What Life Was Like Playing Coach Jimmy Gales?

Life for me playing for a coach like Jimmy Gales (former S.O.C. & North Texas State Univ.) was like a marriage. You see, when a person gets married they are bound by a covenant (for better or worse, rich or poor, in sickness or good health) and once I signed my name on the dotted line, Coach Gales and I become teammates (the student & the teacher) bound by a covenant letter.

~Early in my college basketball career at NTSU, I had to learn how to follow, how to lead and how to win. I had to also learn "How Not" to take words personally~

Coach Gales was one of the most fierce competitive coaches I had ever played for. He enjoyed winning, and to him, losing was for players who [just to be nice] "didn't give a darn."

[Coach G would always say tell us that if we let opponents take advantage of us on the court, it's just like letting a stranger walk into our house and take our wife & kids]

Battle Tested:
One day during one of our practices, Coach Gales wanted me to "check the oil" of one of our senior guards (DA), so he asked that I guard (play defense) him 94' (baseline to baseline), and to say the least, he asked that I "Not Allow" him to catch the ball. We'll, if you knew DA, he was tough, fierce, extremely competitive and he knew how to match whatever intensity I or anybody brought to the table. And on another note, he wasn't going to be embarrassed by new sophmore guard!

So, I did exactly what my coach asked, but little did I know that this back court competition would become a daily wrestling and almost boxing match that my teammates couldn't wait to see (for them it was like being at the movies, they just didn't have the popcorn). We competed back and fort, pulling, pushing, turning and literally smelling each others breath because of the fierce level of competition that Coach Jimmy Gales wanted all of his team members to play daily.

Life for me playing for Coach Jimmy Gales was like a marriage, a covenant relationship! I learned to take the good with the bad and roll with the punches but in the end, we're still family!

Thanks, Coach G! My Best Coach Ever!

Deon