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Northview names Nevill its next boys basketball head coach
Ever since former Northview boys basketball head coach Michael Byrum turned in his resignation letter last month, the talk of the town has been who would be the person to take over the program as it moves into the future.
After sifting through numerous applications and then whittling that down to a handful of in-person interviews, the Northview interviewing panel collectively came to an agreement on who that would be. And on Thursday night, after a 36-day process, the Clay Community School Board unanimously voted to approve Shawn Nevill as the next Northview boys basketball head coach.
Nevill, who expressed his excitement for the opportunity to lead the Knights several times and will be coming to Brazil along with his wife Megan and three children Leah, 13, Ryder, 10, and Kora, 5, led South Vermillion to a 59-60 record during the 2018-2022 seasons. He takes over a Northview team that finished with a record of 9-16 last winter.
At the conclusion of Thursday’s Clay Community School Board meeting, Nevill participated in Q&A with the Brazil Times. He spoke about his desire to return to the coaching business, what attracted him to the Northview job, the vision he has for the program and what the near future will look like as the school year concludes and summer break begins.
It was one year ago – almost exactly one year to the day, really – that you stepped down from your position as head coach at South Vermillion. What made you want to get back into the coaching business so quickly?
I found out pretty quickly after I stopped that I still had that coaching bug. I missed the every day hanging out with the kids and the team – and I had some really good kids over there at South Vermillion. I could still watch them play games, but that everyday at practice and being around them, it got tough sometimes. I just kind of decided when this opened that I was going to take a shot. Luckily, it worked out and I’m extremely excited. But it was that every day interaction that I didn’t get with the kids was that drove me back.
What attracted you to the Northview job?
I hear such great things all of the time about the facilities and the administration and the principal. Mr. [Chris] Mauk hired me for my first teaching job, so he was obviously a big component of that and getting to work with him again. In all honesty, playing against Northview for a few years, it seemed like a first-class place. When it came open, I said, ‘Hey, put your name in and see what happens.’
What are the core values or the foundational pills you want your program to have?
The first thing is character. It’s probably a word that I use every day in practice. I like the saying, ‘It’s what you do when no one’s watching.’ We want to make sure we’re good role models and leaders of the school and student-athletes first. After that, the basketball aspect of it will take care of itself.
With this being your second head coaching job, what are some things you learned during your first time? What are some things you would like to do differently this time?
Obviously, I felt like I was a much better coach in Year 5 than I was in Year 1 at South Vermillion. I fully anticipate Year 6 of coaching to be even better. Having a plan will help. First at South Vermillion, everything was new. It was like, ‘Ok. How do I do this? What do I do here?’ I think I just have a little bit better of a sense on how to run things. I can concentrate on the basketball stuff because the administrative stuff, I feel like I have a little bit better of a handle on. So, maybe just the day-to-day stuff and being able to concentrate on what I like to do, which is coaching basketball.
What do you know about the team you’re inheriting?
Taking a year off, I feel like people talk about this player and that player and I haven’t really watched them too much. I think I watched them one game on Huddle. I know they had a pretty good freshmen class with Brayden [Goff] and [Avery] Perry. Watching them play – in the one game I did on Huddle – it looked like they had a pretty promising future. I did watch a lot of middle school games, so seeing those middle school kids – and really this is more than just the basketball talent – but seeing the types of kids that I saw when I went and saw North Clay play, they were standup people and good basketball role models.
Most – if not all – of your assistants at South Vermillion stayed on the new staff there after you stepped down last spring. Do you have an idea of how you’re going to fill out your coaching staff at Northview? What’s that process look like?
I couldn’t really talk too much about that with people before tonight, obviously, but we’re going to sit down and talk with everybody and kind of figure out who wants to be back and be a part of this. I had a really good staff over at South Vermillion and still talk to them today because, largely, you’re with them more than your family five months out of the year. We’re looking for people that you like and want to be around. Hopefully, I’ll get to have those conversations really soon.
There’s only a couple more weeks left of the school year, so what does the next few weeks/months look like for you as you get settled in here in Brazil? Do you plan on meeting with the team before school gets out for the summer?
I’m hopeful to meet with the guys [on Friday] and give them a schedule and lay down some expectations and go over some summer stuff. We have a couple of activities that I’m going to do with them to get to know them a little bit. I have a questionnaire and some stuff like that. We’ll be full-go the day after Memorial Day. Hopefully, it’ll be a busy June. We’re going to be a little bit behind when it comes to shootouts and stuff like that. Hopefully, we’ll try to get into a few. But definitely we’re going to install our system. We may err on the side of practicing instead of playing in too many games just to make sure we get some of that stuff in. We’ll definitely have a busy June for sure.
What’s the vision you have for the program?
In my interview, I talked about – and I put it in a lot of my slides and in my booklet – but we’re going to have a ‘gritty not pretty mindset.’ I told myself, if I did go into coaching again, I wanted the teams to have a grit to them that can overcome obstacles that we’re going to face. When I was thinking about interviewing, that’s what kept coming to me. I want to have the grit over that flash, over anything like that. We want to outwork teams. We’re going to have to be able to do that.
If you could share any message with the community members, what would that be?
I would just say that I’m excited and can’t wait to get started. I’m going to work hard for you. You’re going to be proud of the product that’s on the floor.