GLENDALE, Ariz. — Before Danny Hurley made history as head coach. university university As a Husky, he taught the subject at St. Benedict’s School in Newark.
“As a high school teacher, I taught world history starting with the fall of the Roman Empire, but focused primarily on European history,” Hurley said ahead of the men’s Final Four in 2024. “From the Dark Ages to the Reformation.”
That wasn’t the only thing he taught.
“I have taught driver education, health education and sex education up to co-ed classes at St. Anthony School,” he continued. “If you can teach sex education in a co-ed class at St. Anthony at age 22, you will learn how to control the classroom and keep your audience engaged.”
UW players say Hurley never misses an opportunity to use his historical knowledge, recently giving a lecture on Alexander the Great to a team going through March Madness. At this point, we all know what kind of history Hurley and his team are chasing. His three teams are the only teams to win back-to-back national championships in men’s college basketball since John Wooden led his UCLA to his seventh straight national championship in the late ’60s and early ’70s. The last team to do it was Billy Donovan’s Florida Gators, all the way back in 2006-2007.
“I think that definitely helped me as a huddle coach,” Hurley said of his experience as a teacher. “I think it also helps if you have other jobs besides being a coach. I think it helps give you a little bit of perspective as well.”
Well, Hurley’s rise from the high school ranks to college basketball’s biggest stage didn’t happen entirely without connections. He’s one of the biggest neo-babies in the sport. Hurley’s father, Bob Hurley Sr., may be the greatest high school coach of all time at the aforementioned St. Anthony High School in Jersey City. His older brother, Bobby Hurley, is a college basketball legend, having previously won back-to-back national championships with Christian Laettner at Duke University.
Hurley’s colleagues in the Final Four didn’t have the same family advantage, but two of them also came up from the high school level.
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Just 10 years ago, Alabama coach Nate Oats taught math and coached basketball at Romulus High School in Detroit. north carolina Coach Kevin Keatts was at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia. All three former high school coaches hope their stories will inspire young coaches looking for opportunities to break into higher levels.
“The jobs I took in high school weren’t jobs where you were paid a lot of money just to be a basketball coach,” Oats said Friday. “I had to teach classes full time. I taught five hours of math at Romulus. I taught Algebra 1 and geometry. I also had first graders and , we had sophomores. I taught statistics, so we had juniors and seniors. I literally had my players do freshman math class almost every year.”
Interestingly, Oats got his big break as a college coach because of Harlies. At Romulus, Oats coached a player named EC Matthews, who Dan Hurley had recruited with his former team, the Rhode Island Rams. Oats was so impressive that Hurley’s younger brother Bobby eventually hired him on Buffalo’s staff.
“The jobs I took in high school weren’t jobs that paid a lot of money just to be a basketball coach,” Oats said. “I had to teach classes full time. I taught five hours of math at Romulus. I taught Algebra 1 and geometry. I also had first graders and , we had sophomores. I taught statistics, so we had juniors and seniors. I literally had my players do freshman math class almost every year.”
Oates worked in an after-school program on the side for a few thousand dollars in order to earn up to $70,000 a year at Romulus. He came to the Final Four and slept on the floor of his friend’s hotel room just to network with other coaches. Just a few years later, his incredible rise in the coaching world began in earnest.
When Bobby Hurley finally left Buffalo; arizona Oates was promoted to the chief position with a salary of $250,000. He led Buffalo from the MAC to the NCAA Tournament three times in four seasons, including a stunning victory over Arizona and future No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick Deandre Ayton in 2018. There is.
Alabama eventually hired Oats to coach in the SEC. After making four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and winning several conference titles, the Tide extended him to his current contract with an annual salary of $4.5 million.
“I think there are a lot of really good coaches in high school,” Oats said. “I played against some guys from metro Detroit. I got to know a lot of them. Look, I still go on recruiting trips to see different high school coaching jobs. When you steal a drill.
“I was lucky. I took some breaks. I think there are a lot of really good high school coaches who have never taken a break.”
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Kevin Keatts has built one of the top high school programs in the nation in Hargrave, Virginia. But that doesn’t mean it was always glamorous.
“I drove a bus in Hargrave,” Keatts said before North Carolina State’s Elite Eight win over Duke. “I put gas in it. I swept the floor. I washed the clothes.”
Keats reached the college level the old-fashioned way. It was about riding on the backs of the best players. Louisville hired Keatts as an assistant because of his strong connections with talented recruits. Along with Keatts, the Cardinals acquired several former Hargrave stars. One of them was Montrezl Harrell, who went on to a long and successful NBA career. The other was Luke Hancock, who was named the 2013 Final Four Most Valuable Player when Louisville won the national championship.
Due to Louisville’s success, Keatts gained attention as a head coaching candidate. Eventually, North Carolina State hired him in 2018. Keatts’ run in Raleigh seemed to finally be over at the end of this season, until his team posted an attractive performance in March. Five wins in five days would earn North Carolina State an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, and Keatts’ automatic contract extension would take him off the hot seat. With four more wins in the Big Dance as a No. 11 seed, North Carolina State has written a story worthy of Hollywood. Keats has that background.
“Some of the best coaches in the world are high school players,” Keatts said. “They’re doing the same thing we’re doing, but they’re not making as much money doing it. At that level, some of the coaches are paying maybe $2,000, $2,500 to do their job. Some people are getting paid, but they’re doing it for the love of the game. I think that’s what’s special about this work.”
There are rich layers of text behind the complex coaching web of the NCAA Tournament. The three former high school coaches probably wouldn’t have made it to this year’s Final Four if it weren’t for one guy who never left that level.
Bob Hurley Sr. coached at St. Anthony throughout his career, from 1972 to 2017. During that time, he worked as a probation officer on the side to make ends meet. Hurley is one of three high school coaches to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, joining Scottie Pippen and Karl Malone in 2010.
The older Hurley had a chance to make the jump to the college level when he was offered an assistant job by Xavier in the mid-’80s. He initially thought he would accept it, but there was just one problem. That’s when his two sons, Bobby and Danny, had a seizure. They dreamed of starring at St. Anthony and didn’t want to pack up their lives for southern Ohio when they were about to take a chance.
Hurley’s grandson, Andrew, didn’t throw the same tantrum when his father, Dan, said he was leaving St. Benedict’s to take the Wagner job in 2010.
“My dad’s every move has always been a family thing,” current Union walk-on Andrew Hurley told SB Nation ahead of the Final Four. “There was absolutely no room for complaint.”
As the youngest Hurley was talking to me, Dan Hurley came up from behind and interrupted the conversation.
“It’s all a lie,” the UW head coach said. “Everything he says is a lie!”
Andrew needed time to compose himself. “Yeah, he’s the worst,” Andrew said of his father with a smile.
For high school coaches striving for the pinnacle of their sport, dreams can become a reality. His three coaches here in Phoenix are proof of just that. As long as the kids don’t cause too much trouble.
