Your future, our focus
As a 2-year-old, Northwest College men’s basketball coach Brian Erickson possessed ears that practically flapped in the breeze like those belonging to the sage “Star Wars” movie character Yoda. Brian also spoke baby babble, so his dad Gary slapped a nickname on him.
Erickson grew out of the ears, but “Yoda” stuck. He out-grew gibberish, too, unless you count translating Xs and Os to his team.
Erickson has dark brown hair, is about 6-foot-3, and is not green-skinned, but even nearly 30 years later all but a handful of people on the planet call him Yoda. Not the Trappers, though. When giggling players heard the nickname they asked if they could call him “Coach Yoda.” Erickson replied, “Not unless you want to run forever.”
Yoda, who became Northwest’s head coach at a precocious 27 and doesn’t turn 31 until next month, is the architect of an exceptional 2014-15 season.
The Trappers are 27-4 with 14 straight wins, are ranked No. 15 in the nation, and have added hosting the Region IX tournament to their resume this week. That would qualify them for the National Junior College Athletic Association championships in Hutchinson, Kan. Only once – nearly 50 years ago – has Northwest won more games in a season.
“It’s been a special year, but we’ve still got work to do,” Erickson said.
Despite a mostly word-of-mouth recruiting budget, the team features stars from far away as well as guys from small towns in Wyoming.
For Erickson, it might be said that his work is as much a calling as coaching.
Regardless of wins and losses, Erickson tries to teach there’s more to life than jump shots and rebounds. He stresses classroom work – the Trappers’ grade-point average last semester was 3.0 – and community service.
In recent months Trapper players toted auction items at the Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale in Cody, gave kids basketball clinics in Powell and Meeteetse, and volunteered muscle to help senior citizens move. They have done that so often, Erickson said, “In time we have become our own moving company.”
Some players regularly attend “play day” at Powell’s Westside Elementary School.
“They’re like big brothers,” Erickson said.
Wife Callee is proud of Brian’s attitude.
“He strives for those players to be better men in the community,” she said.
Through on-court success and public mingling, Erickson wants the Trappers to become the area’s team. A cornerstone of Erickson’s thinking is “showing them how influential they can be as role models. There is no NBA here and the University of Wyoming is more than 350 miles away.”
Guard William “Nicky” Desilien, a 20-point per game scorer, met a boy about 12 at a Trapper game who excitedly told him he bought the exact same basketball shoes because Desilien was his hero. Afterward he learned the boy had been treated for cancer.
Desilien teared up and thought, “What a courageous kid.” And, “I told him he was a hero.”
The encounter showed Desilien the role model talk was not just lip service.
Sports a healthy outlet
One of four children growing up in West Valley, a suburb of Salt Lake City, Yoda was introduced to three basic tenets of existence.
Family ranked first. Hard work was important, to get anywhere in the sporting world or the business world, and sports was a healthy outlet.
As a senior, dad Gary was the best high school basketball player in Utah, averaging 34 points a game. Mom Debbie was a cheerleader. Gary’s high school jersey was retired and framed. One day Brian and older brother Tim argued over who would get that artifact when dad died. Mom surprised Brian by having a duplicate made and it is on display in his Northwest College office. There shouldn’t be any battle over Gary’s estate.
Gary coached his boys in basketball and baseball and routinely yelled to Brian, “C’mon Yoda, get a hit.” Mothers of other players were appalled until they realized “Yoda” was not on the birth certificate.
In 2001 – in advance of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City – Brian, 16, wrote an essay nominating Debbie for a leg in the torch relay. “He wrote about what a great mother she was,” Gary said. When a mysterious letter arrived saying Debbie was chosen the family learned it was all Brian’s doing.
“He kept it secret for a year,” Gary said.
An excellent high school basketball player, Brian Erickson played two years at Eastern Wyoming and two at Montana State-Northern. By then he was married. Brian and Callee began dating in ninth grade and will celebrate their 12th anniversary this year. They have three children, Gunnar 9, Coy, 6 and Jersey 2. A picture of Brian at 21, dressed in a basketball uniform and holding baby Gunnar, adorns his office desk at Northwest.
Basketball – not business
After college, Erickson joined Automatic Data Processing in Utah, where brother Tim, another ex-college basketball player, worked. Brian made $50,000 a year, but was restless. He became an unpaid assistant for then-coach Andy Ward at Northwest for the 2009-10 season while working remotely for ADP.
Erickson realized his heart was in basketball – not business. He decided, “I like this. I’ve got to do this.”
Erickson quit ADP and his second season was paid just $3,000 by Northwest. When Ward left, he lobbied Northwest to promote Erickson, even though he was unusually young for a head coach.
Six years into his Northwest experience Erickson’s salary still doesn’t match what he made in the business world.
Ward was Erickson’s mentor, friend, and fishing partner – winter and summer – and they talk almost daily.
“One of the things he possesses is that he is passionate about the game,” said Ward, now an assistant coach at Idaho State. “I thought he was really good at relating to players. He has an ability to connect with them.”
Callee said Brian did not express interest in coaching until he did it. She attends games with the kids and used to sit behind the Trapper bench where she watched her frequently-pacing husband closely.
“I can read his facial expressions,” she said. “I would be laughing too much. I had to move to the other side of the gym. For me, watching him has been pretty amazing. He has come a long way in a short period of time. He has learned a lot.”
Trappers have talent, depth
Yoda’s basketball touchstones, from Ward to family, are impressed by this year’s milestone season.
“It’s a special team,” Tim Erickson said, echoing Brian. He saw Northwest play in Salt Lake and in Powell in January.
During that visit Tim, who is five years older, and Brian, played one-on-one in front of the Trappers. The ball was thrown onto the court and the brothers wrestled for it. Brian out scored Tim 3-2.
Gary was a witness to that scene, which was nothing new to him.
“They were competitive very early on, like from age five,” he said.
Naturally, Brian gloated over the victory.
“I’m a good big brother,” Tim said of losing to Yoda in front of his team. “But he forgot about the other 500 times I beat him when we were young.”
Tim and Gary watch Northwest games on their computers and e-mail. The common theme is, “Can you believe how well they’re playing?”
Northwest has talent and depth. Averaging more than 90 points a game, during a recent stretch the Trappers scored 110 points several times. They can fast-break, shoot from outside, and play clamp-down defense.
“They’ve bought in over time on the defensive end,” Erickson said.
He knows he is fortunate to have a 6-foot-10 difference-making center in Chris Boucher, who’s coveted by many NCAA Division I schools. From Quebec, Canada, by way of St. Lucia in the Caribbean, Boucher averages about 22 points, 11 rebounds and 5 blocked shots a game. With his Bill-Russell-like presence, foes are scared to drive.
Boucher said Erickson is a nice guy, but newcomers shouldn’t be fooled.
“I would tell them to come, but it’s not going to be easy,” Boucher said. While Boucher hesitated to use the words “national championship,” he did say, “We’re trying to win all of the games the rest of the way.”
Coaching junior college is about non-stop recruiting, with players coming and going in two-year cycles. If he can get a city player to visit, Erickson said friendly people and the Powell campus’ attractiveness sell the school.
Trapper recruits might also listen to guard Desilien.
“I get to see stars at night and I can see mountains for miles,” said Desilien,who also comes from Quebec.
And be coached by a man called Yoda, who may be young in years, but is proving to be a wise man of his profession.
(Lew Freedman can be reached at lew@codyenterprise.com.)