Jerry Schuplinski, Bill Berry, Chris Dailey and Jerry Norman. Four names slightly less recognizable than those they reported to Bill Belichick, Phil Jackson, Geno Auriemma and John Wooden. The first four names listed above were assistant coaches who played an instrumental role in the success of the four head coaches.

Here at BSM, while the notoriety of the sports teams is on a far less scale than say the New England Patriots, the value assistant coaches bring is just as important.

Girls’ basketball assistant coach Mark Snell, who has been a coach at BSM for 27 years, knows his role very well. “Scouting opponents, getting practice ready and helping the team get prepared for the next game, you need to keep a good line of communication open with the head coach to help the program in any way possible,” Snell said.

While Snell has been with BSM for nearly three decades, John DeLozier is in his first year as an assistant coach with the wrestling team, but their roles are similar. “I need to be available to do whatever the head coach and the students need,” DeLozier said. “I make sure the kids are doing moves correctly or getting them a different practice partner,” DeLozier said.

The head coach is unquestionably the individual where the spotlight shines the brightest, but the work assistant coaches to help make the head coach’s job easier. Seborn Yancy, in his second season at BSM with the boys’ basketball team, knows it’s important for an assistant to help take away some of the pressures on a head coach. “They need our eyes, but not our second-guessing,” Yancy said.

Yancy’s sentiment about not second-guessing is echoed by John Porisch, in his 14th season at BSM and is the assistant girls track and field coach. “We carry out the philosophy of the head coach,” he said of assistants. “Everyone needs to be on the same page and working for the same cause,” Porisch said.

The Red Knights most likely won’t be on ESPN anytime soon, but these coaches have their own reasons for devoting so much of themselves to the athletes here. “We’ve got great kids here, and it’s fun seeing them grow as an athlete and person,” Porisch said.

“Being around these student-athletes every day keeps me motivated to come to practice every day,” Porisch said.

Assistant coaches wear many hats: motivator, teacher, communicator, sounding board, scout, and statistician. One thing they all have in common is they are an integral part of the success of the growth and development of the student-athletes at BSM.