Print
E-mail
|
UW’s Stewart finds a way to help kids through the game of basketball
By BOB HAMMOND Boomerang Sports Editor
As far back as anybody can remember, the University of Wyoming has never had a basketball player from the state of Ohio.
Come next fall, the Cowboys will have three native Ohioans on their roster.
The Buckeye List: A.J. Davis, a 6-foot-6, 195-pound sophomore swing player from Columbus by way of Harmony Community School in Cincinnati; Daylen Harrison, a 6-6, 220-pound forward from Akron St. Anthony-St. Mary’s High School; and Desmar Jackson, 6-5, 190-pound shooting guard from Warren G. Harding High School.
The common denominator? Wyoming assistant coach Anthony Stewart, an Akron native.
But there is more to it than that, and as the late Paul Harvey would say: “Now, for the rest of the story.”
A tough start
Stewart was born in Washington, D.C., but his parents divorced when he was young. He was living with his mother in Pittsburgh when she suffered an aneurism and was unable to care for him.
During that time, Stewart was sent to live with his father’s parents (Dr. Carstell Octavious and Mary Stewart) in Akron. He lived with his grandparents through his grade school years. But when his mother finally got well, Stewart returned to Pittsburgh to live with her. But that didn’t go well for young Stewart.
“Times were not very good, and I kind of got off on the wrong track,” Stewart admitted. “I had the option to go back and live with my grandparents as opposed to some of the options that I had in Pittsburgh, which weren’t very good.”
He returned to his grandparents’ home in Akron as a 10th grader and enrolled at Arch Bishop Hoban High School. Hoban, along with St. Anthony-St. Mary’s, are the only two Catholic high schools in Akron.
It was his grandparents that provided Stewart with the family structure, stability and guidance he needed.
“My grandfather was a great man, an unbelievable man,” Stewart said of C.O. Stewart, who, in World War II, was a member of an all-black paratrooper unit, similar to the well-known Tuskegee Airmen. The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion was known as The Triple Nickel, and wasn’t as well known because it functioned in secrecy.
“It was a test platoon … back then the U.S. Army wasn’t desegregated,” Stewart said. “It was the first platoon that they put together. What they did was take all the great athletes from the black colleges … my grandfather was a football player and ran track at Morgan State … and put them in this paratrooper platoon.”
When Stewart returned to Akron and his grandparents’ home as a high school sophomore, he wanted to play both baseball and basketball. He did play baseball as a sophomore, but wasn’t allowed to play basketball until his junior year after he got his grades together.
“Baseball was my best sport growing up,” Stewart said. “I always played baseball, and Hoban has a great baseball program.”
Learning the game
While baseball was his best sport, Stewart got his basketball education from his uncle, Brian Stewart, his grandparents’ youngest son, who was seven years older than him. It also helped that he had a nice growth spurt between his junior and senior years at Hoban.
“My uncle was a tremendous basketball player. I kind of picked up the game through him,” Stewart said. “He was a great player in Akron. He went on to play a year at Mississippi Valley State.”
Stewart eventually became a two-sport star at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio. He was twice named Most Valuable Player of the Mount Union basketball team, and concluded his college career ranked on the school’s all-time scoring list. Stewart also was a three-year letterman in baseball as a pitcher at Mount Union.
Stewart’s skill and love of baseball enabled him to play one year of minor league ball with the Merrillville (Ind.) Muddogs in the Mid-America League in 1995.
“If I had to do it over again, I probably would have stuck with it,” Stewart, who was a big New York Yankees’ fan growing up, said. “But baseball didn’t pay a lot. That’s when I started my corporate career.”
Stewart put his college education to good use right away and got involved in transportation and logistics.
Over the next 10 years, Stewart managed the Norfolk and Southern Railroad terminal in Columbus, the CSX Railroad terminal in Columbus, Roadway Trucking in Akron and Chicago, Overnight Transportation in Columbus and Schneider Trucking in Akron and Columbus.
It was during his last corporate stop with Schneider in Columbus that led him into the coaching profession and a whole new way of life.
“I got promoted by Schneider and moved from Akron to Columbus to take over a whole region of the U.S. for them,” Stewart said. “I had a friend (Anthony Gholson) who was a graduate assistant at a rival college (Ohio Northern) when I was at Mount Union. He had just gotten the athletics director position at Columbus State (Community College), which at the time (2000) had no basketball history.
“I ran into him in Columbus, and he said he just hired himself (as the head basketball coach) and needed an assistant. He asked me if I was interested. And I said, ‘Why in the world would I want to do that? I’m building a house, I have a corporate job and I’m starting a family.’
“He just kept asking me and asking me until I finally told him, ‘I’ll help you this year and then you have to get somebody else after that.’
“Now, this is what I do for a living,” Stewart added with a smile.
He remained at Columbus State and helped Gholson turn the program into a national JC power before moving on to Long Beach State in 2004, and finally to Wyoming when he joined Heath Schroyer’s new Cowboy staff.
Helping kids
The moment he began his coaching career, Stewart started making contacts, and even more importantly, helping kids.
“It’s funny. You think you know what you want to do with your life,” Stewart said. “I thought I wanted to go into business … I have an undergrad business degree and an MBA … and make a ton of money, and this and that. But once I had accomplished certain things, I realized, kind of by accident, what my true passion was. And that’s helping a lot of young kids through the game of basketball.”
And he has been able to do that with his ties in Ohio.
“When you recruit, you try to recruit in places or fishing ponds that are familiar and where you have had some previous success,” Stewart said. “Obviously, being from Ohio, and being an assistant coach at Columbus State, I had a number of players that have gone on to be successful at four-year institutions, and even professionally.
“My best recruiting tool is word of mouth. If you treat kids right and help kids become successful, that helps my job and makes it easier. It makes it easier when you have some buy-in from a number of kids that you have helped to go on and become part of something.”
And that’s why Davis, Harrison and Jackson are now at Wyoming.
Stewart has known Davis for at least 10 years. He coached his cousin (John Davis) at Columbus State.
“When A.J. was in grade school, he used to follow John around and would come down to Columbus State,” Stewart said. “He would shoot around, and I knew he was going to be good one day. It just so happened that he turned out to be a really good player. I had a great relationship with his family, and that was key for him and his family for him to come way out here from Columbus.
“A.J. is a high-major athlete … very athletic, very strong. He’s going to be a good player for us in the future. He provided us some valuable minutes this year as a true freshman.”
Stewart knew Harrison’s father (Chris) during his high school days in Akron. Chris Harrison eventually was drafted by the Utah Jazz and went on to make a lot of money playing overseas.
“Daylen’s father just used to beat me up when we were in high school, playing street ball or playing at the playground at the park,” Stewart said. “He used to teach me things about my post game and footwork. So, I knew Daylen’s dad long before I knew Daylen.
“Daylen is a high IQ guy who can really stroke it. His best basketball is ahead of him. His father was a good-sized guy at 6-9 and hopefully he still has a couple of more inches to grow. He’s a guy with a huge upside.”
Meanwhile, Stewart’s association with Jackson began two years ago.
“I’ve been recruiting him for two whole years. He’s a very talented kid,” Stewart said. “I had built a rapport with his high school coach and just kept after it. He had some pretty significant schools he could have chosen, but he felt comfortable with the relationship he and I had built. It worked out for us in the end.
“Desmar is a very smooth, gifted athlete. He has some good genes going on as his father (Omar Provitt) was a very good athlete. Omar might have been the greatest football player ever to play at Warren Harding, and they have had some great players, guys like Paul Warfield and Maurice Clarett. There are probably 10 guys in the NFL from Harding. Desmar will be a good player for us.”
It doesn’t stop there, though.
Providing an opportunity
Stewart has helped find junior college homes for some 40 to 50 players since entering the coaching profession.
“Obviously, not all of these guys played for Long Beach State or Wyoming, but I was able to get them into junior college situations. I’ve probably had 20 to 25 kids go to junior colleges in California, Utah, and even Casper. So, you are indirectly helping a lot of people and touching a lot of lives.
“That’s what it is all about at the end of the day,” he added.
Stewart recently helped two other Ohio prep stars land at Casper College — Jared Porrini, a 6-4 guard, and Cameron Howard, a 6-8 forward, both from Canton Timken High School.
“Although they are not actually playing for me, they are working toward the opportunity to do that,” Stewart said. “So, they are willing to come out here, get things done academically, and improve athletically with the possibility of coming over in two years.”
In addition to Wyoming, Ohio, Utah and California, Stewart has been able to find JC situations for players in Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Texas and Illinois.
“That’s all I can think of off the top of my head,” he said with a smile.
“There are different levels of junior colleges and different situations for different kids,” Stewart continued. “Everyone might not have the ability to play at certain places. There are different programs for different personalities, and different games … not everyone has the same abilities.
“I really believe that everyone is entitled to one shot at doing something positive. If I have the chance to provide that for people, then that’s what I need to do.
“Being a college coach at any level puts you in a position to touch a lot of different lives. You can mend them, mold them and mentor them to be good people. If I had to do it over again, maybe I would have gotten a 10-year jump earlier into coaching than I did.
“I’m very knowledgeable of why I’ve been successful, whether it be in corporate or whether it be in basketball. It has a lot to do with someone giving me a chance. My grandparents gave me the original chance,” Stewart added.
Good at Wyoming
Stewart said he is happy to be coaching at Wyoming and working for Schroyer, who allows his assistants to play to their strengths.
“I have some responsibilities on the floor and I oversee a lot of the academics,” Stewart said. “But I know where my bread is buttered, and that’s recruiting and evaluating talent.
“You can go and sit down and evaluate and find out who’s good enough, but then you have to figure out how to get them to Laramie. That’s not always the easiest thing. That’s where I can be a valuable asset to the staff.”
Another big plus is being able to work with his fellow Cowboy coaches on a daily basis.
“It’s a great staff … a bunch of good guys. I really enjoy working with everyone here. Everyone knows their role. It’s a real team and there are no egos,” Stewart said.
“The good thing about working for Coach Schroyer is he allows you to go toward your strengths. He utilizes you where you can help the most. There are a lot of head coaches who don’t do that. He’s really good about that.”
“It’s been good for me because I don’t have a prototypical coaching background like a lot of these guys,” Stewart added.
And it’s also been good for youngsters looking for that one chance.
“It’s been kind of like a woman in the bingo hall gossiping,” Stewart said. “I get calls from coaches and they will say, ‘Hey, I heard you helped so-and-so, can you help my kid?’
“I had three calls on Tuesday from three different high school coaches, and it was the same thing. ‘Do you think you can help my kid?’ What am I going to say, no? It’s tedious at times and takes a lot of work, but if I don’t help them, who will?”
Bob Hammond’s e-mail address is bobh@laramieboomerang.com
Come next fall, the Cowboys will have three native Ohioans on their roster.
The Buckeye List: A.J. Davis, a 6-foot-6, 195-pound sophomore swing player from Columbus by way of Harmony Community School in Cincinnati; Daylen Harrison, a 6-6, 220-pound forward from Akron St. Anthony-St. Mary’s High School; and Desmar Jackson, 6-5, 190-pound shooting guard from Warren G. Harding High School.
The common denominator? Wyoming assistant coach Anthony Stewart, an Akron native.
But there is more to it than that, and as the late Paul Harvey would say: “Now, for the rest of the story.”
A tough start
Stewart was born in Washington, D.C., but his parents divorced when he was young. He was living with his mother in Pittsburgh when she suffered an aneurism and was unable to care for him.
During that time, Stewart was sent to live with his father’s parents (Dr. Carstell Octavious and Mary Stewart) in Akron. He lived with his grandparents through his grade school years. But when his mother finally got well, Stewart returned to Pittsburgh to live with her. But that didn’t go well for young Stewart.
“Times were not very good, and I kind of got off on the wrong track,” Stewart admitted. “I had the option to go back and live with my grandparents as opposed to some of the options that I had in Pittsburgh, which weren’t very good.”
He returned to his grandparents’ home in Akron as a 10th grader and enrolled at Arch Bishop Hoban High School. Hoban, along with St. Anthony-St. Mary’s, are the only two Catholic high schools in Akron.
It was his grandparents that provided Stewart with the family structure, stability and guidance he needed.
“My grandfather was a great man, an unbelievable man,” Stewart said of C.O. Stewart, who, in World War II, was a member of an all-black paratrooper unit, similar to the well-known Tuskegee Airmen. The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion was known as The Triple Nickel, and wasn’t as well known because it functioned in secrecy.
“It was a test platoon … back then the U.S. Army wasn’t desegregated,” Stewart said. “It was the first platoon that they put together. What they did was take all the great athletes from the black colleges … my grandfather was a football player and ran track at Morgan State … and put them in this paratrooper platoon.”
When Stewart returned to Akron and his grandparents’ home as a high school sophomore, he wanted to play both baseball and basketball. He did play baseball as a sophomore, but wasn’t allowed to play basketball until his junior year after he got his grades together.
“Baseball was my best sport growing up,” Stewart said. “I always played baseball, and Hoban has a great baseball program.”
Learning the game
While baseball was his best sport, Stewart got his basketball education from his uncle, Brian Stewart, his grandparents’ youngest son, who was seven years older than him. It also helped that he had a nice growth spurt between his junior and senior years at Hoban.
“My uncle was a tremendous basketball player. I kind of picked up the game through him,” Stewart said. “He was a great player in Akron. He went on to play a year at Mississippi Valley State.”
Stewart eventually became a two-sport star at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio. He was twice named Most Valuable Player of the Mount Union basketball team, and concluded his college career ranked on the school’s all-time scoring list. Stewart also was a three-year letterman in baseball as a pitcher at Mount Union.
Stewart’s skill and love of baseball enabled him to play one year of minor league ball with the Merrillville (Ind.) Muddogs in the Mid-America League in 1995.
“If I had to do it over again, I probably would have stuck with it,” Stewart, who was a big New York Yankees’ fan growing up, said. “But baseball didn’t pay a lot. That’s when I started my corporate career.”
Stewart put his college education to good use right away and got involved in transportation and logistics.
Over the next 10 years, Stewart managed the Norfolk and Southern Railroad terminal in Columbus, the CSX Railroad terminal in Columbus, Roadway Trucking in Akron and Chicago, Overnight Transportation in Columbus and Schneider Trucking in Akron and Columbus.
It was during his last corporate stop with Schneider in Columbus that led him into the coaching profession and a whole new way of life.
“I got promoted by Schneider and moved from Akron to Columbus to take over a whole region of the U.S. for them,” Stewart said. “I had a friend (Anthony Gholson) who was a graduate assistant at a rival college (Ohio Northern) when I was at Mount Union. He had just gotten the athletics director position at Columbus State (Community College), which at the time (2000) had no basketball history.
“I ran into him in Columbus, and he said he just hired himself (as the head basketball coach) and needed an assistant. He asked me if I was interested. And I said, ‘Why in the world would I want to do that? I’m building a house, I have a corporate job and I’m starting a family.’
“He just kept asking me and asking me until I finally told him, ‘I’ll help you this year and then you have to get somebody else after that.’
“Now, this is what I do for a living,” Stewart added with a smile.
He remained at Columbus State and helped Gholson turn the program into a national JC power before moving on to Long Beach State in 2004, and finally to Wyoming when he joined Heath Schroyer’s new Cowboy staff.
Helping kids
The moment he began his coaching career, Stewart started making contacts, and even more importantly, helping kids.
“It’s funny. You think you know what you want to do with your life,” Stewart said. “I thought I wanted to go into business … I have an undergrad business degree and an MBA … and make a ton of money, and this and that. But once I had accomplished certain things, I realized, kind of by accident, what my true passion was. And that’s helping a lot of young kids through the game of basketball.”
And he has been able to do that with his ties in Ohio.
“When you recruit, you try to recruit in places or fishing ponds that are familiar and where you have had some previous success,” Stewart said. “Obviously, being from Ohio, and being an assistant coach at Columbus State, I had a number of players that have gone on to be successful at four-year institutions, and even professionally.
“My best recruiting tool is word of mouth. If you treat kids right and help kids become successful, that helps my job and makes it easier. It makes it easier when you have some buy-in from a number of kids that you have helped to go on and become part of something.”
And that’s why Davis, Harrison and Jackson are now at Wyoming.
Stewart has known Davis for at least 10 years. He coached his cousin (John Davis) at Columbus State.
“When A.J. was in grade school, he used to follow John around and would come down to Columbus State,” Stewart said. “He would shoot around, and I knew he was going to be good one day. It just so happened that he turned out to be a really good player. I had a great relationship with his family, and that was key for him and his family for him to come way out here from Columbus.
“A.J. is a high-major athlete … very athletic, very strong. He’s going to be a good player for us in the future. He provided us some valuable minutes this year as a true freshman.”
Stewart knew Harrison’s father (Chris) during his high school days in Akron. Chris Harrison eventually was drafted by the Utah Jazz and went on to make a lot of money playing overseas.
“Daylen’s father just used to beat me up when we were in high school, playing street ball or playing at the playground at the park,” Stewart said. “He used to teach me things about my post game and footwork. So, I knew Daylen’s dad long before I knew Daylen.
“Daylen is a high IQ guy who can really stroke it. His best basketball is ahead of him. His father was a good-sized guy at 6-9 and hopefully he still has a couple of more inches to grow. He’s a guy with a huge upside.”
Meanwhile, Stewart’s association with Jackson began two years ago.
“I’ve been recruiting him for two whole years. He’s a very talented kid,” Stewart said. “I had built a rapport with his high school coach and just kept after it. He had some pretty significant schools he could have chosen, but he felt comfortable with the relationship he and I had built. It worked out for us in the end.
“Desmar is a very smooth, gifted athlete. He has some good genes going on as his father (Omar Provitt) was a very good athlete. Omar might have been the greatest football player ever to play at Warren Harding, and they have had some great players, guys like Paul Warfield and Maurice Clarett. There are probably 10 guys in the NFL from Harding. Desmar will be a good player for us.”
It doesn’t stop there, though.
Providing an opportunity
Stewart has helped find junior college homes for some 40 to 50 players since entering the coaching profession.
“Obviously, not all of these guys played for Long Beach State or Wyoming, but I was able to get them into junior college situations. I’ve probably had 20 to 25 kids go to junior colleges in California, Utah, and even Casper. So, you are indirectly helping a lot of people and touching a lot of lives.
“That’s what it is all about at the end of the day,” he added.
Stewart recently helped two other Ohio prep stars land at Casper College — Jared Porrini, a 6-4 guard, and Cameron Howard, a 6-8 forward, both from Canton Timken High School.
“Although they are not actually playing for me, they are working toward the opportunity to do that,” Stewart said. “So, they are willing to come out here, get things done academically, and improve athletically with the possibility of coming over in two years.”
In addition to Wyoming, Ohio, Utah and California, Stewart has been able to find JC situations for players in Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Texas and Illinois.
“That’s all I can think of off the top of my head,” he said with a smile.
“There are different levels of junior colleges and different situations for different kids,” Stewart continued. “Everyone might not have the ability to play at certain places. There are different programs for different personalities, and different games … not everyone has the same abilities.
“I really believe that everyone is entitled to one shot at doing something positive. If I have the chance to provide that for people, then that’s what I need to do.
“Being a college coach at any level puts you in a position to touch a lot of different lives. You can mend them, mold them and mentor them to be good people. If I had to do it over again, maybe I would have gotten a 10-year jump earlier into coaching than I did.
“I’m very knowledgeable of why I’ve been successful, whether it be in corporate or whether it be in basketball. It has a lot to do with someone giving me a chance. My grandparents gave me the original chance,” Stewart added.
Good at Wyoming
Stewart said he is happy to be coaching at Wyoming and working for Schroyer, who allows his assistants to play to their strengths.
“I have some responsibilities on the floor and I oversee a lot of the academics,” Stewart said. “But I know where my bread is buttered, and that’s recruiting and evaluating talent.
“You can go and sit down and evaluate and find out who’s good enough, but then you have to figure out how to get them to Laramie. That’s not always the easiest thing. That’s where I can be a valuable asset to the staff.”
Another big plus is being able to work with his fellow Cowboy coaches on a daily basis.
“It’s a great staff … a bunch of good guys. I really enjoy working with everyone here. Everyone knows their role. It’s a real team and there are no egos,” Stewart said.
“The good thing about working for Coach Schroyer is he allows you to go toward your strengths. He utilizes you where you can help the most. There are a lot of head coaches who don’t do that. He’s really good about that.”
“It’s been good for me because I don’t have a prototypical coaching background like a lot of these guys,” Stewart added.
And it’s also been good for youngsters looking for that one chance.
“It’s been kind of like a woman in the bingo hall gossiping,” Stewart said. “I get calls from coaches and they will say, ‘Hey, I heard you helped so-and-so, can you help my kid?’
“I had three calls on Tuesday from three different high school coaches, and it was the same thing. ‘Do you think you can help my kid?’ What am I going to say, no? It’s tedious at times and takes a lot of work, but if I don’t help them, who will?”
Bob Hammond’s e-mail address is bobh@laramieboomerang.com
