Settling the "greatest SE Texas coach" debate

[Dick Vitale]

First off, Nederland's Brian English is an OUTSTANDING basketball coach, and probably an even better PERSON.  If you say that what he has done in Vidor and Nederland is anything less than amazing, you do not know anything about the game, and that is OK, because even those that THINK they do, DON'T.  He has single handedly taken a cellar dweller basketball program at Nederland and turned them into a LEGIT threat to beat everyone in the district, every year, no matter who he has...THATS coaching....NOW, with that said, you cannot take anything away from the coaches who have succeeded in the playoffs, and have won state championships, NO MATTER HOW MUCH TALENT you "THINK" they may have had.  Talented teams get outcoached and beaten ALL THE TIME in the playoffs, so please kill the "they have talent" excuses. Todd Sutherland is an OUTSTANDING basketball coach...You cannot take that away from him just because he happened to coach at talent rich, traditional basketball powerhouses like Kountze, EC, and HJ, so WHY is the first thing that comes out of guys mouths when it comes to Boutte, is "I'd like to see what he does with such and such team without talent"? That's CRAZY! Just give these coaches credit where its due...Head to head wins do not ALWAYS equate to one coach being better than the other either! Would you take Central's rookie head coach over Brian English? I don't think so...But you have to see the overall body of work of these coaches to properly evaluate them, and the majority of people on this board are not qualified to properly evaluate ANY coach.  Who is the GREATEST coach in SE Texas? I have my opinion, and everyone is entitled to that. But please remember to give proper credit where it is due no matter WHO you are pulling for, and you are likely to make a more accurate assessment of these guys abilities, even though it won't matter one bit at the end of the day what you think anyway! Just my two cents...

[TxHoops]

11 minutes ago, Dick Vitale said:

First off, Nederland's Brian English is an OUTSTANDING basketball coach, and probably an even better PERSON.  If you say that what he has done in Vidor and Nederland is anything less than amazing, you do not know anything about the game, and that is OK, because even those that THINK they do, DON'T.  He has single handedly taken a cellar dweller basketball program at Nederland and turned them into a LEGIT threat to beat everyone in the district, every year, no matter who he has...THATS coaching....NOW, with that said, you cannot take anything away from the coaches who have succeeded in the playoffs, and have won state championships, NO MATTER HOW MUCH TALENT you "THINK" they may have had.  Talented teams get outcoached and beaten ALL THE TIME in the playoffs, so please kill the "they have talent" excuses. Todd Sutherland is an OUTSTANDING basketball coach...You cannot take that away from him just because he happened to coach at talent rich, traditional basketball powerhouses like Kountze, EC, and HJ, so WHY is the first thing that comes out of guys mouths when it comes to Boutte, is "I'd like to see what he does with such and such team without talent"? That's CRAZY! Just give these coaches credit where its due...Head to head wins do not ALWAYS equate to one coach being better than the other either! Would you take Central's rookie head coach over Brian English? I don't think so...But you have to see the overall body of work of these coaches to properly evaluate them, and the majority of people on this board are not qualified to properly evaluate ANY coach.  Who is the GREATEST coach in SE Texas? I have my opinion, and everyone is entitled to that. But please remember to give proper credit where it is due no matter WHO you are pulling for, and you are likely to make a more accurate assessment of these guys abilities, even though it won't matter one bit at the end of the day what you think anyway! Just my two cents...

Outstanding post.   I'm out of likes or I would have tried to like it twice.  

As I've said before, whether it is English, Sutherland, Foster, Saveat, Clay Davis or Sigler (to only name a few), all are outstanding coaches and their schools are lucky to have them.  It's the same as when a debate starts on the football side on whose better between Neumann, Cornel T., Dubois, etc.  

To be honest, I'm not interested in those debates because as far as I'm concerned, those are rich people's problems.  Folks should really count their blessings they have are fortunate to have one of them teaching their kids...

[Tyler Dixson]

Cotton Robinson  

[About a week ago]

I watched a lot of basketball from around the state, and I've seen some "power houses" from other areas, that would love to have one of the many outstanding coaches from the SETX area! Watched a game last night that the team that loss, should have never loss the game. Their team was much more athletic and had more skill, but their lack of discipline and coaching cost them the game. The others team did what was asked of them, and really didn't run a very good system, but they run their system to the best of their ability. All around SETX has some top-notch coaching, and that is why we send multiple teams from this area to stay on a regular basis!

[BADSANTA]

Andre Boutett 

Fred Williams 

Joe Sigler 

Todd Sutherland 

[TxHoops]

8 minutes ago, BADSANTA said:

Andre Boutett 

Fred Williams 

Joe Sigler 

Todd Sutherland 

Let's not forget Boutte's mentor, the legendary Coach Gamble.  He could coach a little bit as well

[AggiesAreWe]

Any local list has to start with these three (no particular order):

Cotton Robinson

James Gamble

Fred Williams

[Dick Vitale]

What ACTIVE coach is the area's best in you guys' opinion? Top 3....

[TxHoops]

10 minutes ago, Dick Vitale said:

What ACTIVE coach is the area's best in you guys' opinion? Top 3....

Man, I would have a very hard time limiting it to 3.  I listed several in the other thread.  I would love for you to see Kevin Foster's Big Sandy team play and get your insights.  I just love how hard they play and their discipline on the court, both in their execution and attitudes.   They play at LCM on Monday night btw - much closer for you to catch than their normal game locations. 

[BADSANTA]

I'M best active would be 

English

Sigler 

Sutherland

Joubert

[ozensfinest]

3 hours ago, Dick Vitale said:

First off, Nederland's Brian English is an OUTSTANDING basketball coach, and probably an even better PERSON.  If you say that what he has done in Vidor and Nederland is anything less than amazing, you do not know anything about the game, and that is OK, because even those that THINK they do, DON'T.  He has single handedly taken a cellar dweller basketball program at Nederland and turned them into a LEGIT threat to beat everyone in the district, every year, no matter who he has...THATS coaching....NOW, with that said, you cannot take anything away from the coaches who have succeeded in the playoffs, and have won state championships, NO MATTER HOW MUCH TALENT you "THINK" they may have had.  Talented teams get outcoached and beaten ALL THE TIME in the playoffs, so please kill the "they have talent" excuses. Todd Sutherland is an OUTSTANDING basketball coach...You cannot take that away from him just because he happened to coach at talent rich, traditional basketball powerhouses like Kountze, EC, and HJ, so WHY is the first thing that comes out of guys mouths when it comes to Boutte, is "I'd like to see what he does with such and such team without talent"? That's CRAZY! Just give these coaches credit where its due...Head to head wins do not ALWAYS equate to one coach being better than the other either! Would you take Central's rookie head coach over Brian English? I don't think so...But you have to see the overall body of work of these coaches to properly evaluate them, and the majority of people on this board are not qualified to properly evaluate ANY coach.  Who is the GREATEST coach in SE Texas? I have my opinion, and everyone is entitled to that. But please remember to give proper credit where it is due no matter WHO you are pulling for, and you are likely to make a more accurate assessment of these guys abilities, even though it won't matter one bit at the end of the day what you think anyway! Just my two cents...

DV so you're giving English the "great coach" card based on him turning two programs around from bad to mediocre? Seriously? Smh has he accomplished anything else as a head coach other than what I just mentioned above? If his qualifications meet the great coach standard than you have to give Saveat the great coach card then too right? 

[Dick Vitale]

2 hours ago, ozensfinest said:

DV so you're giving English the "great coach" card based on him turning two programs around from bad to mediocre? Seriously? Smh has he accomplished anything else as a head coach other than what I just mentioned above? If his qualifications meet the great coach standard than you have to give Saveat the great coach card then too right? 

Well the accomplishments are definitely different. Savaet did a really good job of upholding a program that was built and successful, whereas, English took not one but two bottom feeder programs to a more than respectable status. No they haven't won a state title, but those are not just given out either...Savaet HAS done a great job of upholding that program, yes. And although English hasn't won state or been there, he has done a hell of job as a head coach. Be fair. Just think about it and see it from an unbiased perspective and you will see what I'm saying.

[winwin]

21 minutes ago, Dick Vitale said:

Well the accomplishments are definitely different. Savaet did a really good job of upholding a program that was built and successful, whereas, English took not one but two bottom feeder programs to a more than respectable status. No they haven't won a state title, but those are not just given out either...Savaet HAS done a great job of upholding that program, yes. And although English hasn't won state or been there, he has done a hell of job as a head coach. Be fair. Just think about it and see it from an unbiased perspective and you will see what I'm saying.

You're asking a lot from OF lol

[Tyler Dixson]

Active. 

Brian English Nederland

David Green North Shore (SETX coverage area)

Todd Southerland EC

Clay Davis HJ

Marquis Saveat Ozen 

thats my top 5 in no order  

 

[ozensfinest]

10 hours ago, Dick Vitale said:

Well the accomplishments are definitely different. Savaet did a really good job of upholding a program that was built and successful, whereas, English took not one but two bottom feeder programs to a more than respectable status. No they haven't won a state title, but those are not just given out either...Savaet HAS done a great job of upholding that program, yes. And although English hasn't won state or been there, he has done a hell of job as a head coach. Be fair. Just think about it and see it from an unbiased perspective and you will see what I'm saying.

I'm not being biased at all...I never said he was a bad coach but a great one? I'm not so sure about that, I just simply wanted to know the criteria for a coach being considered good and great. 

[Baller 93]

5 hours ago, ozensfinest said:

I'm not being biased at all...I never said he was a bad coach but a great one? I'm not so sure about that, I just simply wanted to know the criteria for a coach being considered good and great. 

Please list your top 5 high school coaches in the area?

[whsalum]

A good coach can take his 5 and beat your 5. A great coach can take your 5 and beat you. There are a lot of good coaches around who are blessed with a gym full of great players . In a school the size if Big Sandy you don't get the opportunity to be continually blessed with great players. Coach Foster develops players year in and year out who learn their role and perform it to perfection . He often gets overlooked because of the size of the school. The great active coach list is heavily favored according to which team you watch every Tuesday and Friday. Just a few that come to mind that always get overlooked are Bryan Whitmire from Buna and the young guy from Little Cypress. I never got to see Cotton Robinson teams but the accomplisments speak for themselves. I did get a good close look at Mr Gamble and Mr Williams and they are in rare air.

[BADSANTA]

Joe Sigler of Silsbee can't seem to get over the hump. He has maybe had the best selection of talent among all these coaches to never advance or win state. Maybe he has something change in the future but past years he has came up short. I think he still has over 400 career wins. 

[About a week ago]

3 hours ago, whsalum said:

A good coach can take his 5 and beat your 5. A great coach can take your 5 and beat you. There are a lot of good coaches around who are blessed with a gym full of great players . In a school the size if Big Sandy you don't get the opportunity to be continually blessed with great players. Coach Foster develops players year in and year out who learn their role and perform it to perfection . He often gets overlooked because of the size of the school. The great active coach list is heavily favored according to which team you watch every Tuesday and Friday. Just a few that come to mind that always get overlooked are Bryan Whitmire from Buna and the young guy from Little Cypress. I never got to see Cotton Robinson teams but the accomplisments speak for themselves. I did get a good close look at Mr Gamble and Mr Williams and they are in rare air.

I agree Whitmire is an underrated coach, I would go so far to say the most underrated in this area.

[SportsJunkie32]

11 hours ago, ccsbasketballplayer said:

Active. 

Brian English Nederland

David Green North Shore (SETX coverage area)

Todd Southerland EC

Clay Davis HJ

Marquis Saveat Ozen 

thats my top 5 in no order  

 

I'm curious out of your Top 5 how many has won a State Title???

[BADSANTA]

Green and Sutherland have i do know for North Shore, Kountze, and Hardin Jefferson. David Green won at NS and also took Kountze, Hightower, Central, and NS all to state. 

[Kountzer]

Where is Tramaine Hancock these days?

[AggiesAreWe]

3 minutes ago, Kountzer said:

Where is Tramaine Hancock these days?

He is the head coach at WO-S.

[Tyler Dixson]

1 hour ago, SportsJunkie32 said:

I'm curious out of your Top 5 how many has won a State Title???

Santa answered you. Southerland and Green. But in SETX there are only so many state championship coaches. 

[About a week ago]

13 hours ago, ccsbasketballplayer said:

Active. 

Brian English Nederland

David Green North Shore (SETX coverage area)

Todd Southerland EC

Clay Davis HJ

Marquis Saveat Ozen 

thats my top 5 in no order  

 

Clay Davis over Kevin Foster at Big Sandy? I just don't know if Davis can be put into this category yet. He has only had a program for one year, and it was a top notch program when given to him.