One of my colleagues at The Only Colors, Josh Moon, got great interviews with incoming Michigan State players Kenny Kaminski and Matt Costello at the Moneyball Pro-Am over the weekend. I thought these comments by Costello about his high school days at Bay City Western were interesting:
Right, I’ve never heard anyone call your game soft. You’re known for toughness and intensity. Where does that come from?
“My dad and Lou Dawkins, I don’t know if you remember him?”Sure, Saginaw High coach.
“Yeah, old Saginaw High coach. I learned from him for a couple of years. He taught me to play hard {laughs} and I hope it shows.”And what does that mean to you in your game?
“Giving all your effort on every play. I know there’s sometimes you’re dogging it and you can’t get up on the floor but you have to dig deep and work harder even if you don’t think you can.”
That stood out to me, first and foremost, because I always love when coaches don’t hesitate to advise and help players on other teams, particularly good players on rival teams. And, it turns out, Costello used some of those lessons to hand Dawkins a loss in his last game as Saginaw High’s head coach. Dawkins resigned to take an assistant coaching job at Northern Illinois shortly after Costello led Western to a shocking upset of the Trojans in the 2011 regionals.