Monday, April 9, 2012

Meet John Wood

John Wood has lived basketball. In a coaching profession spanning success down in southern California to now as a varsity assistant and junior varsity head coach at Alvarez High in Salinas to a playing career at San Lorenzo High and then collegiately at Arkansas, it's been a roundball life.

Standing 6-foot-9, Wood was a power player on the court, one of the best ever to wear San Lorenzo on his jersey. He's now a member of the Hall of Fame there based on his success playing for Al Mangin, the legendary figure who coached for 34 years at San Lorenzo High.

After his East Bay prep success, Wood became an Arkansas Razorback under Coach Lanny Van Eman, who also assisted at Iowa and Oregon State as well as with four NBA teams.

It seemingly wasn't important at the time but then Kansas State assistant coach Bob Gottlieb, who was friends with Van Eman (and seemingly every coach in the country), witnessed Wood play in Little Rock. More on that connection soon.

The elder Gottlieb is the patriarch of one of basketball's first families. Bob headed programs at Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Jacksonville and assisted some of the best in working with the likes of Tex Winter, Eddie Sutton, Jack Hartman and Ralph Miller. His sons are Doug Gottlieb, one of ESPN's basketball analysts and Greg Gottlieb, an assistant at Cal. The former played at both Notre Dame and then Oklahoma State, where he led the nation is assists as a junior.

Wood returned home after college and began coaching basketball at San Lorenzo before spending 20+years at Beaumont High and then Riverside Poly in southern California. He also worked summer camps, particularly those at Oregon State, for the aforementioned Ralph Miller.

Now remember, Gottlieb was friends with Van Eman while the latter was at Arkansas and while Wood played for Van Eman. Gottlieb later moved on to assist Ralph Miller at Oregon State. That's how Wood eventually became one of the summer camp coaches in Corvallis.

Later on, Wood hooked up with Gottlieb when the latter opened up Branch West, a club basketball team organization situated in Orange County with a mission of getting as many of its players college scholarships regardless of college level.

He is now assistant director for Gottlieb, evaluating, scouting and coaching for Branch West whose alums include James Harden, Cole Aldrich and Deon Thompson, among many others. Wood works the western portion of the United States for scouting and evaluation purposes.

As for familial hoops connections, Wood has a son Mitch who will be a senior for the Alvarez varsity come next season. Another son, Jackson, greyshirted at Riverside College, went on to play hoops at Ventura College and then Benedictine College in Kansas. Jackson is now an assistant at La Sierra High in Riverside. Wood's daughter Tessa played at Riverside Poly before going on to star at Fresno City College where her team won 70 games on two years. She played on a Final Four squad as a freshman and a Final Eight team as a sophomore. 

After his many years in southern California, Wood moved up to Salinas, working as a substitute teacher and also doing some refereeing. He later became an English teacher at Alvarez High, in addition to his spring and summer Branch West duties. 

Eventually, Wood decided to partner with Coach Mark Haddan as an assistant at the Alvarez varsity level, while coaching the freshman team. Haddan himself is a Salinas area basketball legend who played collegiately for Fresno State. Imagine what can be gleaned from the experiences of these two guys?

As for the Wood - Gottlieb relationship, it is one of mutual respect. 

"I've learned a tremendous amount of basketball from him," Wood said. "Bob is a point guard coach (remember his son Doug led the nation in assists) and his teams come down and execute plays in the final minutes. Bob is a master of that."

Gottlieb offered in return,"John was a real tough cookie, a real physical rebounder when he played." As for Wood's effect on the sidelines, Gottlieb said, "John had a lot of success in high school. He's really competitive and can take ordinary players and coach them up for a win."

About the Branch West enterprise. Wood explained, "There's over 1,000 colleges in the nation. If you want to play, there's a place for you." But he added, "we don't take a player we feel can't play college basketball."

Plus, unlike some entries in the world of spring and summer basketball, Branch West has entrance requirements, so to speak. As Wood put it, "you have to run the offense, pass the ball and play defense."

How has that worked out?

Last July in Las Vegas, Branch West beat one of the very best teams in the nation, pounding the Oakland Soldiers 70-54, in what was the surprise of the summer.

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