Long-term result

When senior guard Andre Murray arrived at Portland State in 2007, he had traveled a route familiar to many Vikings student-athletes. After prepping in Los Angeles, Murray attended junior college at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, Calif. Last season, he took over as the Vikings’ shooting guard, starting 22 games and averaging nine points per contest.

But it may have been off the court where Murray’s maturation was most evident.

“Andre came to school not really valuing his education,” said head coach Ken Bone. “And yet, every quarter since he got here he has done better. He has realized, ‘Hey I need to do this, I need to go to class, I need to turn this in on time, I need to put in my study hours.'”

Murray’s development as a student and an athlete came in the midst of Portland State’s most successful season in school history. However, even with the team success, Bone becomes elated at the mere mention of how Murray has grown.

“Andre may never know how excited we are for his improvement and academic success. But that is exciting, really exciting and special,” Bone said.

While the Vikings’ historic success as a team grabbed headlines and dominated radio airwaves around the Rose City, the maturation Murray and many of his teammates have experienced flew under the radar.

In the high-stakes world of collegiate athletics–a world where coaches and teams are measured more by wins, losses and revenue than graduation rates and maturation–the important work coaches may do often goes unnoticed.

There are a number of benefits that schools reap when offering college athletics.

The substantial revenue boost of successful teams, the tradition and school pride that comes from a winning tradition and the attention that one season of success can bring a university are just a couple of many noteworthy reasons.

But along with that revenue potential and increased attention comes responsibility, the majority of which falls squarely on the head coach’s shoulders.

Fans and boosters hold coaches responsible for success or failure of the team they support.

Administration holds the coaches responsible for recruiting players that will perform on and off the court.

And the media holds the coaches responsible for the proper execution in crucial moments of games.

Lost amid all of the responsibility that coaches have is the one task that they may put the greatest effort into and take the most pride in accomplishing.

That responsibility, defined by Bone as his most important, is the mentoring and fostering of the student-athletes, like Murray, with whom he closely works.

“If you are in this business, you learn that the Xs and Os are momentary,” Bone said. “The reason we all do this and keep coming back is having the opportunity to work with kids and help them develop character.”

Portland State athletic director Torre Chisholm said that having coaches who are committed to helping develop student-athletes in all ways is a crucial component for athletic success at Portland State.

“Coaches are under an intense amount of stress and they put in insane amounts of time at their job. One of the counterbalances of that is having the joy and success on the court, and then also watching their players progress and mature,” Chisholm said. “That is something that they can really cherish. “

After serving as a coach in the NFL for about 20 seasons, head football coach Jerry Glanville had planned on implementing a professional-style system at Portland State as well.

“I learned quickly to be tolerant of mistakes made on the field,” Glanville said. “I am not tolerant about our rules and behavior and those kinds of violations. Football mistakes are one thing, behavior and attitude are another.”

Recounting one unique way in which he has helped his players’ maturation, Glanville said that when one of his players has missed or been late to a meeting, he has had the player take his lunch and give it to a homeless person.

“We don’t run laps, we don’t run stadium steps, we go meet people that have a lot less than us and need help, and we go help them,” Glanville said.

The most experienced of all the head coaches at Portland State, Glanville may know best that winning games is the ultimate measuring stick in the profession.

“We are here to win games, but we are going to do it in the right way. I am not Father Flanagan, but if there is an opportunity to make a positive impact, I am glad to be a part of it,” Glanville said.

In most incidents, the profound effect that a coach may have on one of his or her players is not fully realized until years later. Glanville mentioned having lunch with one of his former NFL players, Tracy Eaton.

Eaton, who starred at Portland State in the mid-1980s and went on to play defensive back for Glanville in Houston and Atlanta, recently told his former coach that he was responsible for his success on the football field and thanked him for his guidance.

Glanville also cited the work of two of his former players, Romeo Crennel and Jim Haslett, both head coaches now in the NFL, acknowledging their former coach’s impact.

At Portland State since last year, women’s basketball coach Sherri Murrell is at her third head-coaching stop since her playing career at Pepperdine ended in 1991. She said that she takes her role as a mentor and friend to her players very seriously.

“Out of all the people that they come into contact with, we are the people that they see the most,” Murrell said. “There is a lot of teaching that takes place off the court that will hopefully help, because most of the things we teach on the court, the fundamentals of basketball, won’t help fix life’s problems.”

Bone played the majority of his college career at Seattle Pacific University and returned to SPU as the school’s head coach for 12 seasons.

After leaving SPU, Bone also served as an assistant at Washington, where he had a hand in coaching current NBA players Nate Robinson and Brandon Roy.

“There are some things that you hope you do in practice that can be used in life: work ethic, effort, attitude and competition. I learned those things from my coaches,” Bone said.

All three coaches admitted that there are many players that they may struggle to reach.

“We try to be there if they come,” Glanville said. “But sometimes they don’t come. That could mean they don’t have problems, or they have other people to help them, or maybe they don’t trust us. But we try to be there and help them when possible.”

Murrell said that balancing the many roles of a head coach is often difficult but worthwhile in the end.

“You have to play the mother, the father, the psychologist and the best friend sometimes. But the kids know that whether they make a layup or not, we value them.”