By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Brownsville First Baptist coach Terry Roberts preaches defense.
In more than 30 years of coaching, the one thing that seems completely consistent with Roberts is his belief in defense, especially when he was a player.
“That’s the way it was for me when I played. I think it just carried over (to coaching),” he said. “I always felt if I could prevent the other team from scoring, we increased our chances to win.
His philosophy isn’t new, but the approach is different.
“I think kids will naturally pick up a ball and shoot and practice their shooting. But they won’t naturally practice their defense,” Roberts said. “They won’t naturally work on defending the basketball. We really work hard on our defense. When we get ready for teams we focus on how to stop them. Our offense starts from our defense.”
Now Roberts has brought his team within two victories of a TAPPS Class 1A state championship. But it took some time to build the program.
Roberts, also the school’s superintendent, came to First Baptist eight years ago. He began coaching the girls team one year later to have the opportunity to coach his daughters, first Hannah and now Elisabeth.
“Our girls program was very weak at first. Everyone had a defeated mentality,” Roberts said. “They were used to losing, and my first goal was get them out of that mindset.”
As Roberts helped establish the fundamentals of the game, the teams began winning, even when they were told they wouldn’t when they jumped up to Class 2A for a two-year period and played more competitive teams from San Antonio.
As the players believed in his system, they have started to see the rewards.
“My first goal was to change the culture,” Roberts said. “We’re not here to lose, we’re here to win. Now they expect to win.”
Roberts and his Crusaders squads have gone 49-6 during the past two seasons.
But Roberts admits he couldn’t do it alone. He relies on assistant coach Marty Bogart to help guide the team.
With the title of superintendent, Roberts gets pulled away from the team for meetings and other things as an administrator of the school. That’s when Bogart fills the gap, running practices and conditioning until Roberts can get to practice some days.
“I couldn’t do it without him,” Roberts said. “We wouldn’t be where we are without him. I guess we’re kind of like co-coaches.”
Roberts certainly has built a culture of winning and doing it with the basics.
“I’ve told the team, ‘If you keep doing these fundamental things, we’ll win,’” he said. “Our girls do those things. We generally always outrebound our opponents, even if they are taller than we are. We’ve been doing the same things we’ve been doing for the last four years.”
And one of those same things is defense.
“The girls are tenacious, relentless on defense,” Roberts said. “We work harder on defense than anything else.
“Our fortè is our defense. I coach defense. We believe that defense wins championships.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.