NCAA rules don’t allow volunteers to work practice. That’s nice, but there is nothing like hands-on teaching. “I’ve always felt blessed to have that.”īoth Scott and Bryce have included their father in their college programs, regularly peppering him for ideas and advice. “That allowed me to have my sons around me longer than most parents,” Homer Drew said. He later became head coach at Valpo and until this year, Vanderbilt. Bryce played for him and then, after six years in the NBA, came back and became his assistant as well. Scott became his assistant for nine years before taking over at Valpo and then Baylor. What he lost in money or fame by never jumping to the Big Ten, he gained every other way. “It was a great place to raise a family while also being close enough to Chicago that you could go there and shop or watch. “Janet and I just really enjoyed the city and the location,” he said of the small town in Northwest Indiana. Valparaiso was more than enough - a terrific school, a great community and a program that could be competitive. The simple satisfaction is why he never pushed to get hired by a bigger school in a more prominent conference despite the on-court success.
Coaching is coaching and among coaches, Homer Drew is one of the most respected in America. When you are in it for the purity of the pursuit, there is no difference between preparing for an NCAA tournament game or running a practice for some 11-year-olds. You have to get a group of young people to sacrifice a little bit of their individual talent to make the team better.” “They are working as hard as possible and you can see it paying off. “If someone has a similar passion as you, it’s enjoyable to help them get better,” Drew said. Homer Drew hugs his son, Bryce Drew, after Bryce hit a game-winning three-point shot, at the buzzer, to beat Mississippi 70-69 in the first round of the NCAA Midwest Regional in 1998. “If not he’d probably drive me nuts, so I’m happy.” “It gives him something to do,” Janet Drew, his wife of 52 years, joked. He’s also been an assistant to his daughter, Dana, when she was coaching a middle school travel team, where another grandson, Luke, played.īasically, if there is a ball bouncing somewhere, Homer is going to find it. So, too, is spending his time at the small high school where two of his grandsons, Isaiah and Caleb, play. “I meant to tell them, but I forgot,” Homer claimed. Then when the official announcement came out, they all called up and said, “Dad, why didn’t you say anything?”
He’s so humble that when the Hall of Fame called to tell him he had been voted in, he was happy and overwhelmed.
#Valpo head basketball coach full#
In a business full of self-promoters, career climbers and guys who are more recruiters than coaches, he is a throw-back, a guy more than content at being a mid-major teacher of the game. He isn’t the winningest coach of all time. This is the beauty of Homer Drew reaching the Hall of Fame. I have to tell the guys, ‘Remember, this guy is 75 years old.’ ” “He’s right in there on every drill, working with the players. NOTE: Overall program records on this page do not include anything later vacated by the NCAA.“He does more than ‘help out,’ ” said Casey Shaw, the Davidson Academy’s head coach who also happens to be Homer’s son-in-law. OTHER NAMES: Prior to 2021, the Valparaiso athletic programs were known by the nickname “Crusaders” ^ These conference titles and tournament appearances came when the Valparaiso program was at either the NCAA Division II or NAIA level Valpo moved up to Division I prior to the 1976-77 season Titles= Regular Season only, NCAA Apps= NCAA Tournament Appearances, Nat.
Summit League Player of the Year: 5 (last = Luboš Bartoň, 2002).Horizon League Player of the Year: 2 (last = Alec Peters, 2017).Horizon League Tournament Championships: 2 (2013, 2015).Missouri Valley Tournament Championships: 0.ICC (Div II) Regular Season Championships: 1 (1973).Missouri Valley Regular Season Championships: 0.NAIA Tournament Appearances: 2 (1938, 1943)Ĭonference Titles (Indiana Collegiate, Summit, Horizon, Missouri Valley):.NCAA Division II Tournament Overall Record: 7-5.
0 kommentar(er)
