The Clackamas print., November 21, 2018, Page 5, Image 5

SPORTS
6
From student to assistant coach
BY JACOB THOMPSON
SPORTS EDITOR
A fte r h e a rin g ab ou t C la c k a m a s
C o m m u n ity C o lle g e from a close
childhood friend, Francisco Alvares
moved from Nevada in 2016 to attempt
to make his dream of playing college
baseball a reality. After not making the
cut on C C C ’ s baseball team , Alvares
started to help out w ith the m en ’ s
b asketb all team . Two years later,
Alvares has a AAOT degree and has
landed his first coaching job as an
assistant coach with the Cougars. We
sat down with Alvares and asked h im
about the transition from student to
coach.
Q: W hat got you interested in
coaching?
A: I ’ d been an athlete my entire
life so that was a big part of it. Also
m y baseball coach back in Nevada
was big. He pulled me aside when I
graduated and asked me ‘ have you
ever thought about coaching?’ I started
helping around the town with soccer
or whatever I could, that was like the
beginning o f my coaching career.
Q: Do you play basketball?
A: I did. I started in sixth grade. I
played seventh, eighth, but freshman
year I d id n ’ t, ju st because I was
more into baseball. But I played my
sophomore, junior and senior years. I
learned baseball and basketball more
than the average person and know the
fundamentals of the game plus some.
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Q: W hat were your duties as a
student - assistant?
A: One o f the big ones was being
positive, I was just trying to be the
positive side of everything. I love the
team and I love doing things for them
so it was like I wanted to be there for
them if they needed anything done.
If they needed a hand with something
extra I let them know ‘hey I can do it .’
T h at’ s w hat I brought to the table.
Even sm all th in g s like s tu ff th a t
managers would take care of, I’d do it.
Q: How have your duties changed
now that you’ re an assistant coach?
A: It’ s still a lot of that stu ff, but
they’ve added more stuff to my duties,
as an example I’ m driving to games
now in the vans when w e’re taking
all our red-shirts, I’ m going todrive
to games when [coach] Stamme can’t.
Also drills Wise coach has given me
drills, working with players outside
o f [p ractice], opening up the gym
for th e m , g e ttin g up extra sh ots.
I’ m running an Instagram now and I
thought that was really cool because
I’ve never got to build my own page.
It gets a lot more people to see us so
I th in k it ’ s one more big th in g I ’ m
adding to the table for our team . I
just want them to know Clackamas is
somewhere awesome they can come.
Q: What have you learned so far
working w ith coach W egner and
Stamme?
A: I went to a coaching clinic with
them and coach Shaw from Western
[Oregon University] said from every
coach h e ’ s ever coached along w ith
you bring a little som ethin g. From
[coach] Stamme I learned how to be
really prepared and really on point,
having everything in order and just
being collected. That’ s really big for
me because as a young coach you
don’t always get to learn to how to
be prepared. W ith coach Wegner I’ve
learned the triangle [offense]. He took
me to Noho’ s with the team coaches
and we got to sit there for three hours
and just talk basketball and learn the
triangle. [Wegner] gives me things to
add to my personal game that I want
to bring to the table as a head coach
one day. [W egner’ s] been a really
great mentor and stays positive at the
really big moments and I feel he’ s been
around long enough to know the bigger
aspects of basketball, h e’ s got me to
see a lot of things I missed as a player.
Q: W hat’ s the next step in your
coaching career?
A: I want to transfer to the University
of Oregon and apply and hopefully get
an interview to become a manager. I
want to try to talk to the coach and
learn as much as I can from h im . I
know I’m getting a lot of opportunities
thanks to everyone around me, so I’m
going to take them and hopefully get
the best out of it; I want to be a head
coach for my own team someday.
photo bv Jonathan Villaqomez
Assistant coach Francisco Alvares (second from left) sits on the sideline Nov. 16th against Pacific
University. Also pictured on the right, Alvares was previously a CCC student.
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