For College of Sequoias basketball coach Dallas Jensen and family, basketball is life

Basketball is a family affair for Visalia's Jensen family.

Just ask Dallas Jensen — the College of the Sequoias men's basketball coach.

Dallas has coached the Giants since 2019.

His father, Kort, has coached basketball at various levels for the past 30-plus years and introduced the game to his sons, including Derek. Kort is currently the athletic director at Oakwood School in Morgan Hill.

Derek is the men's basketball coach at Feather River College.

Kort's wife and Dallas and Derek's mom, Cherie, is an avid basketball junkie, too.

Now, Dallas' son, Zander, is continuing the Jensen family basketball legacy. Zander is a freshman on the Redwood High basketball varsity team and has emerged this season as one of the team's best scorers.

Zander netted a team-high 16 points, draining three triples, on Jan. 23 to lead the Rangers to a 50-35 win over rival Mt. Whitney. Basketball has also already played a big role in Dallas' other son, Otis' life. When it's halftime or postgame, if it's allowed, Otis is usually one of the first fans off the bleachers to let a shot fly.

Who does Dallas credit for instilling basketball as a way of life for the Jensens?

"My mom and dad," Dallas said. "One million percent. Obviously, I started playing basketball at a really young age. My dad and I spent hours on end in the gym, and I think that's really where we kind of developed our bond and relationship. I learned a lot about life in the gym. My mom, she's beyond passionate. Her and I would watch every single Lakers game on TV and every year at March Madness, starting at elementary, she would keep me home so we could watch games together that opening Thursday and Friday.

"My parents, obviously their fantastic, but they've just been basketball fanatics as well. They've obviously pushed that love to me and subsequently, it's followed to my sons, Zander and Otis."

Family first

Zander's basketball roots started with his grandfather, Kort, about six decades ago.

That's when Grandpa first picked up a basketball.

When Kort had sons of his own, Cherie insisted Kort spend quality time with his boys daily. Cherie would hand Kort a basketball and their dad took them to the courts.

Kort used that opportunity to teach life lessons beyond basketball.

"I can't honestly tell you how many hours I would take my boys to the gym, and I would rebound as they would shoot," Kort said. "As they were 9, 10, we built our relationships because we spent hours at the gym talking about respect for women, respect for their mom, respect for adults, respect for themselves. We talked about values. We talked about school, and eventually, we got into basketball, too, but this is where we really spent our time talking about life."

Knowing how special those basketball moments were, Kort changed careers, walking away from his job in investment management, and became a coach so he could be along for the ride for his sons' sports journeys.

That resulted in both Dallas and Derek following their dad's footsteps. Both have taken it to a higher level, though, as head coaches at their respective college campuses.

Dallas is regarded by the JUCO basketball community as one of the state's finest coaches.

In seven head coaching seasons, two at Gavilan College and the past five at COS, Dallas has compiled an overall 152-27 record as of press time, including a 27-win campaign and an appearance in the state's Elite Eight tournament last season.

Excluding the COVID-19-impacted 2020-21 season, Dallas' teams have averaged nearly 26 wins per full season. The Giants entered Jan. 26 with a 15-4 mark and are coming off a 102-69 rout of West Hills Coalinga on Jan. 24.

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Dallas noted that type of success is partly due to the family-first foundation laid out by his parents. Now, the fifth-year COS coach is hoping to pass that along to his players.

"My two boys that are head coaches for junior college, I have a third son as well, he got into H.R.," Kort said. "That’s the path he wanted to go. The two that chose junior college, chose it not just because of a round ball. They chose it because they wanted to make a difference in young men's lives. That was always their thing. They wanted to be able to mentor, to teach, to mold and even love the young men, and help them move to four-year schools. That’s, I'm not just saying it, that's who they are. That's from their mom. They get that from their mom.

"They're really nice. They love working with and helping young men become men. That, win or lose, you don’t always remember the games. I always tell my sons, 'You can't remember the scores from the games four years ago but you can remember the lives you impacted.' Now if you win, that's even more fun. That's the competitive nature. You try the best that you can.

"Even in my high school that I coached, you want to be the best that you can but at the end of the day, it's about the kids who move on from life. And when they come back, five, six or seven years, and now they have their own kids and they come up to you and they call you coach, and they turn to their little kids and they say, 'Hey, this is my coach.' You know you impacted their life."

Extending the family legacy

Today, the 6-foot-3 Zander has added new excitement to the Jensen family basketball household.

When Zander first arrived at Redwood head coach Jason Black's first practice, the veteran coach already had high expectations for the incoming freshman.

Why?

Because of Dallas, who is highly respected in the Visalia sports community.

Still, Zander had to prove he could play.

And he did just that and then some.

In the Rangers' summer league circuit, Zander established himself as one of the team's top players, making plays usually reserved for veteran players.

By the time the season rolled around, Zander found himself in the starting lineup.

Zander is just the second freshman in the Black era to play immediately as a freshman, joining Stanford baseball player Joey Volchko on that shortlist.

"When you get a kid that size with that skillset, and you see that talent, I'm going to automatically start pushing you right away," Black said. "You know what I mean? He had to right away. He was no longer the biggest kid on the floor coming from eighth grade and learned how to get his legs under him and shoot more straight-up shots because he could get away with that in eighth grade but in varsity basketball as a freshman, it's going to be a little bit tougher.

"It took him a few games to catch on but he's been doing really well. He's strong enough to be successful and his skillset is really, really up there. He's been a phenom."

Zander dropped 13 points on Jan. 25 as the Rangers knocked off El Diamante 62-52. That performance helped the Rangers improve to 17-8 overall and a perfect 6-0 in East Yosemite League action. He is averaging nearly 13 points per game this season but has upped that average to 17.1 in conference play.

What's it like to watch his son play?

"Refreshing," Dallas said. "A lot less stressful. Honestly, we had a couple of games this year where my son played at the same time. I've told my AD and my team I rather be hanging out and watching his games so I think it's been fun just to watch basketball and be a fan.

"It's been fantastic. I think the only conflict we've had in league so far is when they played at Monache. We were playing West Hills Lemoore last Wednesday and we won that game. Our postgame lasted about 90 seconds, and I probably went 80 down the highway to Porterville to catch the Monache game. It's been a lot of fun just watching him right down the street or catching all those games and having those schedules aligned."

There aren't many high school players who have the luxury of bouncing basketball ideas off veteran head coaches like Zander does.

Whenever he wants to pick someone's brain about hoops, he can easily turn to family — dad, uncle or grandpa.

That's a big reason why Zander has made an immediate impact as a freshman.

"It was really fun," Zander said. "I was always in the gym as a kid no matter what. When I was younger, my dad coached at San Jose City and I was always in the gym there, too, and then at Oakwood, I would always get in with my grandpa. And then my uncle started coaching at Gavilan and Feather River, that's also very fun, having all that family connection into basketball so I was always in the gym. I was always wanting to get better. That's been beneficial so far."

Grandpa Kort isn't surprised by Zander's dedication to basketball.

"He's so fortunate," Kort said. "He has a good high school coach. He gets to go from that good high school coach every day and then goes over to COS and gets to play against college guys every night. How many freshmen get that opportunity? To Zander's credit, he takes that opportunity. Other kids may go do it, but Zander does it."

The Jensens understand firsthand, though, that their basketball life wouldn't be possible without the unwavering support of a loving family at home, especially the women and girls in their lives.

For the Visalia Jensens, that starts with Dallas' wife and Zander's mom, Kimberlee. The COS coach also has two daughters, Aaliyah and Palmer.

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"My wife is great," Dallas said. "When I first decided to get back into the basketball game, and go back and knock out my Master's and get into coaching, she was the breadwinner for our family. That really allowed me the opportunity to pursue my dreams, and so without her, I absolutely wouldn't be doing what I'm doing at this point in my life.

"She's so supportive of our kids as well. I think she's shown them unconditional love regardless of how they perform on the court. She's the rock in our family. The one that kind of keeps everyone together. I lucked out. There's no ifs and buts about it. She grew up a big-time athlete, a star volleyball player, so she understands how valuable sports can be for a young adult growing up and how many life lessons can be taught through sports along the way."

Zander couldn't agree more about Mom.

"She helps a lot," Zander said. "She cooks me food and everything to stay stable as a basketball player and as a person. She always helps me with homework. Everything I need, she helps me."

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: College of Sequoias basketball coach Dallas Jensen profile