Coaches don't just coach

Coaches coach.

That seems fairly straightforward. Machinists machine, pilots pilot and cooks cook.

However, coaching isn't always limited to the gymnasium, field, pool or track nor necessarily specific to the intricacies of sports.

That's because sometimes much more is required.

Such as mentoring the passage into young adulthood, the process of navigating the myriad of new situations teenagers encounter in chronologically moving from 13 to 19 and beyond. Call it the development of life skills and even values.

And nowadays, a certain percentage of youngsters are missing one or both parents or any sort of authority figures so having a trusted adult who is available for guidance can be a critically positive force in staying upright, or arising after a poor decision's knockdown.

The best in this category are protectors (in the most positive sense) minus any personal agenda.

 In the Bay Area and northern California, many such coaches dot the landscape.

Lou Richie is one. Yet he will be the first to say he "doesn't have all the right answers" or is infallible.

The current Bishop O'Dowd boys basketball coach is a friend to many youngsters as well as an accountability mentor. It's a role he has played for many years.

This function produces a wide array of situations and responses.

There is the parent whose little Johnny is absolutely on the fast track from being a prepster to a Bruin or Jayhawk or Blue Devil, this despite a résumé lacking in the necessary size, athletic ability and skills set. Yet the coach is the so-called 'blinded one' just unable to see the inevitable truth.

There's also the parents who just don't care or are embroiled in their own battle with personal devils.

Luckily and thankfully, there are those parents who get it -- seeing, understanding and wanting the appropriate thing for their children.

"Parents want their kids to have a better life than them," Richie explained. "That's certainly understandable."

But does the method for attempting to make this happen provoke madness or a solid foundation from which to prosper?

As Richie put it, "Shielding them from adversity doesn't help nor does being co-dependent or an enabler."

For both the parent and the mentor "it's a process of development and protection" in Richie's words and sometimes a fine line exists between the two.

Richie currently finds himself in a very unique situation.

6-foot-10 Ivan Rabb is a 2015 talent at Bishop O'Dowd and if not now the #1 prospect in his class, he soon will be.

"There has never been a player in northern California with Ivan's untapped potential," Richie offered.

The prospect of big NBA dollars loom on Rabb's horizon but right now he is a kid, someone still learning the game as well as maneuvering through what is present in inner-city Oakland.

The users and abusers -- the Goodtime Charlies -- as always, are prowling around. Their hidden agendas are to ride the Rabb train in order to increase their bank accounts, stepping off the very second the dollars stop flowing.

Fortunately, Rabb also has a strong and wise mother to lean on.

Richie's relationship with Rabb is definitely one of advisor/teacher mode.

"I don't want Ivan or anyone to grow up to be paranoid or a skeptic [about other people," Richie said. "That's not healthy."

But college coaches have been descending on the Rabb household recently, leading to the age-old question of who to trust?

"I tell Ivan to be mindful. Who says hi to your little brother, who engages him? Who introduces himself to your grandfather?"

Richie's bottom line advice to Rabb  is "positively question everybody, even me. I am going to make mistakes."

They xometimes venture into discussions about "what happens if someone betrays you?"

For Richie, it's a multi-part solution of "love your family, worship God and have plan A, B, C, D. E..."

He also stressed that "Ivan makes coaching fun, it's very easy."

As for those whose unrealistic expectations include being the next big NBA prime timer, Richie said, "there's one Michael Jordan, one LeBron, one Kevin Durant. But what is success in basketball? Is JJ Reddick successful? I would say yes."

Reddick is the former Duke star backcourter known for his shooting eye but not necessarily graced with eye-popping athletic prowess. He was selected 11th in the 2006 NBA draft and has since played for the Orlando Magic, Milwaukee Bucks and now the Los Angeles Clippers, recently signing a four year $27,000,000 contract.

Richie's calling is to aid the priming for success in whatever direction a youngster decides to take, whether it be on the court, in the classroom or out in the work force.

Unselfish performance in service to others has such a dramatic need in today's society -- let's salute such wherever it is taking place.