Kent McBride and Nick Cook were supposed to be in the same gym together Saturday.
Just not the one in New Richmond.
No, the gym they planned to be in resides in Tennessee.
“Nick Cook and I are dear friends and I was in his brother’s wedding,” McBride said. “(Wyoming East graduate) Justin Caldwell is an assistant coach at Tennessee and me, Rory Chapman, Nick Cook and his brother Ben were scheduled to be in Knoxville to watch Tennessee and Arkansas men play on (Saturday) and then watch the Tennessee women play Oklahoma on Sunday. That was what we had scheduled for the last two months. Well, about three or four weeks ago or maybe two weeks, I’ve lost track of time, Nick and I get on the phone like, ‘Well I guess we kinda gotta cancel that trip we were supposed to be taking together.’ So we went from going to sitting side-by-side in Knoxville, watching the No. 1 team in the country, to squaring off tomorrow in the most heated rivalry in the state.”
It’s true, circumstances have changed for both coaches since December.
Cook is currently filling in as the interim head coach at Westside after Thomas Evans was placed on administrative leave and later terminated on Friday. McBride is in a similar situation, though on more solid ground.
Following the termination of Derek Brooks’ contract in December, the Wyoming East boys basketball job was posted, allowing McBride to throw his hat in the ringer. Following the termination of Evans Friday, McBride was named the new varsity boys basketball coach at Wyoming East, bringing a plethora of experience with him.
A graduate of Wyoming East and Concord, McBride played basketball at both stops, taking over as the head coach at Concord in 2011 where he led the program to a Mountain East Conference title in 2016.
He returned home in Athens and his newest opportunity reminds him of the feelings and emotions he experienced 14 years ago.
“Back when I took the Concord job, I’ll never forget when (retired athletic director) Kevin Garrett called me and offered me the job,” McBride said. “I had went there and had such a great experience at Concord that when he called and said ‘I would like to offer you the basketball job,’ and I said, ‘I’ll take it’ and he said, ‘Whoa, I didn’t even tell you how much you’re getting paid,’ and I said, ‘I don’t care.’ That was just how I felt about that place and the impact that had on me that. I didn’t care what he was gonna pay me to take the job plus it was the opportunity to be a head coach.
“You have that same feeling like Concord is home and Wyoming East is home, so when you have the chance to get back in, I took it. I guess coaching sometimes is just in you. It’s kind of what you feel like you need to do every day and when opportunity to be back at the place you went to and had such a good experience opens, take the opportunity.”
McBride steps in during a tumultuous time for the program. Derek Brooks was placed on administrative leave before the season tipped off, Â paving the way for his assistant coach and father Herbie to lead the ship. Herbie finished 2-1 during his interim stint, helping East to a victory over reigning Class AA state champion Charleston Catholic.
McBride hopes to steady the ship with assistants Herbie Brooks and Brian Mitchell helping him along the way.
“The unfortunate part is these kids, we just talked about this with the kids tonight,” McBride said. “They’ve had three coaches in six weeks and that is there’s no way around it but to say that sucks. I really feel for the three seniors involved in that situation and because if I had to put myself in those shoes and it was my senior year and all this happened, it’d be tough. I mean it would be a hard thing to manage so we sat down as a staff and we talked today and the only thing we can do is we have to focus on the kids when you get into this. You have to focus on what is best for those 17 kids in the program and we discussed it with them. We are sitting in here on Jan. 3 and we move forward.
“That’s the only option that you have, and that was kind of the conversation we had with them of the reality of the situation as we were sitting in the seat that we’re in with the hand that we’ve been dealt. We have got to focus on every step moving forward because we have four games, not to mention the game you have (Saturday), four games and eight days. So we don’t really have a choice and I hope the fact that we’re gonna be so busy with games lets them cope and move on and accept the situation faster because every time you turn around the ball is gonna be going up in the air. We’re gonna be competing and get another team so sometimes in these situations I think that can be the best remedy.”
McBride will step into the fire immediately. His first game will be a home matchup on Saturday against county rival Westside.
The matchup, while unpredictable, holds much weight with the new regional alignment. The two teams will likely contend for the top overall seed and with it, an easier path to the state tournament in March. That increases the stakes of each matchup, regardless of the situation.
McBride, an all-stater that led Wyoming East to its first state championship in 2002, never played against Westside as his school years came before the consolidation of Baileysville and Oceana. That said, he did serve as an assistant to former head coach Jesse Lester for one year so he’s fully aware of the stakes and the situation he’ll be leading a team that starts three underclassmen into.
“I think it will help the kids cope and help the kids move on from both sides,” McBride said. “I’m talking from our side and from their side and both teams look at it and we know what’s at stake in the region. We kinda all project down and look where we wanna fall out in March but one thing that I think Nick and I both understand is this is gonna be a game that he doesn’t know anything we’re gonna do and we don’t know anything what they’re gonna do. It might not matter much when you go to break this down down in March to get ready to play each other.
“We’re gonna look totally different. They’re gonna look totally different so from my perspective and way I’m looking at it, I’ll get a good look at the kids on the team who I’m just now getting to meet to see what you have. There’s not gonna be a whole lot we can do (Saturday), but I have to go out and find out who who’s ready for the moment so that’s what. It’s not all a curse, there’s a blessing out of this to where you can be really simple and such and try to limit the mistakes as best you can because we don’t really know what we’re doing right now. It kinda makes me laugh cause we can’t do anything else but laugh about it and take it the best we can so our kids are looking forward to it and. Even though the situation is what it is, it’ll be fun.”
