The Underground Huddle

Florida State Associate Head Basketball Coach Stan Jones is the longest tenured assistant coach in the Atlantic Coast Conference and his wisdom proves that. Having spent the past 18 seasons at Florida State under Head Coach Leonard Hamilton (previously with Hamilton at the University of Miami and with the Washington Wizards), Coach Jones’ college teams have only experienced two losing seasons in 24 years. Each year, the FSU basketball team comes up with a theme, with the most recent being “Our Turn” when they were named regular season ACC Champs in 2019. Going into 2020 Coach Jones says the theme is “New Blood” as they compete against many traditional powerhouses like UNC & Duke (the “Blue Bloods”) in the ACC. When describing the importance of team chemistry, Coach Jones said that the “team must take over the team” in order to find success. To encourage this, the FSU basketball team has a period in practice called “Sugar & Hot Sauce” where one player calls out another and looks him in the eye in front of the entire team, offering one positive (sugar) and one negative (hot sauce) that he is challenged to improve on. In 2019, Coach Jones was inducted into the College Basketball Assistant Coach Hall of Fame.

Associate Head Basketball Coach at the University of Virginia Jason Williford has been in the basketball coaching business for 20 years with 12 of them spent at UVA, where he was also a 4-year player. His entire time as a coach at UVA has been with 2x AP National Coach of the Year Tony Bennett who, with the help of Coach Willy, led the Cavaliers to a National Championship victory in 2019. UVA basketball is often labeled as having a “boring” style of play: not a lot of offense, not a lot of flash. They place a large emphasis on defense – and practice it daily. Quoting one of the greatest golfers of the 20th century, Ben Hogan, Coach Willy said that their team “keeps it in the dirt.” Hogan stated this to say that a majority of his time was spent in the “dirt” at the driving range. In other words, he spends a ton of time practicing. When asked about this negative stereotype of “boring” frequently given by the media about UVA basketball, Coach Willy smiled in silence, took a deep breath, and asked directly: “Would you rather be bored and win or look good and lose?”

When asked what he brings to the table as a coach, 33-year coaching veteran and current University of Rhode Island assistant basketball coach Kevin Sutton describes himself as a "high-level professional." With an impressive overall coaching record of 475-115 dating back to the late '80s, Coach Sutton has coached over 150 college scholarship recipients and 8 players that have gone on to play in the NBA. Despite his impressive track record as a coach, the end result does not excite Coach Sutton. The creator of the phrase "Living Trophies" (see TBL 022), Coach Sutton believes that while a championship trophy sits on a shelf and collects dust, creating living trophies out of his student-athletes and what they do beyond the game is what truly matters. According to the experienced coach who doubles as a family man with a wife and four children, going "Pro" is just a job while becoming a "Professional" is a career. 

Current head football coach at William Fleming High School (Roanoke, VA) Jamar Lovelace is one of the youngest head coaches in the state of Virginia. At 32 years old, he has spent time as a Defensive Coordinator and Strength Coach at Brookville, Monticello, and EC Glass high schools before ultimately earning his first head coaching position two years ago at William Fleming. Coach Lovelace is no stranger to "Tough Love" as he holds firm on his non-negotiables to his players: be in place, be on time, and be coachable. Coach Lovelace takes pride in being one of the 32 African American head football coaches in Virginia at the high school level (out of 318), and realizes that he must set a positive example not only as a football coach, but as a life mentor to his student-athletes to create a more unified world.

Once per quarter, Ben and Sam Rogers with BUILD Coaching Company host The Underground Huddle - an interview with a prominent leader in sports or business with BUILD clients and other select guests present. All attendees live our mission to build an army of Disciplined Leaders and share our vision to be a resource for and a connector of current and aspiring leaders in small business, sports, and other areas of life. 

For the 1st Underground Huddle, the guest speaker was Deane Cheatham III. A family-first man, Deane has held many leadership positions in his professional career. Deane has been an owner of Hometown Realty – the largest & highest-producing locally owned firm in Central Virginia – since the early 90s. He spent many years as a coach himself, training many other business owners under the Mike Ferry Organization. Deane heads up the Hometown Realty training program, which trains hundreds of aspiring business owners each year. Deane has also been a lead instructor for SEAL Team Physical Training in Richmond, and has coached many of his children’s youth league teams. He has battled through and overcome many injuries in order to stay discipline to his fitness and health goals – a consistent early morning routine he’ll tell you is one of the cornerstones of his success. In his free time, Deane likes to hunt, flip houses, and hang out with his wife and children at one of their vacation houses at the beach, river, or the mountains. Despite being what some would refer to as “busy,” through discipline and preparation Deane still finds more than enough time to spend with his three children, all of which graduated from or currently attend James Madison University. His oldest son played football at JMU and now coaches at the collegiate level, his daughter is on the front lines of the Coronavirus as a nurse in Richmond, and his youngest son is an aspiring commercial project manager and a current Duke football player.

Larry Blunt is a veteran in the basketball coaching business with experience at the Prep, College, and Professional levels. Having moved all over from the East Coast to Canada and now in the Midwest as an assistant at Division 1 Drake University, Coach "LB" has worked with many staffs and players. During his time at Orangeville Prep in Canada, LB recruited and developed Jamal Murray and Thon Maker, the number 7 and 10 overall picks in the 2016 NBA draft. When asked what kind of legacy he'd like to leave, LB credits his coaching friend Kevin Sutton (Rhode Island Men's Basketball) when he responded with the question: "How many living trophies can you create?" 

NBA Champion Kevin Eastman joins The Bottom Line Podcast to talk about his book “Why The Best Are The Best: 25 Powerful Words That Impact, Inspire, and Define Champions” where he pulls lessons learned from interactions with well-known coaches and players over his impressive tenure as a basketball player, coach, and executive in the NCAA and NBA. Coach Eastman is in the University of Richmond Basketball Hall of Fame and won an NBA title with the Boston Celtics in 2008 as an assistant coach to Doc Rivers. Today Coach Eastman is known as a thought leader in the sports world and in 2018 he published his book to share his thoughts with those wanting to be the best in their field. Coach Eastman says that there is a difference between the words “Talent” and “Talented.” Talented has an “ED” on the end, which he says stands for Extra Dimension. Listen to Coach Eastman talk about Extra Dimensions of The Best and other lessons learned with his interactions with former Celtics players like Kevin Garnett & James Posey, NBA and sports legend Kobe Bryant, and of course the head coach that gave him his first opportunity as an NBA coach, Doc Rivers.

Virginia Commonwealth University Head Basketball Coach Mike Rhoades says that his whole team can "E.A.T." together when they act on the core values of Enthusiasm, Appreciation, and Toughness. Rhoades, who has been the head coach at Randolph-Macon College (Ashland, VA), Rice University (Houston, TX), and now VCU (Richmond, VA), grew up in Pennsylvania and played college basketball at Division III Lebanon Valley. There, he won a national championship, was named the national player of the year, and was an All-American twice. Upon graduation, Coach Rhoades quickly learned that coaching basketball was going to be his path and since his first assistant coaching job in 1996, he hasn't looked back since. Filled with many lessons from the court – as a player and a coach – that serve as parallels to both business and life, Coach Rhoades will inspire you and your team to come together and “E.A.T.”

University of Richmond Head Football Coach Russ Huesman feels good about his team going into the 2020 season, citing that he has players that are true leaders. “It’s easy for you to go get an extra lift in,” he says, but the true leaders – “they start to grab one, grab two, grab three, and bring people along…the guys doing that are turning into really good leaders.” A Division 1 football coaching veteran, Coach Huesman learned from some of the best including former Richmond Head Coach Dave Clawson (current head coach at Wake Forest) and longtime William & Mary Head Coach Jimmye Laycock, who served in that position for 38 straight years. In 2008, Coach Huesman served as the Defensive Coordinator for Head Coach Mike London, when the Spiders won University of Richmond’s first ever National Championship. To no surprise, he credits the players’ accountability to each other for that championship season. “True Leadership” is all about being a great teammate and in this episode, you’ll find many lessons that are once again applicable to not only sports, but business and life as well. 

"Leadership, Service, Growth" is the three-legged stool according to Dr. Chris Howard, current President of Robert Morris University. Dr. Howard was a Texas high school football state champion, an Academic All-American running back at the Air Force Academy, served in the Air Force, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, has an MBA from Harvard, has been a VP at the University of Oklahoma, the President at Hampden-Sydney College, and is currently on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee. Listen in to hear some remarkable stories of leadership, service, and growth.