player development, and all the ends in outs of the day to day operation of a program.

Chris is very intelligent and has also been a part of some Championship caliber basketball at Midland College as an assistant coach. He also was under the tutelage of coach Barnes at the University of Texas as a graduate assistant. Coach Barnes is a very good friend of mine and called on Chris's behalf. Was very complimentary of his work ethic and desire to become a Division One assistant coach. By the way, we will be making a trip to Austin, Texas, on November 23rd of this upcoming season for a contest with the Horns.

As for the basketball program, we are starting to slow down just a bit. Our guys finished up the semester strong academically, and we are looking forward to summer school where we will have the largest participation of our players that we've ever had. Lance and Josten will graduate first summer session and walk in August. Of course they both have another year of eligibility remaining and will use it! Corey finishes up in the Fall semester with two classes that he can take on line while he pursues a professional basketball career. Preston as I mentioned in an earlier piece, will have to take all of next year to finish due to his preparation to get into Physical Therapy School. Arthur and DeLuis finished this May.

Our recruiting is almost complete. I know a lot of you are wondering how we can sign all these people when there are only a certain amount of scholarships available. This will all take care of itself in due time. Until all the grades are in and decisions are made, we will continue to look at possibilities to improve our basketball program. We feel good about the guys we have signed up to this point, and when the dust settles in the next couple of weeks the makeup of our team will be complete.

Jason Hooten
Head basketball coach

1 comment:

TVs Michael Oder said...

Sounds like the progam is in good hands Coach! Have a great summer! Looking forward to getting back in the Copper Top next season for some great Bearkat Basketball!