April 6, 2012

Navy basketball coach Ed DeChellis is not a man adept at hiding how he feels.

When I visited a Navy practice in February, he called his players together into a loose huddle a few minutes before the official start of practice. Navy students being Navy students, many of them had been there for a half hour. A few of them had trotted out to the humble practice court 50 minutes early. DeChellis had to ask one of his staff members to chase away a few teenage kids who'd been playing pickup.

On this particular day, DeChellis seemed torn. His Midshipmen had just lost their 17th game in a row, in double overtime to archrival Army. And yet here they were, his mishmash of basketball parts, staring wide-eyed and hanging on each word, ready to be coached.

And so DeChellis pawed at his perpetual five o'clock shadow. He appeared thoughtful, but also conflicted. All those years of coaching hadn't prepared him for this. It was different.

But also what he wanted.

For the full article from Chris Korman of the Baltimore Sun click here