When the call came, Troy Hoke answered.
A captain in the Cottonwood Fire Department, Hoke offered his services as boys basketball head coach at Mountain View Preparatory Academy after Sean Rutlidge returned to Great Lakes Christian College in Michigan to finish his basketball eligibility.
“He said he was only going to be here for the first three games due to an opportunity to play basketball,” Hoke recalled from his early December meeting with parents and Bill Sanderlin, athletic director of the Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District. “Sanderlin stated the kids needed a coach — I said I would be more than happy to step up and help out.”
Hoke — an assistant coach since the boys basketball team’s inception in 2013, when the Ocelots, at 11-4, advanced to the Small Schools State Championships — has not only supervised the addition of a B team to the program this season but also led the A team to its first victory Thursday, Jan. 8, over Pine Strawberry Elementary School, 28-15.
“Last year, winning was a lot easier, but not one kid has ever had their head down,” said Hoke, a 13-year coaching veteran in High Desert Youth Football and the Verde Valley Little League. “The kids have played their heart out.
“It’s a true experience of what coaching should be: If they win, they win; if they lose, they lose — and they come back to practice ready to do it all over again.”
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Jan. 14, issue of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
