McGuire excels in first year at the helm of Mavericks

Published 10:40 am Thursday, February 28, 2008

TACOMA — When Chad McGuire took over as the head coach of Meadowdale’s boys basketball team he didn’t feel the need to make any wholesale changes.

So McGuire shares some of the credit for the Mavericks’ success at this year’s Class 3A state tournament with his predecessor, Troy Parker.

In the team’s first appearance at state in 25 years, Meadowdale advanced to the semifinals and eventually took sixth place overall.

“This is something that has been building over the last five years with Troy Parker,” said McGuire, who coached the junior varsity team for five years before assuming the head coach responsibilities this season. “We basically kept everything the same and we’re just continuing on what we started. We tweaked a couple of things here and there to fit my coaching style, but for the most part it’s the same system.”

What McGuire brought to the program was a lot of enthusiasm, said senior Chris Rohrbach.

“He’s a great young coach,” said Rohrbach, who played under McGuire his freshman season and has had him as a teacher for three years. “I hope he just keeps on getting his guys going and keeps on coming back here (state) year after year. He’s still learning too.”

Assistant coach Dean Wiley joined the Meadowdale program three years ago and stayed on as an assistant when McGuire, a 1990 graduate of Woodway High School, was named head coach. The two actually were teammates in middle school and later at Woodway, where they both handled the point guard duties.

When Wiley, who was a year ahead of McGuire, came to Meadowdale, the two rekindled an old friendship.

Wiley focuses on defense, while McGuire handles the offense and overall game plan.

“He’s got a great mind for the game,” Wiley said. “He understands players really well. He makes great adjustments during the game and the best thing is he’s always listening to other people and willing to hear ideas and put them into place.

“It’s neat because we are on the same page at all times.”

As expected, the year started out a little bit slowly as McGuire got used to his head coaching responsibilities, according to sophomore guard Jake Linton, who was on the junior varsity team last year.

But McGuire became more comfortable in his role as the season unfolded.

“He wants us to put out whatever we can and leave it all on the floor,” Linton said. “We try to do that for him every game because everybody on the team respects him.”

McGuire also is willing to make the difficult decision and to accept the consequences.

“He’s not afraid to make a tough call and to stick by it,” Wiley said. “A lot of coaches won’t do that.”