Sharp-shooters aren’t made by using conventional methods.
L.C. Firle coached boys basketball at South Leake High School long enough to know the physical and mental skills players needed to become great. He also realized a ladder was just another tool to make individuals better.
That’s why Firle did not look twice when he saw a man named Barnette “Chief” Riley hauling a ladder in the back of his truck around Walnut Grove. He also knew Johnny, Angelo, Luther, or Matthew Riley were not riding with their father because they were on their way to paint a house or do construction work.
They were on their way to the gym to become better basketball players.
“It was a creative way to get some height on the ball,” Luther Riley, the third of Barnette’s four sons, told The Dispatch. “It was a way he used to get us to put arch on the ball — and all of us could shoot. That was one of our trademarks.”
Hard work, dedication, and winning have also become trademarks of Luther Riley, the new head coach of the Columbus High School basketball team.
Riley has taken the unconventional methods his father used with him and molded them into a successful coaching philosophy at college and high school levels.
Columbus High hopes Riley can implement that strategy and help it reach the same heights Riley attained when he guided the John W. Provine High boys basketball team in Jackson to four state titles in 11 seasons.
Riley opens camp Monday
On Monday, Riley will unveil his coaching philosophies when he holds the inaugural Luther Riley Basketball Camp at Columbus High. The three-day camp for boys and girls in kindergarten through eighth grade will begin at 7 a.m. each day and run until 1 p.m.
The $25 fee includes a T-shirt, picture with Riley, evaluation, lunch and insurance.
The camp is Riley’s first official act as Columbus High’s new boys basketball coach. The camp, Riley said, is designed to build awareness about and enthusiasm for the program.
“I am about building young people, giving them an opportunity to excel beyond their imaginations and dreams and aspirations,” Riley said. “I think I have the experience and the exposure (from his work with Nike) — two of the things you need to be successful in anything you do…in Columbus, you have great young men with great attitudes, and I look forward to their progress.”
Signs of a champion
In 17 years as a coach, Firle said Luther Riley is “probably one of the best, loyal players I have ever coached.”
In fact, Firle, who has been a pastor for more than three decades, said Riley had a love for the game and a work ethic that surpassed every player on the court that led him to say Riley was “more spiritual than I was on the sidelines.”
Firle said Riley demonstrative and vocal enthusiasm was not surprising because Riley had a drive that made him want to stay in the gym all day and all night. Firle said Riley “had that instinct” in part due to the lessons his father taught and the fact he grew up in an athletic family filled with standout basketball players.
Even at 5-foot-5 or 5-6 in high school, Riley did his best to equal the success of his brothers. Growing up, he learned how to shoot with an arch so his lack of size didn’t prevent him from scoring. Riley said that as he matured people would sit on the second or third step of the two-sided ladder and hold up a broom to simulate an even taller opponent.
It didn’t matter.
In one game in Riley’s junior year at South Leake High, Lake High was winning by double digits in the second half when Firle gave Riley the “green light” to shoot. Riley went on to make 11 of 12 3-pointers and lead his team to a district victory. Later that season, Riley made 11 3-pointers in a playoff game against Clarksdale. Firle said all of it was to be expected from a point guard and shooting guard who wanted to play it all.
Firle said Riley has instilled the qualities he had when he played in every player he has coached.
“I always respected him to the highest because of the things he carried away from the game in our time and then used it,” said Firle, who watched Riley coach many times at Provine High. “The game changes, but the fundamentals don’t change.”
‘I promise you’
But Riley is not only about basketball.
Firle said a key to his success as a coach is his desire to see his players be good students and good people. Firle said he has heard Riley talk to players in group sessions and at camps and believes he is like a “father figure.”
“He is a leader,” said Firle, who taught him Biology. “He wants every player he coaches to be a leader on the court and off the court.
“He is the best I know. He instills that in kids. He is tough on kids, but at this day and time you have to be tough.”
Firle was not sure if Riley would become a coach, but he said he recalls Riley telling him he wanted to be just like him. He believed Riley would be a good coach because he is smart, ambitious, and willing to ask questions and try new things to build a program.
Those are the things Riley has been doing in Columbus since May 11, when the Columbus Municipal School Board approved Riley as Columbus High’s new boys basketball coach.
Riley replaces Sammy Smith, who led Columbus to a 22-6 record last season. The Falcons lost in the second round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 6A State tournament.
Firle said Riley called him after he was offered a job at Columbus High and told him he still had “that love for coaching in his heart” after stepping down as head coach at Alcorn State University, a Division I school in Lorman, after going 38-91 in four seasons.
Firle said Riley still has passion for basketball after four seasons in college. He said he also remains the same student of the game who would ask questions and play — and shoot — with an unrivaled spirit and accuracy.
“When Luther was on, he was on,” Firle said of the game against Lake High. “Luther Riley is going to do good at Columbus. I promise you Luther Riley is going to do good there.”
On the coaching trail
If Barnette Riley and L.C. Firle were two of the first “coaches” in Luther Riley’s life, Marty Cooper and Lafayette Stribling provided additional mentoring on the path to becoming a head coach.
Cooper coached Riley at East Central Community College in Decatur in the early 1990s. Now the director of Preparing & Advancing for College Excellence (PACE) at Itawamba C.C., Cooper said two things struck him about Riley, a wiry, 6-footer.
“He really loves basketball,” Cooper said. “The second thing I would say is he was just a hard-nosed, determined player.”
Cooper said he saw the same traits in Riley as a coach at Provine High. He said Riley’s players mirrored their coach’s defensive intensity and willingness to do what it took to win games.
Cooper said Riley was a “vocal leader” on a team that went 28-5, won the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior College (MACJC) South Division, won South State, and was ranked in the top 20 in the nation.
Cooper said Riley was successful as a leader because he understood what he was good at and how to get other players involved. He said Riley’s feel for the game was evident at Provine High, where Riley had a record of 286-70 (.803 winning percentage) and 10 district championships.
“I think he does a good job building his players into the team concept instead of the individual concept,” Cooper said. “That is probably the hardest thing to do in coaching these days.”
Stribling, the longtime men’s basketball coach at Mississippi Valley State University in Itta Bena, echoes Cooper’s thoughts about Riley being a smart player who could defense and run an offense.
Stribling said Barnette Riley, who he said is one of his best friends, played a crucial role in helping Luther understand the importance of work ethic and dedication.
“If they came to the gym, they had to come and work, really work,” Stribling said. “He had a great knowledge of basketball. You could give him something to do and have him emphasize that to the kids.
“I think that was the key. He knew his daddy didn’t play around with them and that he meant business.”
Stribling also watched Riley’s teams play plenty of times and he believes Riley will be able to do the same thing with the players at Columbus High.
“He will get them. He doesn’t play,” Stribling said. “He is going to ask for the best out of them. He is going to want them to be better today than they were yesterday.
“He is eager to win. He wants to win. He knows (Columbus High has) never won a championship. I think he has a desire to give you your first championship. … I am not putting a time frame on it, but that is what he is going to be shooting for.”
The challenge
Riley said he has had good fortune to coach so many good players. He said the blueprint at Columbus High will be similar to the one he has used in the past. He is not going to guarantee a championship, but he said his goal is to build a program, not a one-hit wonder.
To do that, he said he will remain inquisitive and work hard to get everyone behind him and his program.
“Like the (National Basketball Association champion) Golden State Warriors, there is power in numbers,” Riley said. “The people I have met so far have been so extremely nice. Wherever I have gone, they greet you with a smile. It goes without saying Columbus is the Friendly City, but I told our players you be friendly only up until you get on this court. On the court, we’re going to be a little different.
Riley knows a lot of people will be watching, especially with rising sophomore Robert Woodard II coming off his participation with the USA Basketball U16 Men’s National Team and its gold-medal effort at the FIBA Americas Championship in Argentina. Riley believes Woodard II has a lot of potential.
He hopes to help the Falcons realize that potential, too. He feels he has the support from the Columbus High administration to steer the Falcons to the “Big House” in Jackson, the site of the state title games.
Riley isn’t alone in that thinking because plenty of people have seen his blueprint deliver results.
“You’re going to see the difference in the year to come because you have a man who is going to come in there and work his tail off because he has a point to prove,” Stribling said.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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