My former East St. Louis high school basketball coach, the late Louis 'Pick' Dehner was an All-America basketball player from the University of Illinois. 'Pick' was the 'Coaching King' of one-liners. I recall the night he won his 500th career coaching victory when a sports writer asked, "Pick, what's your won-loss record now?" Dehner quickly responded, "500!" The writer retorted, "Yes, but what's YOUR record?" Pick said, "Just 500, I let my adversaries keep track of the losses."
Well, any coach that ever made out a line up had adversaries. I never paid much attention to those adversaries. Most of them never played or coached. Sure, I made some coaching mistakes in a thirty-nine year career and I am going to share with you my biggest coaching mistake.
In my second to last coaching year (1999-2000), I was head coach at Stephen Decatur high school. After a hotly contested home victory, I met with my players in the dressing room for some post game evaluations and comments and then entertained a few media questions. I then slipped out the back door of the gym and headed home to share the moment with my wife. When I got home, I discovered my wife not there. Soon the front door bell rang. I wondered who could be calling at 10:00 on a Friday night. To my surprise and chagrin there stood my very angry wife. I had forgotten her at the gym. Two of the game referees gave her a ride home. Big Mistake by Coach!
The following weekend, our team was playing in Rock Island. Just prior to tip-off, two game Ref's approached my bench and one spoke, "Coach Roustio, if we have to give your wife a ride back to Decatur after the game, we will have to charge mileage." Ah, what a fraternity!
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