From the desk of Wally Dawkins, Athletic Director:

This is the second of a Two Part Series.

When I became the Head Boys Basketball Coach at Whitehouse, I was facing a monumental task.  First and foremost, I was asked to fill the shoes of legendary Hall of Fame Coach C.L. Nix.  Coach Nix had been at Whitehouse for 31 years, amassed over 700 wins, and had won the State AAA Championship.

How do you replace a Coach like C.L. Nix?

Answer: You don’t.

However, I did not want to be the guy “who lost”.

I immediately set out to build my program at Whitehouse from the ground up.  I could never match Coach Nix and his success, but I wanted to be at Whitehouse for a long time so I decided to take a three pronged approach.

I first started a youth league for boy’s basketball.  In my first year we had 8 teams and 69 boys.  When I left Whitehouse in 2008, the league had 55 teams and over 600 boys playing basketball.  The league allowed future players to not only begin at an early age, but for me to see who was coming up. In conjunction with this, I started two weeks of summer basketball camps with almost 200 boys in attendance.  The summer camps gave me the opportunity to not only work on the fundamentals I thought were important, I was able to instill a love for the game of basketball in those boys early on.  By working with the youth on a regular basis,  I knew the names of most every boy who lived in Whitehouse from the 1st grade up, and by the 5th grade, I could usually tell if they were going to be a player or not.  Third and equally important, I began installing the things we did at the high school level in boys’ basketball starting with 5th & 6th graders, the Junior High Teams, Freshman Boys Basketball, as well as the JV Team.  By the time I coached them at the Varsity level, most of them already had several years of Wildcat Basketball added to their DNA.

Now let’s continue to talk about building a program.

At Brook Hill, girls’ sports became a focus in 2010.  We began girls’ soccer and started to intentionally hire the best coaches we could find to lead all of our girls programs.  Hiring the right coaches was a big plus. however it couldn’t stop with just that.  Each program had to be funded, so raising money for increased budgets was needed…which we did.  But possibly most important, we needed to give our Lady Guard Athletes something more.  I wanted our girls to have confidence in themselves.  I wanted them to believe they were valued as well as valuable.  In exchange, I sought a greater sense of commitment from our female athletes.  In order to give them confidence, we had to hire coaches in volleyball, basketball, soccer, and softball who would do just that; express to our girls how important they were to BH, and slowly but surely change the culture of our female athletes that we expected a stronger commitment from each and every one of them.

In the spring of 2010, continuing to emphasize a new focus on girls sports, Headmaster Rod Fletcher hired Anthony Springer to be our Head Girls Softball Coach.

How to build a Softball Program Step 3:  Hire a coach who has all of the qualities of a guy like Anthony Springer.

I have met few people like Anthony.  Not only does he totally love to coach, he loves his girls.  We can’t even let Anthony speak at Sports Banquets anymore because he gets so emotional talking about his players.  Anthony Springer knows the game of softball as well as anyone I have ever watched or been associated with…in any sport.  He is a true teacher of the game.  I have watched Anthony spend countless hours working with players of all ages at night, on the weekends, during the summer…because he enjoys coaching the game so much he is always willing to help teach softball fundamentals to prospective players.  In Anthony’s attempt to build a great program, he has invested himself in not only his Upper School players, but has stretched his reach down to The Lower School and beyond.  He has figured out that if you want to be at a place for a significant amount of time, it’s crucial to develop kids as young as you can.

I have watched Anthony over time, as he has molded some of his current players into being key contributors for this year’s District leading team, as he began their development as early as the 3rd or 4th grade. If you are going to start a softball program, or any program for that matter, you need to find a Head Coach who is not only passionate about the game like Anthony Springer is, but who also has the very best interests of his players at heart.

Brook Hill Softball has taken a giant step forward since Anthony Springer came aboard, and the beauty of it all is this is just the beginning of something great that will continue for years to come.

Good Luck finding someone like an Anthony Springer out there, if you are trying to build a softball program.

And you can’t have him…he is ours!

And that’s another reason to be “ALL ORANGE…All The Time”!