YAKIMA — Port Angeles girls basketball head coach Michael Poindexter has leaned on his long-time assistants Jenn Rogers and Daniel Horton for advice, support and feedback for numerous seasons.
Rogers has been an assistant for nine seasons with every Poindexter-coached Roughrider girls team, while Horton is in his fifth year with the program.
But this season, medical maladies have limited Poindexter, forcing emergency room visits, hospital stays and medical procedures all while keeping him away from the team for practices and off the bench for games against two top-five Class 2A opponents.
He’ll re-join the team in Yakima for today’s loser-out state tournament contest against No. 11 Clarkston (19-6) at 9 a.m. at the Yakima SunDome after a recent stay at Swedish Medical Center provided some relief.
“In December and February, I’ve been plagued with episodes of acute pancreatitis that have sidelined me with three hospital visits and recovery time on the ends of that. It’s led to me missing two games and being in a fair amount of pain.
“[Rogers and Horton] been critical in holding things together.”
Poindexter points to the continuity amongst the staff, created through thousands of hours of instruction at practice and in hundreds of games together, as crucial in the team’s success over the years — and critical in making sure the Olympic League and West Central District-champion Riders (19-5) achieve at a high level again this season.
“It’s been vital,” he said. “It’s been pretty obvious that I’ve had some illness this season, and the consistency has been great for me and our kids. The kids know what to expect. Jenn and I have been together nine years and if a kid asks a question, we both know that the answer we give will be what the other person answered or almost always the same.
“That speaking with one voice that a coaching staff does, is vital. And having assistants who are aligned with you and can reach out with a common message, even with different coaching styles, is great.”
The time together as coaches has even produced some effective nonverbal communication skills.
“We have a shorthand way of talking on the bench. I can just look at Jennifer and she will know exactly what I am thinking,” Poindexter said.
Rogers agreed.
“Mike and I really kind of know each other so well, that it’s weird to say but we kind of think the same way. He can give me a look and I know who he wants to me to talk to and what he wants me to discuss. We really are in unison out there.”
Communication and trust is valued and demonstrated by the coaching staff in other ways.
“He asks us a lot of questions, he talks to us constantly,” Rogers said. “What should we do here, what we should do there, sometimes he likes what we have to say, other times he may not, but he always values our opinions.
It’s one of the things that I respect about him so much is that he has such a mind for the game, he’s usually right about what he wants us to do and if not, he’s quick to point that out.”
Horton, who coaches the C-squad, appreciates that he’s involved with the varsity team throughout the season and not “sent off to practice alone in the aux[iliary] gym.”
“I’m still doing a lot of what I did, because Mike’s good about involvement with the programs and doing a lot of stuff together,” Horton said. “There’s lots of bouncing of ideas off each other, even if he doesn’t always like our ideas he still gives us a chance. And letting us work one-on-one with a player, or in small groups running a drill so we always have our hands in and we are helping each other out.
And Horton appreciates the delegation of duties.
“He’s detail-oriented,” Horton said. “He will have this master plan, but he’s OK if coach Rogers is running part of and I am running part of it. He know he’s created this bubble of success and he’s OK with delegating inside of it. He’d be fine too, if you asked him, what if we changed this around a little bit. He’ll think about it, give you a quick yes, or no and move forward.”
For their part, Rogers and Horton said their duties haven’t grown cumbersome or overwhelming.
“Only when I had to coach the games,” Rogers joked.
“He’s been pretty consistent with me, and maybe asked me to do a little more because he’s grown comfortable with me over the years,” Horton said.
“He’s told me to handle subs[titutions] and I’ll still look over to coach Rogers and ask what should we do, so I still run things up that change of command.”
Poindexter said Horton’s contributions have grown this season.
“Daniel has grown by being on board for and understanding that the time intensity expands enormously when you reach the postseason,” Poindexter said. “February is a long and busy month, which is great for basketball. But it takes a lot of time to scout and prep and he’s investing more time this year on film study. Watching individual players and tracking tendencies and sharing info.”
Port Angeles’ players have noticed as well.
“They’ve watched more game film and had more input,” junior Jaida Wood said of the assistants.
“The two assistant coaches have done an amazing job. Lynden and Burlington-Edison are two of the best teams in the state and we fought to the end against those teams. I know he’s so upset about being sick, but our team is strong enough and mentally tough enough [to endure] and that’s kept us in all those games against the tougher teams,” Wood said.
Junior point guard Millie Long said the assistants have always been there “to serve as an extra voice, provide support and they are positive with everyone.”
“Normally, when someone comes out they’ll pull one of us aside, talk with us about something we need to improve on or something we need to switch up during games,” Long said.
“They have definitely had to step up with coach out. They just need to be comfortable with themselves because they are both really good coaches. We just need to find the new normal, because when things don’t go our way we need to fight through it.”
Sage advice that the team and its coaches can find strength in at state.
