Thursday, April 01, 2010
Celtics go with Hodges for hoops
The man who coached Larry Bird's team at Indiana State will now lead Roanoke Catholic.
Associated Press | File 1979
Bill Hodges (right) coached the Larry Bird-led Indiana State Sycamores, who were ranked No. 1 in the nation for much of the 1978-79 season and reached the NCAA tournament final.
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More than 30 years after his Indiana State men's basketball team played in the NCAA championship game, Bill Hodges remains something of a coaching icon, but there is one field in which his credentials are sorely lacking.
It's called retirement and Hodges can't seem to get the hang of it.
Hodges claims to have been retired for the past four years, but as recently as the spring of 2009, he could be seen guiding the William Fleming girls tennis team to the Northwest Region playoffs.
Or, was it the Fleming boys? Hodges also coached them for a spell.
"When it first looked like we might have an opening, Coach Hodges was the first person I thought of," Roanoke Catholic athletic director Paul Ripley said, "but I was worried he might laugh in my face."
Are you kidding?
Hodges has coached basketball at every level -- Division I, Division II, junior college, NAIA, you name it. Why not take over a successful Roanoke Catholic program? After all, he is Catholic.
Hodges jumped at the chance to succeed Joe Gaither, who resigned March 16, after compiling a six-year record of 127-48 that included two state championships.
"I haven't coached for a while and I'm not a youngster," said Hodges, who recently turned 67, "but I love coaching. And if I'm not coaching, I'm at basketball games all winter."
Hodges was a regular at Virginia Tech games this past season.
"Everybody needs a guru and mine is Bill Hodges," said Tech men's basketball coach Seth Greenberg, who speaks to Hodges after most Tech games. "Now, he'll be busy enough that he won't have to keep re-inventing my team,"
In his most recent "retirement," Hodges has been teaching world history at William Fleming. It was with Fleming's blessing that Hodges accepted an offer to coach in the Reese's All-Star game that will played on Friday in Indianapolis.
Radford senior Art Parakhouski, the leading rebounder in Division I this season, is among the members of the Hodges' East team. The game will tip at 4:45 p.m. and can be seen on CBS College Sports.
The trip to Indianapolis brings Hodges back to his Hoosier State roots. He was born in Zionsville, Ind., and attended Purdue before graduating from Marian University in Indianapolis.
He later served as the head coach for four years at Indiana State, where he both recruited and coached Larry Bird.
"I started my coaching career at Marian as a student assistant," Hodges said. "My goal was to coach in high school, but the coach at Marian said: 'I need somebody to help me.' He needed an assistant coach more than he needed a fourth guard."
Roanoke Catholic won't be Hodges' first high school gig. In 2001, he was the head coach at E.C. Glass, having moved to Central Virginia to be closer to his daughter, Zoie, who had health problems at the time.
He subsequently returned to Milledgeville, Ga., where he coached at Georgia Military College before retiring to Smith Mountain Lake. His daughter and son-in-law, Lanny Park, live in Roanoke.
"I've had a couple of opportunities to get back into coaching, but I would have to leave and, frankly, I love it here," said Hodges, who has moved into Roanoke. "I want to be here till I can't coach anymore."
At Catholic, Hodges will be taking over a program in transition. Ripley's intention is to reduce the number of transfers who have come to Catholic for their final years of high school.
"The main thing to remember is that these kids at Roanoke Catholic can go to any public school in their area free of charge," Ripley said. "So every student here is a recruit in one sense of the word.
"But, I don't feel like it's our place to go into any school and specifically target an athlete who is a sophomore or higher. Would we turn down a kid whose parents feel he should be here? Absolutely not. [But] we're not going to interfere with another school's or a coach's investment."
Hodges is a certified religion instructor and could wind up on the Catholic teaching staff.
"We don't require that you teach here, but, boy, wouldn't that be nice!" Ripley said. "To me, seeing that coach every day is hugely important.
"The biggest thing with Bill is the way he emphasizes the teaching of individual skills. His philosophy is, you make every player as good as they can be and then the team will take care of itself."
Even before he reached agreement on the basketball position, Hodges had agreed to coach the Catholic golf team.
He played to a 10 handicap during one or another of his retirements and spent one year as the golf coach at Armstrong (Ga.) State.
But Hodges has developed some habits that his players might want to avoid.
"You mean his one-handed chip shot?'" Ripley asked. "I've told him, 'You'll have to keep that to yourself, if you don't mind.'"
