McKiernan being inducted into state coaches Hall of Fame

Rumor had it that Dan McKiernan lined up the players trying out for basketball and told everyone to step forward if they thought they could make varsity. Those who stepped forward were allowed to try out and those who didn't were cut without picking up a basketball.

The rumor the following year was that everyone who missed a layup warming up during the first 10 minutes of tryouts was released because he couldn't make the game's easiest shot despite not being defended.

As an adult you learn most rumors aren't true, which was the case with these two. As a sophomore at Palmer High School in 1990, I knew kids who were terrified of McKiernan because of these fabrications. Those were the kids who didn't know him.

McKiernan, who just completed his sixth season as the boys' coach at Doherty, will be entering the Colorado High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame Saturday night in Denver. He has coached in the area since 1972, has won 610 games and won two state championships at Palmer.

But McKiernan doesn't consider those his greatest accomplishments. Family comes first, and if you play basketball for McKiernan - you are part of his clan.

"I see them more then their families do," McKiernan said of his players Thursday. "I see them two hours a day during school. You build up quite a relationship."

As with any family, problems arise and McKiernan doesn't shy away from them. He has bailed some of his former players out of jail, talked at a parole hearing for another and let two former players move into his house.

"People talk about all the successes, the 21-plus that we have had go Division I and how many others who became doctors, but we also have quite a few who went to prison or went to jail," McKiernan said. "There's that commitment, but I think all coaches do that. You are joined at the hip. It's a special thing."

Demetrius Somerville, who was a starter on McKiernan's first championship team in 1993 at Palmer, hadn't seen his coach in "13 or 14 years" until about 11 months ago. Somerville, who went on to play Division I at George Mason and then faced troubles of his own, said McKiernan embraced him.

"One thing I always loved about coach McKiernan, he always made you feel like it was more than just a coach-player relationship," said Somerville, who began attending camps run by McKiernan when he was 8 years old. "He filtered a lot of people through that probably would have been in trouble otherwise."

Trouble has a way of finding some, and not all relationships work out.

"Dan sets the expectation and the kids have to hit the expectation," Doherty athletic director Chris Noll said. "If they don't hit the expectation, they don't play on his team. He cares about his kids and they know that he is no-nonsense. ... He is going to do everything to help them, but if they continue to violate - there is no doubt who the boss is."

Last season, Doherty had to suspend its starting point guard, according to Noll, and many years ago McKiernan kicked the leading scorer in the city off his team.

"It's like a death. It really is," McKiernan said of losing a member of his basketball family. "The first thing that comes to mind is that I failed them."

Working to be a quality person is as important as shooting a 3-pointer or making a layup, according to McKiernan.

"If you can't meet these standards then we are going to part," he said.

McKiernan, who takes pride in multiple teaching awards, says that some of the best lessons he teaches are on the court and not in the classroom.

"You learn things that you can't learn in math class, can't learn in English," he says of the practical knowledge he shares coaching. "You can't learn self-sacrifice. You can't learn about getting knocked down and having someone on your (butt) and later pick you up and say, 'It is going to be all right' ... and having success. That can't be learned in a classroom, that's life. Every successful coach is a good teacher. I absolutely believe that. Coaching is the best thing that has ever happened to me."

BETTER HALF

Coaching is actually the second-best thing that has happened to McKiernan.

Meeting his wife Flo, who he celebrated his 49th wedding anniversary with Wednesday, was the ultimate for McKiernan.

"It was love at first sight," the burly 6-foot-6 coach with a reputation for being a tyrant on the sideline said. "I just fell head over heels. I was absolutely in love with her. I still adore her. She is so cute, she is witty and she is smart."

The couple got married the day after McKiernan, who turned 70 on Tuesday, turned 21.

"He is a Flo McKiernan buff," Noll said. "His wife walks on water in Dan's eyes and that is one thing I have always been impressed with. He is a great husband."

Being a wife of a coach can be tough. Sitting in the stands and hearing someone second-guessing your husband can be trying. Not to mention the hours your husband spends at practices, games and watching film. Dan says that being a coach is a full-time obligation.

To offset the time demands, Dan and Flo have date night every Wednesday.

"It's a priority," Dan said of the couple with five children and 18 grandchildren spending time together. "She raised the family. My advice to young guys being coaches, there's got to be one day a week you spend with your wife and not with your kids. (Coaching is) hard on wives."

Most wives aren't asked if a player can move in. But Flo didn't have any problem allowing Brian Carpenter -- who was living out of a barrack bag, according to Dan -- moving in. Brian was eventually adopted by the McKiernans.

"He's brother Brian, that is what everyone in the family calls him." Dan said.

If Flo would have had a problem with Carpenter moving in, or with any of Dan's antics, she is one person who isn't afraid to tell him - and one he will actually listen to.

"She is my counsel," Dan said. "I don't go to a lot of people ... she won't tell me what I want to hear. She will tell me what she thinks. She has always been there, always been honest and has always had my back."

PUBLIC SERVICE

About 6,000 local kids have participated in McKiernan's basketball camps over the years.

Somerville said there were always scholarships available to kids who were from families with financial struggles so they could participate in the camps when families couldn't afford it. He also said every kid was given a basketball.

"It just seemed like the right thing to do," McKiernan said. "I ultimately wanted to win basketball games. That is the selfish part of it. Some of the richest kids in town and poorest kids mixed together pretty well."

McKiernan also gave out hats, coats, gloves, dolls and G.I. Joe action figures to kids for Christmas.

"We would go around, and I would take my kids with me sometimes," McKiernan said. "But it was our community, I didn't do it all over the city."

Over the years, McKiernan has had his kids read at grade schools, give teddy bears away at the children's ward at a hospital and contribute to Care and Share.

"I think everybody in the community does stuff like that," the Springs native said. "The kids need to realize what is going on in the community. We've got people who are hungry and people who are not doing well and we need to do things for them as well."

CRITICS

McKiernan says he doesn't care what most people say.

"No, I really don't," he said. "You put yourself out there. You are going to make five vocal enemies every year and 50 new friends, but they are not vocal. You have to have a tough skin. I can't worry about what other people think. You do, it bothers you when somebody says something, but fortunately I have had more nicer things said then negatives. They can't knock the success I guess. I have had great kids and great coaches and it gave me a chance to be as good as I could be."

Over 39 years, that is a lot of enemies. But surprisingly, McKiernan says that he is friends with a lot of the officials he torments during games.

"He will ride an official pretty good, and he has calmed down from how he used to be, and a lot of times people only see the antics of Dan McKiernan the coach on the sideline," Noll said. "But once you get to work with him, you get to see Dan as a person. He is a better person than he is a coach and he is a phenomenal coach."

Any time McKiernan has lost his cool and been ejected from a game he admittedly said he deserved it. He also said it is unfortunate that most people tend to remember only the bad things.

"I don't know how people perceive me," he said. "You want people to respect you. But you don't know. But I am good at what I do. After years of making mistakes, and I make mistakes all the time, but I am getting better at it. There are not as many and they are not as big."

As for his relationship with referees during games, he has a simple philosophy.

"Some of my best friends are officials. I really admire them," McKiernan said while assuring me he wasn't just saying that. "But my attitude toward them is 'I built this garden and I don't want you trampling through it.'"

THE GAME

"Basketball comes down to three things: Play as hard as you can, play as intelligent as you can and have fun," McKiernan said. "As a coach, if it is all a drain and there is no fun involved, then you are not doing a good job."

The other thing McKiernan stresses is that he coaches the way he would have wanted to be coached. He remembers the pain he felt when being cut from a junior high team and being notified by a list on the wall. He said he has never used a list and that he will take the time to explain to a player why they didn't make the team.

He also says that when he gets on a kid particularly hard in practice, he makes a mental note and tries to say something positive to that player before they leave the court.

"Every coach is going to get on you and push you to be the best you can be," Somerville said.

Noll says there are no signs of McKiernan slowing down and McKiernan says his passion is what keeps him going.

"If I lose that, then it is time for me to quit," McKiernan said.

LEGACY

McKiernan receives calls and visits from former players, team managers and other friends he has made through basketball and he gets a thrill out of seeing them as adults with families. He even stays in touch with some of the players he kicked off his teams.

"It's a great thing," he said of his relationships with former players. "It's not something that I ever planned out as a legacy or anything like that."

When he is inducted into the Hall Saturday night, McKiernan wants to make one thing clear.

"I want to tell everyone thank you," McKiernan said. "You don't win those things without good players and assistants. All these other people, I have been on their backs, they are the reasons why I am here."