Owens hopes his hoops clinic makes difference
When it comes to role models for young, talented athletes in Milwaukee, Freddie Owens is a good one to follow.
Back in 1999, the Milwaukee Washington alum was the first boys basketball player from the City Conference in eight years to sign with Wisconsin. He starred on and off the court, helping the Badgers win three Big Ten titles — two regular season and one tournament — and getting his bachelor’s degree in life science and communications.
He parlayed that experience into one year of professional ball in Europe and for the last decade — yes, it has been a decade — has been a college assistant
coach at various stops around the country and at various levels of the game. For the past two years, he has been an assistant coach at Division I Holy Cross in Worchester, Mass.
Owens knows firsthand how far the game can take you.
“There is a ton of talent in the city and some kids get lucky, like myself, and they have the right people and the right support system around them to help guide them through it and then on the other end, some kids don’t,“he said. “They have a lot of talent and they have no direction, and they don’t know how to go about getting opportunities for themselves.”
It is those kids who fall through the cracks who were the inspiration for the Milwaukee Coaches Association, a Facebook group Owens started earlier this year. Those kids also are at the heart of the inaugural coaches clinic Owens has organized and has scheduled for June 3 at Thrive3 (Mike Lee Basketball) on 5510 W. Bluemound Rd.
As a college coach who can have only limited contact with high school players, Owens is trying to reach the next-best thing.
“I know we have the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association,” he thought, “but what if I started something that starts in the inner city … what if I started something back home that could help educate the coaches on how to be better coaches so that in return they can be better mentors for the student-athletes.”
The clinic’s roster of speakers has a local flavor. UW-Milwaukee women’s coach Kyle Rechlicz, former Wisconsin and Racine St. Catherine’s product Sharif Chambliss (Wright State men), Milwaukee Marshall graduate Latrell Fleming (IUPUI women) and Milwaukee King graduate Jimmie Foster (Bradley men) are among the speakers.
The headliner is Owens’ former boss at Oregon State, Craig Robinson, who will speak about building a winning a culture and then have a 30minute Q&A session.
There also will be sessions on health and wellness, NCAA eligibility requirements and compliance.
“I wanted to bring a different feel to (the clinic) where you cover a lot more things outside of basketball,” Owens said. “Nobody is re-inventing the wheel on the basketball side from a Xs and Os standpoint and skill development. It’s all the other things that factor into being a coach.
“We’ve all got to work together. If we’ve got the AAU coach and the high school coach on the same page, just think about how many opportunities and how much better off the student-athlete will be if we get to that point.
“You can’t have the studentathlete choosing between which one is more important because they’re both important and they need both.”
Owens had that balance and it led him on a journey that took him from Milwaukee Washington High School to the Big Ten for college to Latvia for a year in the pros and then took him to stints at jobs in Colorado, Iowa, Montana, Oregon, Utah and lastly Massachusetts. He also got his master’s degree at Iowa State.
He used his gift as a basketball player to springboard him into a productive life after his playing days were done.
Owens says he was one of the lucky ones. Hopefully, there are a lot more lucky ones in the future.
“I think our city is headed in the right direction,” he said. “From a basketball standpoint and a coaches standpoint, I want us to start taking more ownership in helping these kids outside of just the basketball part of things. We’ve got to use this as a tool to help these kids in life.”
For more information, go to mcaclinic.squarespace.com. Registration is required and the early sign-up closes May 27. All coaches - high school and AAU/club are invited to attend.
Mark Stewart can be reached on Twitter at MarkStewartMJS or send an email to mstewart@journalsentinel.com.