Vikings assistant Huseyin Demiral (left) talks with
Alex Pitrofsky during scrimmage Nov. 27
at Grossmont. (Photo by Ed Piper)
"Since I was a player, I want to put myself in my players' shoes and do what's best for them," says Huseyin Demiral, assistant coach for the La Jolla boys basketball program.
Demiral, 6'9", played professionally in the European League. He played both inside and outside. His coaching role under head coach Paul Baranowski is basically open-ended--wherever he can help.
Baranowski compliments his second-year assistant's unique abilities, offering a playing background in the national program in Turkey, as well as an ability to get with Vikings players and work with them on specific skills and situations.
As a result, Demiral will be head coach of the freshman boys team this season, while continuing in his assisting role on the varsity.
"There is no other way to get good at basketball besides hard work," says the married father of two sons, ages 11 and 9. He describes his long involvement in the Turkish national program, which in his case meant committing at age nine to year-round practice and training.
He says that eventually training went to two practices a day, and allowed time for "no family reunions, no vacations." Participating in the national program in his native country while attending school, he says, "If you have an exam at the same time as practice, you don't go to the exam."
"You can be really good at anything," says the coach. "There is a fine line between being good and great. If you're not filling yourself up with knowledge, something will be missing." In other words, this applies in basketball as well in real life--studying to gain the information that will make you better.
He played internationally most recently for Tuborg Pilsener SC and Besiktas JK, teams in the European League, during the 2004-05 season.
He played most recently for Kolejliler SC in Ankara, Turkey, in 2006-07. The team advanced to the final eight of the Turkish Cup. He was 35 years old.
Demiral, 37, has his own company and coaches under Baranowski at the Jewish Community Center in UTC as well.
Copyright 2015 Ed Piper
No comments:
Post a Comment