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For Baltimore City high school boys basketball coaches, developing ‘productive young men’ supersedes wins

glenn graham, baltimore sun
·8 min read

Two more state championship banners — one hanging at Edmondson, the other at City College — are displayed proudly in Baltimore City after the long-standing success in boys basketball continued last year.

They make 40 titles in all (16 from Dunbar) coming from eight programs since city schools started competing in the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association in 1992.

Lake Clifton owns seven titles and while a great source of pride comes with each banner, there are others featured prominently inside the school’s Harford Road gym that 26-year coach Herman “Tree” Harried will say carry far more weight.

Those banners celebrate the student-athletes who were school valedictorians — four of them from the boys basketball team.

“If somebody gave me an ultimatum and said we had to take all the championship banners down or the valedictorian banners down, I would keep the valedictorian banners up because it shows our standard,” said Harried, a Dunbar grad who surpassed the 500-win plateau last season. “It shows you got kids achieving not only athletically but academically. That’s the foundation.”

Throughout the area and country, high school coaches in various sports often go well beyond the X’s and O’s when it comes to developing student-athletes. In Baltimore City, where the everyday challenges and choices for kids can carry far greater consequences than in most areas, a special bond can be found among the boys basketball coaches.

For them, it isn’t just coaching. It’s a calling.

“More than any state or city championships is seeing these guys go out to be productive young men,” said Edmondson 18-year coach Darnell Dantzler Sr., another Dunbar grad who takes pride in his program’s high graduation rate. “My job as a coach is to remove obstacles from out of their way to help them succeed. So when they come back graduated from college and are teachers and stuff like that, that’s what warms my heart.”

Legendary Dunbar coach Bob Wade, who guided the Poets to four undefeated seasons and two national championships during an 11-year run that started in 1975, helped lay the foundation that current coaches still use. Many kids come from single-parent homes in neighborhoods that can present danger when they walk out their doors. Getting them to buy into the benefits of the classroom and gym is the starting point. Basketball has proved a valuable tool.

“To be a successful coach, first you got to gain trust from your players and get them to understand that you want to help them achieve and reach their goals,” said Wade, who went on to serve 20 years as the coordinator of athletics for Baltimore City Public Schools. “You’re the motivator. You’re the person that helps build their self-esteem and you want them to work on any shortcomings they may have to reach those goals. With all that, you’ve got to be patient, you got to gain their respect and you have to be a clear communicator. You just have to get them to believe in what you’re trying to relay to them.”

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The majority of the current coaches played ball for city schools and had their own mentors who inspired them to want to give back when their turn came as adults.

Among the many, Harried was coached by Wade and went on to play at Syracuse and professionally overseas before he returned home and began giving back. Dantzler’s legendary youth coach Bucky Lee proved influential before he went on to star at Dunbar under the great Pete Pompey. City’s seven-year coach Omarr Smith won his first state title as a coach last year at his alma mater, having also won one as a player under Daryl Wade, Bob’s son, in the 2013-14 season. Ben Franklin coach William Russell, a Mervo graduate, has spent 25 years at the South Baltimore school as a teacher and has been the school’s only coach since the program began in 2010.

“Being a former player and now being in position to coach and realizing the coaches that coached you, that poured into you and dedicated their time and effort to teach you life lessons along with basketball, that impact is the biggest thing for me,” said Smith, who guided the Class 3A champion Knights to a 28-0 record last season.

Each coach has plenty of uplifting, extra-mile stories to share. There are the hours of one-on-one conversation that provide guidance beyond basketball, countless car rides to school, games and practices, dinners after practice, and day-to-day discipline and love. Their rewards come when former players check in later with college degrees, successful jobs and growing families.

In his early teens, 2008 Lake Clifton graduate Derrious Gilmore said he had no structure or discipline when he faced a choice: become a student-athlete at the school or continue his negative path and probably end up in jail.

He played basketball for three years under Harried, and during that time he learned about being accountable and punctual, and how to handle adversity. Harried comes at his players with a direct, disciplined approach with no sugarcoating. His values were shared and became Gilmore’s own.

“That’s the first time in my life I had a male that was showing up for me and that he cared. Everyone could see the outpour of love, the patience and how hard he worked with me to help me prepare for life,” said Gilmore, who lived with his aunt during his Lake Clifton days.

Gilmore, 34, went on to play at Wyoming, getting a degree in social science. He spent a few years playing professionally in Russia and Turkey, and now, back home, he owns a trucking company while working with troubled city youth on a part-time basis.

At Edmondson, the players will say Coach Dantzler’s daily study halls are stricter than any of their teachers’ sessions. The tough love is appreciated.

“He’s always there for us and does what’s best for us to help us get to where we need to go to become successful in life. It’s important. He cares,” senior guard Josiah Brown said. “Some players don’t have fathers, so he tries to be there for them and give them strength, make sure they stay on top of things with school and basketball. Having somebody in my corner, wanting me to be successful and wanting good things out of me, it’s good. It keeps me on track with a good mindset.”

Rival City was traveling to Edmondson in an early season showdown last month and former Red Storm standout Darius Timmons, a 2013 graduate, was in attendance. After winning a state title at Edmondson, Timmons, 28, enjoyed a fine career at Maryland-Eastern Shore and earned a degree in kinesiology. He went on to find a job in the medical field but was told by Dantzler and his coaching staff that he was needed in the school system. Timmons changed fields, starting as a special educator and now holding down an administrative position focusing on college and career placement in the city.

“The biggest thing they taught me early on was how to walk into my leadership capabilities, from being a team captain onto the court to now being 28 years old in a leadership position with an education,” Timmons said. “All those values that I didn’t know I had within myself, they kind of pulled it out of me and it led me to the place I am now, which I’m truly grateful for.”

After transferring to Ben Franklin in his junior year, Da’Von Johnson is making the most of what he’s calling a second chance after a rocky sophomore year at another city school. He made the honor roll in the first quarter and is the second-leading scorer for the 11-2 Bayhawks, and Russell has been impressed with the leadership skills that are emerging.

“We give kids a chance. We don’t hold the past against them, we know they may have trials and it’s about leading with love,” said Russell, who won his 200th game last season. “It doesn’t mean we’re not tough on them, but we also understand they are dealing with a lot of different things.”

Said Johnson: “It’s a good environment here, better than I thought it would be with good people here like Coach Russell. We’re tight — we’re locked in. He’s a cool person, for real. Even if I wasn’t on the basketball team, he’d be cool.”

Over the decades and to this day in Baltimore City, many coaches have put their student-athletes first. For the young coaches and those in the future, Dantzler offers a welcoming message with the hope that the calling will continue.

“We’re not going to be around forever, so we need the younger guys who have just started to step up and understand it’s more than just coaching when it comes to the kids. You have to have that full commitment,” he said. “A lot of people just see the Tuesdays and Fridays on game day, but they don’t realize it’s an all-year process and not just Nov. 15 to March 15. So my advice to any of the new coaches is to do it for the love of the kids.”