EVERETT — At a recent afternoon practice, Everett Community College co-head basketball coach Darrell Walker brought along his young daughter, a toddler. She played near the sideline, chasing balls and chirping happily.
Did the team’s other co-head coach mind the distraction?
Hardly. It was grandpa.
Most sports teams are families, of sorts, but it is particularly true at Everett CC, where longtime Trojans head coach Larry Walker will be joined again this season by his son Darrell. It will be their sixth season of coaching together.
The working relationship is, by all accounts, successful both professionally and personally. Under the Walkers, Everett CC hopes to contend in the North Division of the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges in 2008-09. And the two men are not only compatible as coaches, they are just about best friends.
“My dad is a pretty amazing guy,” Darrell Walker said. “He’s always been an inspiration to me just because of the kind of guy he is.”
During games, Darrell Walker says he often looks over and realizes how lucky he is to be coaching with his father. “It gives me chills now, just talking about it,” he said.
Working with his son “is meaningful,” Larry Walker said, “because I get to see him every day.”
Officially, 57-year-old Larry Walker is the school’s head coach, as he has been for the previous 23 seasons. In his office at the school’s athletic department, where he is also the athletic director, he handles the team’s administrative duties and prepares the daily practice plan.
Darrell Walker, who is 32, shows up at the gym after a day of teaching health and fitness at Marysville Middle School. His team responsibilities are pretty much limited to the hours of practices and games.
The Walkers, though, are not big on titles, and they prefer to call themselves co-head coaches. For games, in fact, Darrell Walker is generally the designated head coach, which allows him to walk the sideline and speak with officials when necessary.
And that’s because the more animated younger Walker, “has a tough time sitting down,” his father said with a smile.
You see, although the two men are linked genetically, they are actually quite different. Larry Walker speaks softly and concisely, and rarely gets riled. Darrell Walker, on the other hand, has a gift for conversation and a problem hiding his emotions.
“I think they go together perfect,” said guard Chris Grounds, a Trojans co-captain who played at Mukilteo’s Kamiak High School. “Darrell is the more vocal one. On the court you’ll hear him talking the whole game and he’s extremely vocal. But Larry, for the most part, is really laid back. He sees the big picture. And little things usually don’t get to him, so when he does get frustrated, it gets our attention.”
“For the most part, it just works,” said Darrell Walker, who played two seasons for his father back in the mid-1990s. “He knows me and I know him, and the two of us kind of complement each other. I can relate to these young guys more so than he can, and he’ll be the first to admit that. But at the same time, he’s got the basketball mind. And that’s where I got it from, for sure.”
During timeouts or in the halftime locker room, Larry Walker usually speaks first before giving way to his son. And if either one leaves something out, the other fills it in.
“My dad and I finish each other’s sentences,” Darrell Walker said.
“Literally, I’ll be talking and then he’ll step right in and carry on (the thought),” Larry Walker said.
Grounds, like most of the players, calls both men Coach Walker. “But I make sure that I make eye contact,” he said, “so that they know which Coach Walker I’m talking to.”
Though Larry Walker has no immediate plans to retire, questions about when he might leave and who might replace him are already being asked.
“Over the years,” Darrell Walker said, “everyone has always asked me, ‘Are you going to take over the program?’ And my answer every single time is that when my dad’s done, I’m probably done. I love coaching, but at the same time the main reason I do it is because of him.”
Coaching, he went on, “is consuming. It’s a lot of stress and a lot of time, and I really don’t feel like I can make that commitment at this time. And I don’t know if I ever can.”
But if his son did decide to continue in coaching, Larry Walker said, “he’d be very successful.” Whether it was high school or college coaching, “he’d do a really good job.”
And in the meantime, he added, “I’ll cherish what we’re doing now. Because it’s really special.”
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