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Earning his wings: Anderson ups to JPII hoops coach following Evans' resignation
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@starlocalnews.com
The aftermath of the John Paul II boys basketball team's TAPPS 5A State Championship clash with Prestonwood Christian Academy in March delved deeper than what onlookers saw on the court.
While the 72-46 loss marked an unsettling end to the Cardinals' season -- and the deepest playoff run in program history -- the matchup meant a changing of the guard.
"Afterwards, [head coach Chad Evans] pulled me and our JV coach into the locker room once everyone left," said Jacob Anderson, former John Paul assistant coach. "He told us that this was going to be the last game he was going to coach and that he had taken a (vice) principal job at Prince of Peace."
"This is the chance of a lifetime," Anderson said. "I've always wanted to be a head coach and since [getting the job], it's been full steam ahead for me."
Three months of interviewing paved the road to Anderson's promotion.
The rise in rank comes after having served at nearly every other coaching level in the Cardinals' basketball tree, from freshman coach to JV coach and two years as a varsity assistant. All four years in Anderson's tenure at John Paul came under the guise of Evans, who had actually coached Anderson as a seventh grader at Coppell Middle School East.
"The main thing I learned from coach Evans was how to create the whole person, which is a big goal here at John Paul," Anderson said. "We're not looking to just create good basketball players; we're looking to transfer boys to men and coach Evans was great at that."
That connection has manifested itself plenty of late, most notably with Anderson serving as an assistant for the Cardinals' two TAPPS 5A State Tournament trips.
"We both come from a defense-first standpoint," Anderson said. "That's my specialty and Evans is the same way, but he's been with some other coaches who are great offensive minds. We were able to combine our two minds and figure out a motion offense that we've put in place here at John Paul."
Some of those principles hearken back to Anderson's days playing for South Plains Junior College, where the Bob Knight-developed motion sets came into play.
"We would sit in [Evans'] office and discuss strategy and game plans for hours," Anderson said. "Stylistically, we're going to run similar stuff to what we did last year. But no two coaches are the same, so everything won't be exactly the same.
"You have to play on the old adage of if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
That's been the case for the Cardinals of late with the team making the playoffs four straight years under Evans, culminating in March's state title loss to Prestonwood. Over half that runner-up squad will remain intact for 2012-13, highlighted by the returns of first-team all-district selection Chandler Malone and honorable mention selection Jason Martin, both seniors, plus the addition of former Plano West standout Jackson Forbes, who will be a junior.
And for the first time in his coaching career, Anderson will be at the forefront of it all.
"You never want to take a step back," he said. "We have an extremely talented group of kids and their potential is through the roof. My main expectation is I want to do the best job I can with this group of kids and whether that takes us to a state championship or not, I'll be happy with it as long as it's the best I can do."
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