Coach Terry Irwin to be honored
Perhaps it was ironic, but on the eve of going into the hall, Terry Irwin was installing windows.
The longtime Central Valley boys basketball coach will be inducted into the Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame at a dinner Monday. Until today, he was helping out on a family construction project.
“I’m just a go-fer,” he said.
That wasn’t Irwin’s status during his 19 years as a head coach. Between CV and Gonzaga Prep, where he coached future NBA Hall-of-Famer John Stockton, Irwin amassed a record of 279-167. Fifteen of Irwin’s teams finished among the top three in the Greater Spokane League. Three won league championships, five were runners-up and two placed at state.
“I think that’s what I’m most proud of,” Irwin said. “We were consistent. We always found a way to get better and to be competitive at the end of the season.”
Irwin joins former Cheney head coach Denny Humphrey, longtime Ephrata head coach Marty O’Brien, and former University High coach Jack Cleveland at Monday’s induction ceremonies at the Red Lion Hotel at the Park. The dinner begins at 5:30 p.m.
Irwin said it’s an honor to be included in the hall.
“I take a look at some of the names that have already gone in. These are people that I’ve looked up to for a long time,” he said. “For me to be able to be in there in the same hall with them, it’s really special. Jud Heathcote (Class of 1990), Don Monson (1990), Ray Thacker (1976) – these are guys I’ve looked up to for a very long time.”
The coaching community is broad and deep, Irwin explained. Connections between coaches are strong.
“I worked basketball camps every summer and had my own camp as well,” he said. “And then I’d take teams to a camp somewhere and there would be coaches there who had brought their teams in. You make all kinds of connections. Not just locally. In some cases, you make connections all over the country.”
Coaching basketball wasn’t something that Irwin had considered going into.
“I grew up with a basketball in my hands from about the age of 3 on,” he said. “I grew up playing the game. But actually, I had thought about coaching baseball, which was another sport I loved.”
It was his brother who brought him back to basketball.
Clark Irwin, then the principal at Gonzaga Prep, told him about an assistant coaching position with the Bullpups. Three years later he was head coach, with a skinny sophomore named Stockton battling for playing time.
In 1984 Irwin returned to his alma mater to coach the Bears and stayed for 13 seasons. He stepped down as the Bears’ head coach in 1996. He has been an assistant to coach Rick Sloan the past four seasons.
Irwin is quick to praise the assistant coaches he’s had over the years.
“I was fortunate to have really good people helping me, and that makes a huge difference,” he said. “I had Mike Laws working with me for a long time. He’s now working with Rick Sloan. He’s a great coach. Pat Clark helped me at Prep and he’s out now helping at Mead. Chuck Bowden, the head track coach, helped me for a while.”
Irwin now has former players coaching in the college ranks: Gonzaga baseball coach Mark Machtolf and Ryan Looney, the new men’s coach at Eastern Oregon,
“The kids that I’ve worked with over the years mean a lot to me,” he said. “Mark (Machtolf), John (Stockton), David Sanders, who played at Washington State, and Ryan Looney. When Ryan got the job in LaGrande, one of the first things he did was get in touch with me. That meant a lot.”
Even beyond that, however, there’s a sense of satisfaction that leaves Irwin feeling good as he looks back on his coaching career.
“There’s something about watching a player develop over the years,” he said. “You see them come in as sophomores — freshmen these days — and watch them develop into your leaders when they get to be seniors. You see them grow and improve and mature. That’s a good thing.”