COMMENTARY

Basketball: Happy trails to Steve Price, coach and educator

Let's begin by emphasizing Steve Price was an educator first and a basketball coach second for 38 years in Springdale.

"I was hired as a science teacher," Price said. "Coaching was my second job."

Secondly, we must let readers in on the joke about Price's number being retired at Arkansas after he played basketball for the Razorbacks in the early '70s.

"I wore 32, and Sidney Moncrief had the number right after me," Price said of the former Arkansas All-American and NBA player. "Sidney made good use of it."

We must also put an end to the rumor that Steve Price has retired. He has not. Not yet anyway.

As usual, he spent part of his afternoons last week at the Springdale High gym helping direct basketball workouts with his son, Jeremy Price, the Bulldogs' head coach. Steve Price is his assistant.

"Coach Price told me I'm here until the next coach gets here," Steve said with a smile. "I'll be here until he tells me I can go."

Eventually, Price will leave, and his exit will bring to an end a coaching career that expanded 41 years. The vast majority of his work came in Springdale, 36 years at Southwest Junior High and two years as an assistant at Springdale High.

He also spent three years as a junior high school coach in Florida, where he lived before he was recruited to play basketball for the Razorbacks.

"God put me on the earth to be a junior high basketball coach," Price said. "I love the kids we have at Springdale. They may be different, with different nationalities. They're more worldly and experienced, but they're just as good as the kids were when I first started teaching at Springdale in 1979."

Basketball fans across Arkansas spent much of last week watching the top teams and players compete in state tournaments from Magnolia to Van Buren. The high level of play does not happen overnight.

It's a process that most often begins at the junior-high level, where dedicated coaches like Price teach young players the intricacies of the game. To teach them how to win graciously and how to react with civility when they lose.

"One of my dad's best characteristics is his patience," Jeremy Price said. "As a player, he let me make some mistakes then tried to correct me on them. That wasn't just on the court, but off the court as well. He got me to where I needed to be and taught me a lot. I'm very grateful to have him as a father, coach, and a teacher."

Although development is a priority, no coach is successful if his teams don't win enough and Price won plenty at Southwest Junior High. Beginning in 1992, his teams won eight conference championships and two regional championships.

"We had a run of 23 years where we were very good," Price said. "But it was the kids who did it, not me."

Even in retirement, Price will remain active as the ranking member of the first family of basketball in Northwest Arkansas. His father, Norman Price, played football, basketball, and ran track for the Razorbacks in the late in 1940s.

Jeremy is head basketball coach at Springdale while another son, Sean, is an assistant basketball coach at Republic, Mo. So, Tuesday and Friday nights will remain busy for Steve Price and his wife, Pam.

There's also grandkids, fishing, and outdoor activities to help keep him busy.

"We have a group of friends we bicycle with," Price said. "We're going to hit a lot of the trails around here."

Happy, trails, for sure, to a coach and educator who helped to mold many young lives in Springdale.

Sports on 03/05/2017

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