You can't hide passion or enthusiasm, and good coaches stand out. Starling Bryant stands out. And after his Panthers' 78-67 victory at Hutch-Tech on Thursday night, the 19-year veteran coach now stands alone as well. The win for Bryant was the 304th of his coaching career, which surpasses the longtime mark for Yale Cup coaches set by former Bennett coach Larry Veronica, who retired after 25 years with 303 victories to his resume. Veronica also finished with eight sectional titles, two state titles, and one Federation championship. Bryant has won a sectional crown 12 different times, advanced his team to Glens Falls five times, won three state championships, and also has a Federation championship as part of his accolades.
Bryant played his high school ball at Bennett High. His senior season was Veronica's first behind the bench for the Tigers. "So you actually helped Veronica earn some of those wins?", I asked. But Bryant would take no credit for Veronica's accomplished coaching record, saying he wasn't even a starter for the new coach.
"I thought I should have been a starter my senior year, so that was a great motivator for me", Bryant said. "As a coach, I can see now. I can't fault him now, but I used to have a chip on my shoulder and said this will never happen to me again".
After graduating from Bennett, Bryant started out at the University of Wisconsin as a pre-pharmacy major. He lasted just one semester there. He wasn't ready. As a wide-eyed 17-year old kid from the City of Buffalo, stepping on to that big of a campus was too big of a jump. He left Wisconsin and didn't even let his parents know, choosing to instead join his brother and attend the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC). At the time, UMKC competed in the NAIA. Today, they are a Division I program.
Still motivated by not starting his senior season of high school and now wanting to prove to himself that he was what he knew he was, Bryant joined the team there and immediately put his nose to the grindstone.
"I went to college, I had to get everything on my own, I had to fight and fight and fight".
"I'm going to be the best and work harder than anyone else, and I earned a scholarship", Bryant said. "If it wasn't for feeling as though I'd been slighted, I probably wouldn't have worked as hard", he said.
Bryant made the most of that scholarship, and helped lead that team to the NAIA National Tournament during his junior season. When he graduated, he was the school's all-time leader in points, assists, steals, and free-throw percentage. Following his college playing days, Bryant met up with former Harlem Globetrotter, Meadowlark Lemon, and began touring and playing for Lemon's newly formed team, the Bucketeers.
During his days playing for the Bucketeers, Bryant played with the likes of Wilt Chamberlain, Marcus Haynes, & Jumping Jackie Jackson. He also traveled the world and got to experience things outside of the city he grew up in that he never imagined. Bryant has been in all 50 states, played in Saudi Arabia, South America, Spain, & France, as well as being aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, a naval ship super carrier.
"It was one of the greatest experiences I've had", Bryant said. "It was basketball, but also like a Broadway production. Every night, you had a script".
Following his team touring the world and playing with the greats on the Bucketeers, and despite having a teaching degree, Bryant went to work in sales. Finally, with a family to consider, he took a job in education at Buffalo Traditional and began coaching the varsity boys team there in 1997, taking over for Joe Cardinale. Bryant inherited an extremely talented team, but one that had earned a reputation for relying on talent and being associated with the motto 'all the way without a play'. Bryant sought to change that culture, while continuing the winning ways of the program.
"In my first year, we had holdovers from a state championship team and it was rough for those guys to get acclimated to what I wanted to do", Bryant said. "We weren't just going to roll the ball out and expect to play".
Instead, Bryant installed plays, worked on offense, turned defensive basketball into the culture at the school, made conditioning and toughness an asset the team could rely on, and did so with two-a-day practices. The team would practice at 6:30 am and again at 2:30 pm following the school day. Eventually, the players bought in, but Bryant thinks the hard-line approach may have kept his team from a regional appearance.
"One of the best big men in the city, 6-8 & 250 lbs., couldn't make 6:30 am practices and I ended up cutting the guy"' said Bryant. "We lost to Seneca by two or three that year, and would have won. I looked at it as, these were my rules. If you can't make the practice, then you're not going to play".
Bryant said he has a building full of kids who could be players, but they won't make the commitment.
"A lot of the way I coach has to do with my life experiences. I had strong men in my household, my father, my step father, and there was no excuses - you want something, you put in the work, no handouts".
Looking back at his 19 years behind the bench for Traditional/East, there are some groups that stand out as extra special teams to work with. The Lazar Hayward teams & the Jamal Webb teams standout in his mind. But the group that won three state titles with Greg French, Terry George, & Daryl Jacobs, and culminated the last one with a Federation Championship, is the one he remembers most fondly.
As for the sweetest win of the 304 to his credit so far, the Federation title game in 2001 is the one.
"We'd win a state championship, but come home to Buffalo and the paper would read 'Traditional lost' and everybody would want to know what happened. We had to win it all".
Making the title all the more special, was the team and coach he won against - Canisius, led by the late Tom Keenan.
"We had to travel 500 miles to play each other, but it was all worth it", Bryant said. "It was coach Keenan's last game. I can still see him out almost at the free throw line as the game is going on in front of his bench, and I see that vivid picture of him, I remember it like it was yesterday. He was a great competitor and a great coach".
Whether or not Bryant will ever have a another win as special as that 2001 championship, one thing seems pretty clear - he'll have a lot more wins to choose from in the future. Despite making jokes about his advanced age, he seems as spry as ever and his dedication to making East a winner hasn't wavered in the slightest. His most current version of the Panthers is the #4 ranked small school in WNY and has its sights set on winning the overall Class B title as another year of sectionals quickly approaches. For any coaches hoping that Bryant earning the city record might be a sign that the end is near, hanging it up doesn't seem to be in his future anytime soon.
"Now what would I do if I retired?" he asked.
I'm not sure about that, but I do know what will happen as he continues his coaching career, and looking over his accolades, it's pretty clear. He's going to keep on winning games - an easy prediction to make on behalf of the winningest coach in the City of Buffalo.
-centercourt
Great writeup!
Posted by: StateChamps2003 | Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 08:36 PM