Decatur Coach Unger sees his persistence rewarded

DECATUR - John Unger knew taking over Decatur’s basketball program would be a major rebuilding project. The Bulldogs had struggled for more than a decade, and that trend seemed to be continuing in the winter of 2012.

In Unger’s first year, Decatur trailed West Fork 27-2 at half-time. A few weeks later, his team faced a 31-1 deficit at Greenland. But Unger never got discouraged. Decatur won just two of 27 games during his first season, but the Bulldogs’ coach never questioned his move to the school.

“We struggled with our record, but every week we got better,” Unger said. “We just pounded the fundamentals, and as the year went on, we got closer and closer.”

And that trend continued over to this season in a big way.

Decatur (21-7) lost its 2A-4 Conference opener, but the Bulldogs won their next 13 conference games to earn the school’s first league title since 1976, while winning 20 games for the first time in decades.

For guiding that turnaround, Unger is the All-NWA Media Boys Basketball Coach of the Year.

“It’s a process and it still is a process,” Unger said. “Now, we are winning those close games.”

Unger caught the coaching bug while serving as a student manager for Nolan Richardson at Arkansas, where he tried out for the basketball team. He then went on to be an assistant coach at LSU Shreveport under Chad McDowell after getting his degree at Arkansas.

Unger spent several seasons at Bossier Parish Community College before coming back to Northwest Arkansas.

“They asked me to bea student manager, so I hung around,” Unger said. “I was under Coach Richardson for three years, and I got to work under some great coaches. The most important thing I learned is that it takes a lot of hard work to be successful.”

After learning the profession from several top college coaches, Unger said he thought he’d be better suited for coaching high school basketball.

“I always wanted to take a high school job and develop kids’ skills,” Unger said. “I thought I could help athletes more in a high school setting than I could in a college setting.”

Decatur Superintendent Larry Ben said hiring Unger was an easy decision after interviewing the Bulldogs coach. In a small school like Decatur, the basketball coach is also expected to help the football staff.

“The thing that I recall the most about his interview was his professionalism,” Ben said. “One of the things that impressed me was one of the things of being the basketball coach had to do with coaching football. The coaches here help each other out and work together.

“Coming from the college level, I wasn’t sure how he was going to respond to that. He just said, ‘I’m a coach.’ Basically what he was saying is thathe can coach, and he was willing to learn whatever he needed to learn.”

Decatur will lose several talented seniors from this past season, but sophomores Mario and Victor Urquidi will bring two seasons of starting experience into their junior years next season.

Mario Urquidi was named all conference, all state and NWA Media player of the year for his accomplishments on the basketball court.

“It going to be hard to replace some of the guys we lose,” Unger said. “But the sophomores that arehere are going to be that much better next year. And we are getting three or four freshmen that are going to help us. I don’t see any letdown.”

Sports, Pages 8 on 04/03/2013

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