Tuley has spent more than a quarter century coaching
Tuley has spent more than a quarter century coaching
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By Zach West
Published: January 31, 2008
Remy Boswell's mother didn't have a job, and the two of them didn't have any place to sleep. They ended up in their 1997 Plymouth mini-van in the dark corner of a parking lot in Bethany, bundled up in blankets to stay warm.
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Success on a different scale
When Tuley walked into the Capitol Hill Sports Arena in 1981, the 25-year-old was starting his fourth high school basketball coaching job in four years. Just working his way up the ladder to bigger and better things, he thought.
Tuley never imagined that, more than a quarter of a century later, he still wouldn't have moved on to the fifth job.
During his tenure at The Hill, he has turned down several college jobs — including an assistant position at San Jose State and the head position at Murray State in Tishomingo, where he played junior college ball. Last summer, he turned down the head athletic director position for the entire Oklahoma City Public Schools system.
"That amazed me,” said Sherry Tuley, Donny's wife of 16 years. "He got emotional, and he is so unemotional. He said, ‘I don't want to leave my kids, not this group. I've had these kids since they were freshman, and I've got eight seniors. I want to see them through.'”
As much passion as Tuley might have had for moving up in the coaching ranks, it's always been outweighed by his desire to help kids. And nowhere has that need been greater than Capitol Hill, which used to be one of Oklahoma's premier high schools.
The last several decades, however, have brought a continuous economic decline around the school. Now, 99 percent of Capitol Hill students come from households with income so low that they qualify for reduced-price or free meals, according to the Oklahoma City Public Schools' Web site. The number was 78 percent six years ago. With each passing season, more and more players arrive in need of guidance, a father figure, discipline — anything.
"If I hadn't played ball and hadn't met coach … honestly, the way my home life was at the time, I probably would have gotten mixed up with some bad people,” said Jeremy Compton, who played at Capitol Hill in the early 1990s. "If it wasn't for him, my life would have taken a much worse direction, for sure.”
Ring for the King of the Hill
At the beginning of the season, several Capitol Hill players read in a newspaper that Tuley had been coaching for 27 years. With eight seniors returning from a team that made the state semifinals two years in a row, the players realized they were in a position to help the man who has helped them so much.
"We would like to be the team that's 28-1 — the team that he remembers put our all in it and gave him his first ring,” Woodside said. "That's one of our team goals.”
And players aren't the only ones with this goal on their minds. After being an assistant for 30 years at John Marshall and Oklahoma Christian School, Maurice Daniels didn't have to coach at Capitol Hill. But he came to help Tuley, his good friend. And he came to help The Hill get a title.
"I've been blessed to have won nine (rings), and I'd like to see someone who works as hard as Donny does have a shot,” Daniels said. "If I can do anything to help — just a little bit to help, they don't need much — give them a little nudge, I'd like to see that happen. He's a Hall of Fame coach … I'd like to see him get that one state championship.”
So as Remy Boswell stands in front of the trophy display in the foyer of the unique, domed Capitol Hill Sports Arena, he points to a large picture of the 1996-97 Redskins basketball team. That team lost Tuley's only state championship game to powerhouse Tulsa Washington.
"This is the chance,” Remy said. "I look up here at this picture, and you see all those guys — that's us right there, but we still have the chance (to win state). We have so much talent, so much potential — we're hungry for it. We have so much passion, there's nothing holding us back. We're ready for it, this is the year.”
A group effort
When asked about his contribution to Capitol Hill, Tuley quickly deflects praise. After all, Tuley says, he's probably too hard on the kids, and he couldn't have done it alone.
Tuley has needed the help of people, like his mother. Betty Tuley taught him the importance of helping others through her lifetime involvement in the First United Methodist Church in Wynnewood.
Related Topics:
U.S. Government, Basketball, Sports, U.S. Congressional News, High School Athletics, High School Basketball

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Vanessa Burris