The man who coached the coach

Jenni Carlson

Published: April 5, 2008

Bill Self might be the coach of the next national champion. Or he might be the next coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Either way, Edmond Memorial High School athletic director Mike de la Garza knew him when he was just a youngster. He coached the coach.

Jenni Carlson: Admit it — you taught Bill everything he knows.

Mike de la Garza: No, the honest truth is Bill Self has done a whole lot more for me than I ever did for him.

JC: That's not true, is it?

MD: That's the truth. I was a brand new coach here in 1976. One of the first kids I met was Bill Self. He was in the eighth grade. People forget what a good player Bill was. We won 66 games while he played for us in high school. They went to the state tournament every year. Those three years, we got rolling, and his play was a really big part of that.

JC: What kind of player was he then?

MD: He had a sixth sense about where to pass the ball. He didn't turn it over. He made timely free throws. Senior year, he led us in scoring, rebounding, assists and guarded everybody's best player. And his senior year, he made six game-winners, you know where you go, "Three, two, one” to win the game? He did it six times in one year. We won 20, and six of ‘em were at the buzzer.

JC: So, that's what you mean when you say he did more for you than you did for him.

MD: Oh, yeah.

JC: What's your favorite memory of him as a player?

MD: That's really easy. We were in the state tournament in the state semifinals playing Altus. We were down one and had the ball. We were going to run this play for Kelly Jobe. They doubled Kelly up, so Bill just took it, penetrated straight to the basket, dished the ball off to this guy named Eric Ford, who laid it up at the buzzer to win to go to the state finals. We were all so excited. I remember we were walking off the court, and Bill ... he's just trying to catch his breath. He's just gasping because he's so jacked about it.

JC: What has it been like watching Bill get to the Final Four?

MD: It's a tremendous amount of satisfaction for a high school basketball coach to watch their players play. But then, you get the chance to see them mature and develop not only as individuals but professionally. For Bill to choose coaching and to take his coaching to the level he has taken it is just an unbelievable sense of pride in him and what he does.

JC: Do you ever miss coaching at all?

MD: Once you're a basketball coach, you're always a basketball coach. There's just times in your life when you don't have a team.

JC: Have Bill's squads become your surrogate team?

MD: I still live and die with the Edmond Bulldogs, but Bill's teams ... I root for them really, really hard. In fact, on my desk I have the picture of Bill Self in a baseball cap and a suit and tie and a net in his hand that he cut down last Sunday. I've already got it framed and on the back of my desk.

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