college of deserts springer to san jose state

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SoCalHoops College News

College Of The Desert's Springer
To San Jose State--(Oct. 10, 1999)

No, we don't mean Jerry Springer either, but College of the Desert head coach, Patrick Springer who has been named as an assistant to the men's basketball team at San Jose State by Steve Barnes. A reader of ours from the Palm Springs area alerted us to a story on Spring's hiring, which ran yesterday in the Desert Sun, a local newspaper providing great coverage of the Palm Springs area and Coachella Valley, including some promising prep coverage which should keep us all better informed during the upcoming season.

Ed Castro, one of the Desert Sun's staff sportswriters, wrote a great story, and we also want to urge you to check it out at the Desert Sun's new website; the story can be found at http://www.desertsunonline.com/news/stories/sports/939431906.shtml, which is a reaalllly long way of saying that you can find the article HERE.

And if you are in the print coverage area for the Daily Sun, please support them by buying the paper; subscribe and pay lots of money to support their internet effort, because they're providing terrific prep coverage. And if you're out of their print coverage area, well, be sure to visit their website and support their advertising, because they're going to be providing some quality stuff. And our thanks and congratulations to Jeff Dillon, the Desert Sun's Online Editor, who has assembled a quality website in a very short period of time. Really, there are several newspapers we won't mention by name, whose online folks be well advised to watch what Jeff and his staff are doing over at the Desert Sun, because it's impressive.

Oh, and in case for any reason Ed Castro's story about Patrick Springer and his new position at San Jose State is for some reason inaccessible (i.e., if the story is ever moved from it's current location on their server), it's also reprinted (with some small editorial commentary of ours) below:

COD’s Springer realizes a dream

By Ed Castro
The Desert Sun
October 9th, 1999

PALM DESERT -- Patrick Springer’s new job won’t require driving the team bus, calling in game results to the local media or working as the team’s equipment manager.

It will be strictly coaching at San Jose State where he was named on Thursday as an assistant men’s basketball coach. Springer announced his resignation as men’s head coach at College of the Desert that same day. He was about to embark on his fourth season at COD. Springer, selected by newly hired head coach Steve Barnes, said he will leave the Coachella Valley as early as today. The Spartans’ season begins in eight days.

"It really hit me when I heard my wife say I wouldn’t have to drive the team on eight hour road trips anymore," Springer joked. "It doesn’t sound like much, but I really had to do all the little things bigger schools take for granted." He added: "As far as starting over, it will be at a completely different level. At San Jose, the athletic director has three associate athletic directors to work with. They have a sports information director to deal with the media. They have trainers just for basketball."

Before arriving at COD, Springer was an assistant coach for two years at Kansas City’s Penn Valley, where he helped the Scouts win the National Junior College Athletic Association title. Springer replaced athletic director John Marman, who had been double-hatted as interim basketball coach for two seasons. Under Springer, COD went from doormat to conference title contender and state tournament qualifier. COD racked up 52 wins and qualified for the state tournament each year. Last season the Roadrunners advanced into the second round of the state playoffs.

"As I saw it, a big time Division I school would not hire a guy like me, a coach with no experience," Springer said. "As much as COD may have needed me, I needed COD. I took that as a challenge. I think the experience here has prepared me for any move anywhere." Springer went on job interviews while still continuing to hold vigorous workouts at COD. "I couldn’t be happier with where the program is right now," Springer said. "COD has a team earmarked for greatness. Last season we won 20 games and got to the second round. I believe we have more talent on this team."

This past season Springer graduated six of his seven sophomores to Division I schools. Kerry Hendrickson is at the University of Buffalo and Greg Hendrickson is at Morehead State. Mike Daniels and Gene Parker are at Grambling and Randy Roy is at Pepperdine. And sixth player, Damon Brown, is at College of Notre Dame, an NAIA school. Sophomore team captains Lamont Williams and Matt Shaw wished their coach well in his new position.

"I think I speak for the team when I say we are truly happy for him," Williams said. "All of us come here with hopes of getting to the next level, even the coaches. If any of us were in that situation I’m sure we would do the same thing. That’s our main goal, to get through the Juco system and into Division I."

Shaw said the team will spend the weekend and early next week trying to put Springer’s departure behind it. "Right now we are trying to stay together, make sure no one leaves or gets too down," Shaw said. "We will try to pick things up. We are still running practices and doing what needs to be done."

Marman termed Springer’s departure "a good news/bad news situation," noting, "Something good happened to a young coach who was instrumental in turning around our program. It’s a big, big step. "The bad news is our season is going to start (Nov. 17) and we don’t have a coach. I’ve asked our assistants to continue with workouts. The timing’s not perfect, but it was a no-brainer for Patrick."

Marman said he would take a good look at COD women’s head coach Chris Mozga (an assistant to Springer for two seasons), and also current Roadrunners assistant Trent Skinner. "Because we can’t afford to open up the position and go through an interview process, we’ll try to deal with the situation internally," Marman said. "Hopefully, we won’t miss a beat. Patrick’s not exactly leaving an empty corral. And he was working the team as if he expected to be there."

Other assistant coaches at San Jose State include incumbent Gary Patterson and newly hired Lorenzo Watkins of Indian Hills Community College in Centerville, Iowa. San Jose State will play in the $57.5 million 12,300-seat Haas Pavilion. It will officially open on Oct. 16, the first day of practices. The first home game is scheduled for Nov. 27, against Pacific. "This is something I’ve been shooting for," Springer said. "Everyone wants to move up. This is something I’ve wanted and COD provided that opportunity."

Now there was also a slight error in the above story, and we're sure that it wasn't intentional, but the Haas Pavilion is not located at San Jose State, and the Spartans won't be playing there (except when they play against the California Golden Bears), and that's because Haas Pavilion is the new arena at the University of California at Berkeley. San Jose State instead plays at the San Jose Civic Arena, which is a nice, relatively new arena, but it's not as nice as the new Haas Pavilion, which was built on the site of the old Harmon Gym at Cal. By the way, Haas Pavilion will see it's debut at Cal's Midnight Madness, and if you're up there, say hello to all the SoCal boys on the squad, which is a formidable number, including Shantay Legans, Brian Wethers, Joe Shipp, Ryan Forehan-Kelly, and even Nick Vander Laan (yeah, we know he's from Sacramento, but he spent enough time with the rest of the Rockfish guys that he's like a transplanted SoCal native. . . . ). :-)