Don Meyer and a Great Scene - Away From the Court - at the NAIA Tournament
At Municipal Auditorium, the public address announcer announced participants in the inaugural 3-point contest, Slam Dunk contest and the All Star Game. Along with those announcements, the coaches for the All Star Game were announced.
Coaching the NAIA Division II All Stars was Al Waller. Coach Waller was the long-time coach at the College of the Ozarks, and he's now the school's Athletic Director and the Commissioner of the Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference. Coaching the NAIA Division I All Stars was Don Meyer. If you're following this blog, you are probably aware of Coach Don Meyer. He's coached at Hamline, David Lipscomb and Northern State. When he retired from Northern State, his win total of 923 wins was the most of any NCAA coach, at any level, ever. (Having written this, most of his wins came at David Lipscomb, which was an NAIA program at the time).
Coach Meyer's Lipscomb team won the 1986 NAIA National Championship, and he was named the NAIA National Coach of the Year in 1989. In 1990, at the age of 47, he was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame.
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And so, after Coach Meyer was introduced to the crowd on Friday night, I watched him. He's now in a wheelchair, and he disappeared into the tunnel on the South side of the arena. So after, I saw him sitting behind the South basket, with coaches on his left and right. Seated to his left was Joe Niland, the coach and Athletic Director at the University of Mobile. Seated to his right was Dannton Jackson, Head Coach at Xavier in New Orleans.
I watched the scene for quite a while, both from a distance and up close. All heads were down during a good portion of the time. As I got a bit closer, I saw Coach Meyer writing, and I saw Coach Niland and Coach Jackson scribbling away. They were taking notes on whatever he said and wrote.
It reminded me that the great coaches are great teachers. AND the great teachers are greats listeners and great pupils.