AMU Men's Basketball Coach Prepares for New Season

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Published on Wednesday, 01 July 2009 00:52

AMU men's basketball coach Jamon Copeland has a lot on his plate these days. He's had recruits to sign for the new season -- 15 of them so far. He's  getting the team ready to play, coached basketball camp for the town's boys and girls, and his wife, Jessica, is expecting the couple's first child.

"Some days I wonder, how in the world am I going to do this?" he told a meeting of the Ave Maria Founders Club that filled The Bean coffee house (right) Tuesday night.

Coach Copeland, who joined AMU earlier this year after three seasons as an assistant coach at Texas State, is looking forward to the new season, but says his job is much more than just coaching a basketball team.

"The point of my job is ministry, to lead young men to become better men." In some cases, he said, "I might be the only father for them.”

The Gyrenes finished with a respectable 6-7 record last season despite a rocky start when the team's first coach was fired for inappropriate conduct.  This season, the team will play in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Sun Conference for the first time, and Coach Copeland is already preparing some of the players on campus, getting them up for workouts at 5:30 a.m.

Introducing the coach Tuesday night, AMU Athletics Director Brian Scanlan said the school was looking for someone who could be a role model and lead the students by example.

The coach, a graduate of Franciscan University at Steubenville, says he expects the team to work as hard as he does. "I tell the team, work as hard as you can," he said. "Hardships in practice are going to teach the players to handle hardships in real life."

"Practice should be the tough part; games the easy part."

Coach Copeland says he expects the team to practice from 6 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. each morning, and in additition to athletics, the players will also be required to spend significant time in the library with their academic studies.

 The Gyrenes' first game of the coming season will be Oct 31.

(reporting and photos for this story by Peter Spellman)