In a day and age when coaches are heavily scrutinized for not living up to unrealistic expectations by fans and management, it’s easy to see why people want Ernie Kent’s tenure as head coach of the men’s basketball team to end after this season. Through his 13 years as coach, the Ducks have seen amazing highs and amazing lows from year to year, and some fans are sick and tired of watching an Elite Eight team struggle to make the NCAA Tournament the very next year.
But sometimes, being a head coach is more than just on the court performance. It’s how he/she fits into the community, and how he/she lead the young men or women he/she is in charge of.
This didn’t hit home with me until this Monday when I stood in the Hult Center lobby, listening to NAACP Eugene-Springfield chapter president Henry Luvert introduce Kent to the crowd and give him an award for excellent community service. Seeing Kent away from the bright lights of TV cameras and the podium of a post-game news conference brought to home the fact he’s just another person and a person who cares deeply about his community.
“I came here in 1973 on my visit,” Kent said Tuesday. “You walked into the building and you walked into the community, and I’ll never forget that feeling. You just felt like you belonged, and you felt connected to the community immediately.”
Kent said the city of Eugene was passionate about its basketball, and it was something that he felt he didn’t want to miss out on.
“You felt like you wanted to be a part of it, too, to the point where you went back and canceled all of your other visits. I wanted that feeling,” Kent said.
Although it took Kent 17 years to return to Oregon after leaving in 1980 to coach in Saudi Arabia, followed by stints coaching around the country, once he came back he immediately went to work in Eugene and on the court.
“To be here, with this being my dream job and having worked 20 years to get back and walking through these doors again and now this being the last year of conference games at Mac Court is kind of surreal,” Kent said. “This building has so many memories. It’s had so many players and great games.”
We tend to lose sight of all the good things people have done when they are currently struggling. It’s human nature to forget that as recently as 2007 Kent and the Ducks were in the Elite Eight, led by senior Aaron Brooks, when just last year Oregon went 2-16 in Pac-10 play.
It’s a shame that all people see in Kent right now are his struggling Ducks and what they think are flawed coaching strategies. They miss the fact that he graduates his players at a very high rate, is heavily vested in numerous aspects of the community and has done thing as coach that previous coaches hadn’t ever done in Eugene.
When Oregon won the Pac-10 title in 2001-02, it was the first outright title by the Ducks since 1938-39 when they won the national title. He also led them to the tournament in back-to-back years for the first time since the mid-1940s.
This year, Kent has the Ducks tantalizingly close to turning that season around and only the next month will tell if he’s able to erase last year’s ugly memory. I hope it happens, because I’ve grown up watching Kent as head coach of the Ducks and I see the real reason why he’s endured at the University. He’s passionate, a great leader in the community and someone Oregon needs right now.
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