An Okotoks basketball coach is back at the school where he got his first taste of coaching in Alberta.
Mark Hogan, who has coached both the Foothills Composite Falcons boys and girls teams, is in his second year as the assistant coach for the Mount Royal University Cougars women’s basketball team.
He got the job through coaching summer ball for the last several years.
“I was coaching a lot of college and university kids on summer teams and (Mount Royal University) coach Joe Enevoldson noticed some of the kids who played for him and for me spoke quite highly of me,” Hogan said. “What sold me on the job was he was looking for a mentor… With some of the grey hairs I have I do have some ideas to help a coach.” The 53-year-old might have got a few of those gray hairs during his first stint of coaching at Mount Royal. He was the head coach of the then Mount Royal College Cougars from 1990-94.
He didn’t exactly set the ACAC on fire back in 1990.
“I have been coaching for 30 years and that was the only year I had a losing season,” Hogan said with a laugh. “I had confidence in my ability to coach at the next level and I learned I still had to learn.”
Hogan coached three more years at Mount Royal College. He stepped down to begin the STARS basketball program to develop young players through the community-based program across Alberta. He also had stints as both the girls and boys coach at Foothills Composite High School.
When he returned to the renamed Mount Royal University Cougars nearly 20 years later to help Enevoldson coach in the fall of 2010, Hogan was a different coach than the first time he was there.
“I think I used to expect certain things out of kids and now I know that some kids aren’t adept to do some things,” Hogan said. “For example, there was one young lady who was six-foot-four and Joe had her as a post. It took me one practice to realize she wasn’t a post player, but a six-foot-four perimeter.
“Joe called me and asked: ‘Why does she excel for you, but struggles with me.’ I think that was one of the reasons I got the job.”
He said being a mentor for Enevoldson has given him a bit more say as the typical assistant coach.
“As an assistant coach, if you are given instruction you listen and you do it,” Hogan said. “As a mentor I have a voice. I love the fact that Joe listens.”
Enevoldson said he approached Hogan before the 2010 season to help him out.
“From a mentorship-side he is a great communicator and I have learned a lot from him in that aspect,” Enevoldson said. “Mark has also kind of taken over control of our offence.”
He added Hogan has handled the assistant coaching duties well.
“I seek his advice from him when I need to,” he said with a chuckle. “He has been fantastic. Fortunately, he and I have been on the same page in almost every aspect of basketball.”
Enevoldson said Hogan has made him a better coach.
“He definitely has,” Enevoldson said. “He is a great communicator and gives me a great feedback on how to communicate with younger kids, which I have struggled with.
“He is also very innovative in the sport of basketball — he’s not old school. You get some coaches who are very set in their ways.”
The team has also grown this season. The Cougars were ranked ninth in the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association as of Jan. 25 and they are first in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference South Division with an 11-2 record.
