After two years as Mingus Union High School head boys basketball coach, Dave Beery earned an honor it took the same amount of time for him to do previously at Grand Canyon High School.
“This means a little more to me,” said Beery, who was recently named Coach of the Year in Section IV of Division III. “I won it in 2012-13 with Grand Canyon, [but] this one feels a little more gratifying. There’s better coaching in this section.”
After tying for the regular-season championship of Section IV with a Senior Night blowout of top-ranked Estrella Foothills High School, Beery’s Marauders won the sectional tournament title and ultimately 22 games, advancing to the Elite Eight of the Division III state tournament before falling one point short to Winslow High School.
“I think we were a really tricky team to figure out because of how much we swung the ball around,” he said. “Part of what draws me to basketball is, when I was in third, fourth and fifth grade, we’d go to the high school varsity games and sit on the bench. Those guys were kind of our heroes.
“What I’m hoping to do is get a little bit of tradition in the program where we have kids who want to be basketball players from when they’re 10, 12 years old.”
Ashton Loring was named first-team all-section guard.
“If you watched us play more than once, you kind of know he’s our leader,” Beery said.
Fellow senior guard Fabian Navarro — who, by Beery’s count, made at least two three-point shots in every game this season — was named to the second team, along with junior forward Issac Escalante.
“I was glad to see Fabian get it, because I’ve never had a kid be that incredibly consistent,” Beery said. “I texted Issac congratulations, and he was shocked. He was, like, ‘Why?’”
Escalante, Loring and Navarro were all also honorable mentions on the all-Division IV teams, while senior center
Gerardo Angulo and junior forward Miles Tapija were honorable mention all-section.
Only Tapija and Escalante return for Beery next season.
“Next year’s going to be a challenge,” he said. “It’s going to be a little more obvious who’s doing the scoring for us. I think we have three guys next year with varsity experience.
“We’ve got a lot of kids that don’t have a lot of size [and] just haven’t played that speed and that level. It’s probably unrealistic to expect the same success we had this year. What we’ve really got to focus on is consistency — competing every day, putting yourself in a situation where you have a chance to win at the end of the game.”
