Assisting in greatness

“Most wins as an assistant coach,” isn’t likely to be a statistic people pay significant attention to. Does this mean assistant coaches aren’t as important or newsworthy as head coaches?

Most head coaches would say no. Head men’s basketball coach Rob Colbert and head baseball coach Ken Howe have over 600 wins combined over their respective careers, but both would quickly admit many of those wins would not have happened had it not been for the efforts and talents of their assistant coaches.

There are some successful head coaches currently making a name for themselves in sports: Geno Auriemma, Bill Belichick, George Karl and Joe Torre to name a few.
The true test of a sports fan’s knowledge is naming a single one of their assistant coaches. Chances are, even die-hard fans can’t.

A bit of research will show assistant coaches are equally important to helping a team win as a head coach, if not more.

In the offseason, assistant coaches typically have their own “area” which they are responsible for. This could be an area the head coach can’t spend a ton of time focusing on, but usually the assistant is assigned this area because he or she excels in it.
“What I’m doing in particular other than going to recruiting events during most of the weekend to see talent for next year,” assistant men’s basketball coach Kevin Justice said.
Justice has one specific area he chooses to gear most of his attention towards.
“My main responsibility is scouting,” Justice said. “We watch so much video. Video of different teams and trying to plan on what we’re going to do to try to win games.”

Even though basketball is currently in the offseason, Justice still has a lot of responsibilities, including his job on campus as an admissions counselor.
“The next couple months will be filled with a lot of video tape watching, be it our team, as well as other teams trying to figure out what we want to do with next year’s team,” Justice said. “One of the nice parts of this time of year is were starting to see our whole class develop for the incoming freshman class and so we’re looking at where do these kids start to fit in and what can we do differently with the new talent that we’re bringing in.”
Like Justice, assistant baseball coach Martin Testo works in the admissions office when he’s not working with the team. Also like Justice, Testo has many responsibilities both in season and off.

“To me, the responsibility of a good assistant is to be a good link between the players and the head coach,” Testo said. “On the lines of communications, along with Danny [Moylan] and Johnny [Raiola, when [coach Howe] is on them hard we need to be there to pick them up. Always being loyal to your head coach. That to me is the key of being the assistant coach. His program, he runs it his way, you respect that.”

The value of an assistant coach isn’t something most head coaches skip over.
Coach Howe was quick to point out how much more difficult everything he does would be without his assistants.

“It makes my life 100 percent easier,” Howe said. “Realistically, since Marty has been back with the program we’ve really turned the table on what we’re trying to accomplish. He’s not only my right hand man, but he’s my left hand man as well.”

“He’s the gas that runs the engine,” laughed Howe. “Same thing with coach Moylan and coach Raiola. Without assistant coaches I would not be where I am. It’s those guys that drive me to get better.”

While each assistant has their own responsibility, they are all striving to make the team better as a whole.

“We have different responsibilities but it’s all a big focus on what we’re trying to accomplish here first of all, then trying to get the other things done,” Howe said.
As far as remaining assistant coaches, both Justice and Testo hope to one day be head coaches, but both were also quick to say they are in no rush and are perfectly happy where they are.

“I’ve had the opportunity to be a head coach in the summer for the Keene Swamp Bats, which is a really good league to coach,” Testo said. “But I really enjoy working under coach Howe. He’s given me ample opportunity to learn what it takes to be a head coach. I guess it’s my dream one day to be a head coach, but I guess I really enjoy coaching here. If this is the only place I coach for the rest of my life I would be content.”

With the success that has followed the hiring of both coach Testo and coach Justice, Keene would welcome such a decision.

Mike Steiner can be contacted at msteiner@keeneequinox.com