Full Q&A with Head Basketball Coach Brett McFall

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CF: What do you think has led to the SMS basketball program’s recent success?

BM:I think we’ve got a good group of kids that are coming through. As a basketball coach, you can never really have any control about what comes into your school year in and year out but I think we’ve had a good three or four year stretch. We’ve had really good players that are interested in the game, play hard, work on it on their own during the offseason. We’ve got some good kids that have come through and we like to believe that we’re teaching them to do the right things. My goal five years ago when I took this job was to turn this into a good basketball program so when opponents played us they knew that they were gonna get our best shot and they were gonna be in a dogfight and obviously we’ve done that.

CF: How many years have you been coaching here at South?

BM: This is my ninth year. This is my fifth year as a head coach. I was JV coach for four years and this is the start of my fifth year [as a head coach].

CF: What do you think about the fan support here at SMS?

BM: It’s the best. It’s the best in KC Metro Area. When I grew up I went to Olathe South and I was very lucky, we had crowds like we do now and I can remember as a player it was awesome. Like I said, I’ve been a basketball coach for nine years but I played the game till I was 25 and I’ve been around a lot of places and what our student section does is the best around. Their creativity, their energy, their excitement, the players feed off that. They’ve made our home gym the toughest place to play and we’ve lost two games at home in three years and that’s because the student section turns it into a great home court advantage.

CF: What is it like being the head coach of a team that gets so much attention and has so much fan support at the high school level?

BM: It’s been great. Like I said, I’m just happy for the guys because high school, I believe, is about making memories and they’re making great memories. Obviously with our run last year and the year before that we were really good also, but it’s been neat for them to get that recognition because they deserve it. They’ve worked so hard, they’ve put in the time and let’s be honest, life isn’t always fair, sometimes it doesn’t pay off but they’ve worked hard, we’ve been successful, it paid off and for them to play in basically a big game every single night. I know it’s been very rewarding for them and I’m happy as a coach to see that for my players.

CF: What was it like winning a State championship in your 4th year as head coach?

BM: It was a dream come true. I never thought I’d win one that early, four years in, but going into that season we had the right pieces to the puzzle. We could tell we had some nice things it was just how quickly could we put it together and become a team. We knew we had good guards, we knew we had good bigs, we had athletes, we had defenders, we had people that could score and they jelled. One big thing is your team chemistry and they just jelled and did everything correctly. I’ve said it before, I might coach 40 years and never have another undefeated [season] or maybe even another State Championship and that was neat to do. My first year we had Spradling and we were really good but obviously the last couple years we’ve built a sustainable program where we’ve been really good every single year and that’s where we hope to be so doing that in the 4th year was just pretty neat.

CF: Has anything changed since winning your State championship?

BM: Not really. We don’t feel any extra pressure. I told the guys in the offseason, ‘look, [to do] what we did last year, we’re gonna have to work that much harder because everybody wants to beat us now.’ Everybody circles our game on their calendar and says ‘this is the team we wanna beat’ and that’s good because that’s where we want our program. We want people to be excited to play us, to be up to play us, because we’re ready for everybody’s best shot and that’s the thing that we’ve been trying to drive home with the kids. People are going to be very excited to play us so we need to make sure we work that much harder and [we] can’t be satisfied after last year.

CF: What was your initial reaction when you found out that the team would be competing in this year’s 6A postseason rather than 5A?

BM: Very excited. I’ve always wanted to be 6A so I was waiting for Sept.  20 and [for] those numbers to come out.

CF: What is it that has allowed the team to be a consistent force this past year and a half?

BM: Their chemistry, their togetherness, their camaraderie. They’re good kids, they’re good teammates to each other. They hold each other accountable. They coach themselves sometimes to where I don’t have to do all the yelling and screaming. If one kid’s not doing what he needs to be doing well then the other ones will hold him accountable.

CF: What challenges do you think you’ll face later this year?

BM: Just like I said earlier, [to] make sure we’re ready for each game. I think the Sunflower League is very good this year and there are some teams that are playing very well. We just gotta keep bringing it every day [and] make sure we don’t look ahead. We just gotta keep taking it game by game.

CF: What do you think is the biggest difference between last year’s championship squad and this year’s team?

BM: I know we’ve got six of our eight [players] back but we’re a little different in terms of what we’re doing. Obviously we had two seniors last year that were very instrumental to our team but as a year goes you replace your seniors and we’ve done a nice job of filling that void. We’re very similar in last year’s regards that we’re very quickly, we’re very athletic, we like to get out and run, we like to play hard. We were struggling to find our identity the first couple weeks but I think we’ve found it now. This is our team for 2014.

CF: What do you think losing that first game did for your team?

BM: I’m not a coach that thinks you need to lose one. If we’re a team that’s losing focus and not concentrating on what we need to do [then] some coaches say ‘we needed a loss.’ I don’t ever think that. We weren’t cocky and this and that. We didn’t need to be brought down to earth but it did make us realize we better be at our best every night because sometimes we’re not at our best and we can still beat the teams that aren’t very good but, if we want to beat the best we still need to be at our best and that [game] made that reality. because they are a very good team. They’re a team in Iowa, now they’re 12 and 1. They’ve lost 1, they’ve beat 2 defending State champions this year alone but it was early, we weren’t as good obviously as we are now just because we hadn’t had any games but it just kind of said, ‘hey, if we don’t bring it we’re gonna get beat.’

CF: What all do you hope to achieve in your coaching career?

BM: Just make a good, fun, successful program where we work hard and obviously [work on] being good basketball players but being good men too in the community, in the classroom and develop that program and expectations that when you’re part of the Raider basketball team, this is what we do, this is how we act in the classroom, this is how we perform, this is what we do in the community, this is what we do on the court because then that’s contagious because the next crop, the next set of freshmen that come in see the older guys do that. I just want to establish a well-respected program.

CF: Is there anything else you’d want to say to SMS basketball fans?

BM: Yeah, keep it going because the crowd is awesome! They give me goosebumps. I get excited so I know my players gotta be real excited. Thanks for all that support.