Basketball coaching lifer about to start new next chapter
Retired Notre Dame coach taking over Brock women’s program on interim basis
Basketball coaching lifer Mike Rao will be coaching a women’s team for the first time in his life.
After closing out last season as an assistant coach on the Brock University women’s basketball team, the 59-year-old retired high school teacher from Welland is returning to the sidelines, this time as interim head coach.
Rao, who was passed over for the men’s job after Charles Kissi took a leave of absence, was reconsidering his decision not to assist incoming men’s interim head coach Madhav Trivedi on the bench when opportunity knocked.
Rao just happened to be walking past the door when it did.
“I wasn’t their first pick, obviously,” he said. “I don’t know what happened, I think I was in the right place at the right time.
“I think the job fell on me, and I think it found me, to tell you the truth.”
Rao, who spent two seasons as an assistant on Kissi’s staff, knew he was under consideration to take over the men’s team.
“There wasn’t an application process,” he said. “There were some candidates. Was I one of those? Yes.
“I know I was in the mix for that, but I don’t know how deep, I wasn’t involved in that kind of decision-making.”
However, Rao believes the decision-makers made the right choice when they picked Trivedi, a five-year assistant at McGill University, for the top job.
“They got the right guy,” Rao said. “He’s a good guy, he’s a good coach, a very good coach.”
Brock wanted Rao to remain as an assistant on the men’s team’s men, but he declined at first because he thought Trivedi wanted to move forward with his own staff.
“I think he wanted to do the team on his own, I don’t think he wanted Charles’ guy there.”
Rao was starting to reconsidered after Trivedi asked him to stay on.
“I think ultimately I would have, but I don’t know to what degree.”
It was at this point in his offseason that he was offered the chance to take over a women’s team that went 8-16 and missed the playoffs under Ashley MacSporran.
“I didn’t know but when it was offered to me, I think my instincts kicked in and I still think I got a little bit left in the tank,” Rao said.
“Yeah, I wanted to try it.” Brock athletic director Neil Lumsden said Rao will fit in perfectly.
“Mike brings great depth and experience as head coach of the women’s program,” Lumsden
“They say ‘women’s coach,’ I just say ‘basketball coach. ’I don’t see a difference, and I’m kind of treating it that way.” MIKE RAO Brock women’s basketball interim head coach
said. “His familiarity with both of Brock’s basketball programs and his coaching experience and basketball acumen make him a perfect choice to lead these highly motivated student athletes.”
Though he coached girls soccer at the beginning and toward the end of a 36-year teaching career at Notre Dame, this will be Rao’s first time coaching female players in basketball.
“They say ‘women’s coach,’ I just say ‘basketball coach,’” he said. “I don’t see a difference, and I’m kind of treating it that way.
“My expectations with the girls are much as the same as with the guys, and that’s the way I approached it with soccer.”
Now that the coaching life is about the start the next chapter in his life, Rao isn’t likely to change his coaching style nor his personality after all these years.
“My demeanour is my demeanour, I couldn’t change much,” he said. “I always say, ‘There are 14 or 20 of you, and there’s me. So it’s much better if you get to know me, than me get to know you because I can’t know 20 people.’
“But it’s easy for them to get to know me, so if I’m the same person they’ll figure it out.”
Working hard and working efficiently were hallmarks of Rao’s boys basketball teams in his 36 years coaching at Notre Dame.
“I want to change their thinking, I want to change their effort, I want to change their compete level,” he said. “If I can do that, regardless of who we have on the court, we’re going to be better. “Those are my goals.” He suggested such things as the mental approach to the game, hard work and a willingness to compete create teams whose totals are much greater than the individual pieces combined.
“Notice none of them are gender-specific, so what’s the difference to me if you’re a boy or a girl,” Rao said. “That’s it, in a nutshell.
I don’t see it gender-specific, I see it as basketball.”
The Eastdale Secondary School graduate places a premium on basketball IQ.
“I like a cerebral player, I want a thinking basketball player with all those ingredients.”
He added Notre Dame enjoyed many successful seasons “just following that formula.”
“That was it. We just put in another piece, year in and year out, and the wheels just kept rolling and rolling.
“Regardless of whether you’re the best player or the worst player, I want those things from everyone.”
He said when the pieces are interchangeable, players with fewer skills in some aspects of the game can make it up from with other attributes at other ends of the court.
“There are so many things you can do to contribute,” Rao said. “Find one that keeps you on the court and you’re going to have a healthy career.”
Brock tips off the 2018-19 season Friday, Sept. 7, with tryouts from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m., at Bob Davis Gymnasium.
The Badgers open the regular season hosting Laurier Friday, Oct. 26, and Guelph the following night.