There are certain coaches you compete against. There are coaches you respect from a distance.

And then there are coaches who become something more.

For me, Mitch Adams was that guy.

When I was a head basketball coach at Waynesburg and later Steel Valley, Mitch was probably one of the coaches I was closest with. We talked all the time. And when I think about him today, some of my favorite memories don’t even come from inside a gym.

They come from sitting inside Adams Trophies and Sporting Goods in Trafford.

I spent so much time in that shop.

We talked basketball. We talked coaching. We talked life. We drew plays. We talked about players. And, yes, we would even go over the sports lines and Mitch would give me a few sports-betting tips.

That was Mitch.

You really had to know him to understand him. And I’m glad I did.

 

He Didn’t Sugarcoat Anything

One thing I always appreciated about Mitch was that he kept it real.

Coaching high school basketball isn’t just drawing up plays and deciding who starts.

There’s politics. Personalities. Parents. Administrators. Expectations. Egos. Things happening behind the scenes that people sitting in the stands will never know about.

Mitch understood all of it.

When I became the head coach at Steel Valley, he warned me about certain obstacles I might encounter.

He wasn’t trying to scare me away from the job. He was preparing me.

There is a difference.

He had already lived the life of a head coach, and instead of watching me learn every lesson the hard way, he tried to give me some wisdom ahead of time.

These are the things you need to watch for. This is how you should handle this situation. Don’t make this mistake.

Those conversations meant something to me then.

They mean even more to me now.

 

The Trophy Shop Became a Basketball Classroom

Mitch owned and operated Adams Trophies and Sporting Goods for more than 30 years.

For me, though, that trophy shop became almost like another basketball office. I could go there and we could talk hoops for hours.

What I loved was that Mitch respected my basketball mind too. I wasn’t just some younger coach sitting there listening to the veteran talk.

He loved my ideas.

We would get a piece of paper out and start creating. I’d have an idea for a play. He’d look at it. We’d move somebody here. Change an action there. Talk about what the defense would probably do. Then we’d figure out the counter.

Two basketball minds sitting in a trophy shop in Trafford drawing plays on paper. Those are memories you can’t replace.

And somewhere in between diagramming plays and talking coaching philosophy, we’d start looking at the sports lines.

Mitch might tell me what he liked that night.

So I wasn’t only getting basketball knowledge in that shop. I was getting a few betting tips too.

 

Mitch Could Coach

And make no mistake about it: Mitch Adams could coach basketball.

He spent nine seasons as Gateway’s boys head coach and finished with a 134-88 record. Before Mitch, Gateway had never won a WPIAL boys basketball championship.

Under him, they went to the WPIAL championship game in 2010.

Then they broke through.

Gateway won the 2011 WPIAL Class AAAA championship. Then they came back and won it again in 2012.

Those remain the first two WPIAL boys basketball championships in Gateway history.

Think about that.

It’s one thing to inherit a championship tradition. It’s another thing to create one that didn’t exist before you.

Mitch did that.

Gateway also won a section championship in 2011, its first since 1965.

His teams had talent, but talented teams don’t automatically become champions.

Somebody has to organize it. Somebody has to get personalities to work together. Somebody has to make adjustments.

Somebody has to have everybody believing in the same thing when February comes around.

That’s coaching. And Mitch was good at it.

 

But This Isn’t Really About the Championships

That’s the funny thing about getting older.

When you’re young and competing, championships feel like everything. Years later, you realize the relationships might be what you remember most.

I remember Mitch checking on me. “You good?”

That’s what mattered.

He didn’t just give me advice and disappear. He wanted to know how I was doing.

When I was dealing with something as a coach, I had somebody who understood what that chair felt like.

Head coaching can be lonely.

Everybody has an opinion about your decisions, but very few people actually understand everything that comes with making them.

Mitch understood. And he never had to pretend with me. If he thought I was right, he’d tell me. If he thought I was wrong, he’d tell me that too.

That’s why I respected him.

 

You Had to Know Mitch

Mitch wasn’t somebody I can completely explain to people who never spent time around him.

You had to know him.

You had to sit down and talk with him. You had to hear how he saw basketball. You had to experience his personality.

Underneath everything, he was a good soul. He cared.

And there are probably plenty of former players and coaches around Western Pennsylvania who have their own Mitch Adams story.

His impact went far beyond Gateway basketball. He was a longtime baseball umpire, ran the East Suburban Umpire Association and remained heavily involved in athletics throughout the area. He was also a Gateway graduate himself, Class of 1976.

Sports were part of who he was.

 

Gone Way Too Soon

Mitch passed away unexpectedly on September 20, 2017. He was only 59 years old.

That’s young.

And when someone leaves that early, you start thinking about all the conversations you assumed you’d have later.

Another game to discuss. Another play to draw. Another coaching situation to laugh about. Another trip to the trophy shop. Another betting line for Mitch to tell me I was looking at completely wrong.

You don’t realize while you’re living those moments that one day they’ll become memories.

Thank You, Coach

I learned a lot of basketball throughout my playing and coaching career.

I’ve been around plenty of coaches. I’ve had plenty of basketball conversations.

But what Mitch gave me was different. He gave me wisdom.

He told me some of the do’s and don’ts before I had to experience them myself. He warned me about things because he wanted to see me succeed. He respected my basketball mind enough to sit there and create with me.

And most importantly, he checked on me as a person. That’s what I’ll always remember.

The record books will tell you Mitch Adams went 134-88.

They’ll tell you he won back-to-back WPIAL championships at Gateway. They’ll tell you he accomplished something no Gateway boys basketball coach before him had accomplished.

All of that deserves to be remembered.

But I remember my friend.

I remember sitting in that trophy shop in Trafford talking basketball and life. I remember those pieces of paper covered with plays we created. I remember the advice. I remember the laughs. I remember him making sure I was good.

Sometimes the biggest impact a coach makes isn’t reflected on a scoreboard or hanging from a championship banner. Sometimes it’s the knowledge he passes to another coach.

Mitch passed some of his knowledge to me.

And I’ll always be grateful for that.

Rest easy, Coach Mitch Adams. You were one of the good ones.