Drake Head Coach Mark Phelps

[tornado]

New Drake head coach Mark Phelps has hired his assistants.

One, Kareem Richardson was a star PG at Evansville a little over a decade ago and is known as a good recruiter in the midwest.

http://www.umkckangaroos.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=89988&SPID=10799&DB_OEM_ID=18300&ATCLID=1263932&Q_SEASON=2007

The others are...Justin Ohl (was already on Keno Davis' staff) and Mike Gibson (who like Phelps, comes from Arizona State).
None of the other Drake assistants under Keno are being retained.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/wire/chi-ap-ia-drake-phelps,0,6091745.story

[BU ICEMAN]

Dude, I totally remember talking smack to Ohl back in the day.....

[DUBulldog]

Both Ohl and Richardson have left Drake this offseason.

Ohl became head coach at Waukee High School (Des Moines suburb). Waukee is by far the fastest growing school district in the state, having gone from Class A (smallest class in Iowa) to 4A (largest class) in the past 10-15 years. Waukee has produced a D1 b-ball player in each of the last 3 seasons, so hopefully Coach Ohl can help steer some of those guys to Drake.

Kareem Richardson has taken a position on the staff at Xavier.

To replace Ohl, Drake hired Brett Nelson, former starting guard for Florida who was on the Arkansas staff last season. To replace Richardson, they have hired Stan Johnson, who has been an assistant at Utah the past 3 seasons. Both guys became available when their head coach was replaced after the 2010-11 season.

With Phelps entering what many consider his do-or-die season, I was kind of hoping he'd hire some older, more experienced assistants to help with the X's and O's, but both of these guys seem like good hires, coming from much more prominent schools.

[tornado]

That's another odd move that is the opposite of the way almost all coaches try to head...
there are few high school coaches who wouldn't want to jump to D-I assistant - even a LOW D-I assistant as Billy Wright did going from being the head coach of one of the most prestigious high schools in the nation to assistant at WIU -- but still -- it's the direction almost every coach will make in a heartbeat and the number who move the opposite direction are very few and far between indeed - and yet here we have an example of a D-I assistant stepping down to become a high school coach.

[DUBulldog]

That's another odd move that is the opposite of the way almost all coaches try to head...
there are few high school coaches who wouldn't want to jump to D-I assistant - even a LOW D-I assistant as Billy Wright did going from being the head coach of one of the most prestigious high schools in the nation to assistant at WIU -- but still -- it's the direction almost every coach will make in a heartbeat and the number who move the opposite direction are very few and far between indeed - and yet here we have an example of a D-I assistant stepping down to become a high school coach.

I don't know what Waukee is paying, but this is the 2nd coach in a row they've hired away from the college ranks. The Coach before Justin Ohl was Matt Woodley, also a former Drake player, who had been an assistant at Washington State for a few years before going to Waukee. But, Woodley stayed just one year at Waukee, and got the job as head coach at Truman State (D-2 school) in Missouri.

There are some circumstances that might help to explain Ohl's move after 15 years at Drake as either a player, grad assistant or assistant coach. JO and his wife (a former Drake women's b-ball player) had their 1st child during this past basketball season. The baby was born prematurely and was in the hospital for awhile, but is doing well now. Becoming a father for the first time might have made JO reconsider how much time he wanted to spend on the road, as all assistant coaches must spend quite a bit of time on the road recruiting.

So, while it might seem to be an unusual move, I can certainly see why he made the move.

[jrish12]

But let's ask this question...
If I drive for 10 years and never get a ticket, then am I due some kind of award, a special plaque just for doing what was the basic standard, keeping the rules?

Actually you do get incentive, you get lower insurance rates for not having any tickets on your record and you are able to renew your license at home rather than having to go to the DMV if im not mistaken.

Not having to go to the DMV would be incentive enough for me