The lifelong positive effect a coach can have on a player

Straight from a basketball player's mouth, Desmond Pinegar played for Utah State Coach Stew Morrill from 2001-2003.

"Last season Desmond came to the Spectrum right after Coach Morrill announced his retirement. I spoke to him in the hallway after the game and mentioned I was working on an article about Coach Morrill and would love to interview him. He was playing overseas as the time, and said the best way to likely reach him would be to message him on Facebook. I never heard back from Desmond until yesterday. I couldn't not share his response.

"My apologies, I never use Facebook messenger, I have over 1k messages from fans or rival team fans. 

I would love to talk to you about Coach Morrill. I'm owe everything to him but don't know how to say it to him because of pride. I'm still learning lessons about life he challenged me with when I was 19 years old. 

I challenged the messenger instead of taking the personal challenge of being a man and understanding the skills he was really teaching. Respect and the responsibility that comes that should coincide with team play. Right before I was going to attempt to break a play and score, I used to tell Ronnie Ross "Coach Morrill wouldn't like that." It became a joke for two years. Whenever someone would do something against the rules, accelerate through a yellow light, we would say, 'Coach Morrill wouldn't like that.' 

I still say it until this day. If I was late on help side defense, 'Coach Morrill wouldn't like that Dez you need to step it up.' If I didn't run back on defense, Coach Morrill would have yelled at me. I need to be better. 

I use it still. I'm 34 years old, playing in Lebanon for a Serbian coach "Coach Misa" who is cut from the same cloth as Coach. Everyday in practice, my goal is to accept the challenge that was presented to me when I was learning how to be a man. 

Coach Misa and my teammates trust that I will do all the little things to help the team win. I accept the challenge because Coach Morrill wouldn't like it if I didn't. 

I have stories like that from around the world, how he has and continues to push me to be better than I am. 

I have a basketball school in. N.C., and at the end of each session we end the same way we did when I played for Coach. 

Everyday in every way we get a little better, everyday in every way we all stay together. 

I never told anyone these things. I really need to tell him thank you."

— Desmond Pinegar"