Washington leads Evangel Christian with lessons learned
Kerwin Washington has used all of the lessons he’s learned over the years to lead Evangel Christian to state titles. (By Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
From the military to starting over, from the YMCA to high school hoops, there’s nothing normal about the path Kerwin Washington took in becoming one of the state’s best high school basketball coaches.
His U.S. Air Force career took a detour in 1993 and landed him in Montgomery at the Gunter Annex of Maxwell Air Force Base. From that detour spawned a new career and a new lease on life that led him to Evangel Christian Academy.
“I got sick in 1993,” Washington said. “They called it Gulf War Syndrome -- unexplained illness, they couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t breathe. I was stationed at Dover (Del.) Air Force Base at the time and I just wanted to get home.”
Home was Monroe, La., and the closest installation a computer specialist could transfer to was at Biloxi’s Keesler Air Force Base in south Mississippi. Instead, he was offered an assignment at Gunter, where a four-year tour turned into 13 years, followed by retirement, a degree from Troy University at Montgomery and a job as an IT specialist with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Middle District of Alabama.
For Washington, his illness meant giving up basketball, a sport in which he had once earned gold medals in Olympic-style military games for the Royal Dutch Air Force.
“When I got sick in ’93, I couldn’t play anymore and I had a 5-year-old who needed to be coached so I started coaching basketball,” he said. “It evolved into a little travel ball. I did AAU, I had a travel group comprised on military kids where we did 3 of 3. We would travel in the spring and summer to about five different cities – Atlanta, Chattanooga, Tallahassee, Birmingham, Memphis, Nashville.”
Between 1994 and 1996, he coached teams on the military base, but the next year he ventured into recreational league teams at the Bell Road YMCA. When he decided to retire from the military in 2003, he went in search of a job in the computer science field. Meanwhile, he went to college and became the first in his family to earn a college degree.
“It was scary,” he admitted. “Twenty-two years in the military, I never had to worry about what to wear, I never had to worry about a paycheck, so that was a scary transition. I started out with a little non-profit clinic on Adams Avenue which is now River Region Medical, which used to be called Health Services, Inc.”
He was hired by the bankruptcy court in 2004 but when he graduated from Troy in 2007, he wanted a new challenge so he considered coaching boys’ basketball at the high school level.
“I didn’t see it coming,” Washington admitted. “I always did the youth sports. But when I finished my degree in ’07 and I was retired, I wanted to take the challenge and see what high school sports were all about.
“I sent out resumes to all the AISA schools in the tri-county and I got one response. I interviewed and didn’t get a call back. Fortunately, one of the kids I had coached was at Evangel and he told the coach, Dale Kemsel, about me and he brought me in and we talked. The rest is history. I walked in the door in ’07 and I’ve been here ever since.”
His life would take another turn in 2012 when Evangel made several changes in its administrative makeup, causing Kemsel to step down and take a coaching position at another school. Before he left, he recommended Washington as the Lions’ head coach.
“The very first thing is, it’s not about the basketball,” Washington said. “It can’t be. At a private Christian school, you’ve got to have kids and families that understand what the school is about. We’ve had really talented kids, some that stayed and some that couldn’t. You hate it (when you can’t reach a player). You can teach the game, but the game is also a playground for life.”
Washington would be thrown immediately into the fire. Kemsel had won a pair of Class AA state championships in 2011 and 2012, but now the school would be competing in the Alabama Independent School Association’s top classification.
“We had been an AA program and we were making the transition to AAA and a new coach coming in,” Washington recalled. “There were some adjustments, seeing what the big schools were about. I wanted our school mentioned in the same breath. One of the first things we did was upgrade the appearance, new chairs and a new scorers’ table. We were in the final four both years. Both years, we played Tuscaloosa (in the semifinals) and lost them both.”
Washington isn’t your typical candidate for coach of the year honors. First of all, a lot of his teaching methods were things he understood as a former basketball player. Now, as a high school coach, it would require a higher level of teaching.
“I believe in teaching the skills of the game at all positions, so if I’m going to be a teacher, I’ve got to learn,” Washington said. “So I’ve gone to coaching camps -- Coach K’s camp, Roy Williams camp. The camps I take my kids to, I actually stay and make notes. A great spot was Lipscomb University. Coach (Scott) Sanderson was there at the time. Don Meyer ran the camp and it was one of the best in the Southeast.
“The common denominator for me is a passion for the game. If they love the game and are willing to do the work that’s required, kids are easy to coach. There are different things that you have to demand and for me – with the military background – it’s discipline. Without structure and discipline, you’ve got chaos.”
But the rigors of daily practice and travel to games would be difficult for a volunteer with a fulltime job in another profession if he didn’t have the support of his superiors. He carefully constructs a basketball schedule that factors in days he can take personal time to coach but he’s never more than a phone call away.
“The support is really a blessing,” Washington said. “I’m fortunate that I have bosses who were prior Air Force (personnel) and one thing we learn in the Air Force is service before self. They’re real big on community involvement.
“I get phone calls a lot,” he added. “Managing that and making sure I still support the court is first and foremost.”
And while he is a volunteer coach, he maintains a strong connection to the Vaughn Road private school.
“I still consider myself fulltime because I’m there a lot,” Washington said. “They know when they need me, I’m there.”
And it would never work, he quickly adds, without the support of his wife Julie.
“I’ve got a coach’s wife,” he said. “It started out as a family thing because I was coaching my son but the last 18 years has been everybody else’s kids. I’ve got a great wife who’s very supportive. I couldn’t do any of this without her. She has my heart and she comes first. She allows me to do this and I’m grateful.”
He just completed his eighth year as a head coach with a resume that includes six trips to the AISA final four, four trips to the finals, three state championships and a 158-72 record. His style of coaching and his personality have earned praise from his fellow coaches.
“The first coaches’ camp in the association that Dale took me to, I saw how other coaches all knew him and talked to him,” Washington said. “I was thinking how neat that was, that they knew him and respected him. Earning the respect of my peers is big for me. I value their friendship, I value their knowledge. Now, I find myself being that coach that guys call.”
LAMP boys’ basketball coach Marcus Townsend looked around for a place to enroll his son, Marcus Jr. One visit with Washington at Evangel had him sold on the Lions’ basketball program.
“I met him over the summer,” Townsend said. “I just fell in love with his coaching style after seeing him the first year. It seemed he was all about the kids, versus winning, and he seemed to put the two together, building character and winning. That’s hard to beat.”
Despite Washington’s success – he’s won 79 games over the past three years – Evangel is a difficult place to maintain a strong basketball program. The school doesn’t have the tradition of a lot of schools and its other athletic programs (such as football) don’t funnel athletes into basketball.
“The school is just 25 years old, a church school and is in Montgomery with all the options that you have,” Washington said. “You’re not going to pry away kids at other private schools.”
There are also other limitations as well. The school is land-locked and is an extension of the church, so there was never a lot of land in which to expand and build athletic facilities.
“It’s the one thing I wish we had more,” Washington said. “We’re a church school and I don’t apologize for it, but most churches have gyms and they don’t have six baskets. It’s a church gym with two baskets and that hurts us in some ways. That hampers us a little bit but look at what we’ve done with two baskets.”
In the past, a number of players have drifted in from MPS programs where they didn’t see enough playing time, but many simply transfer to other MPS programs these days, cutting down on the number of new applicants at the school.
“When coach Kemsel was here, we had kids that came from Lanier, JD, Lee, and we still do,” Washington said. “We’ve had to go out and actually recruit and find some. But the kids that come to us don’t play (at their current school) or are not used like they think they should, so they’re looking for another opportunity, a better situation. Our program would not survive without kids that transfer in.”
He’s hoping a pair of post players will transfer to Evangel over the summer and complete his wish list for another state title run. The school’s recent acceptance of the Alabama Accountability Act – which permits students to receive financial help in transferring from a failing public school – helps, although boys’ basketball is currently trying to exist as the only male varsity sport at the school after football and baseball took a hiatus last year because of low enrollment.
Through all the challenges, Washington has thrived at a school where every other varsity athletic program either dissolved last season or posted a losing record. Other boys’ basketball programs thrive in the area but Washington usually finds one or two players unhappy with their situation who are willing to give Evangel a try and wind up contributing to the Lions’ success.
It’s an unlikely match but somehow, some way, Washington and Evangel Christian Academy continue to put a winning product on the court year after year.
“It all goes back to a love for kids and a love for the game,” Washington said. “It goes back further, when I was sick. Part of my testimony is basketball was my god. I played a lot, wasn’t home a lot, wasn’t a great dad like I needed to be. Sometimes, God gets your attention. When I was down and out, didn’t know if I was living or dying, I made a promise to God that if He can heal me, I’ll serve Him. My passion, my faith, is why I coach.
“You can’t go through life by yourself. You’re going to have to rely on others to help you and then you’re going to have to help others. Whatever talents that you have, use those to bless others.”