New Ogden Boys Basketball Coach: Trent Smith

joining us now on KWBG. We get a chance to talk to a new Ogden Boys basketball head coach, Trent Smith, joining us as just that was confirmed yesterday and had a chance to talk to Reed Smith, the athletic director over in Ogden. And then had a chance to kind of coordinate things with Trent and get a chance to just talk about the job and the openings. And we always love doing these welcome interviews, Trent, because it's always neat to talk to you guys about the process. And first off, I want to say congratulations to you. And I know you're super excited. And just tell us about how did things kind of work out? How did this opening come about? And then your thoughts from going from an assistant girls coach to, hey, I want a head boys coaching job. Yeah, absolutely. So I've been with the girls at Waukee Northwest for the past couple of seasons. And I was a head boys coach at Des Moines for a couple of years prior to COVID and ended up leaving just changing jobs and things like that. But you get the itch. Again, you're like, man, I want to go build something. I want to go out there and kind of have my own thing. And so being at Northwest, I got the opportunity to be picky. I didn't have to go anywhere. And I got to kind of be selective about what jobs I thought would be beneficial where I could go be successful and have the support and everything that you want as a head coach. And so Ogden stood out to me just having, being able to build in a community. And I watched a lot of game film even before I applied. And just the intensity and how the guys played and what was there, I thought there's a lot of upside to what's Ogden currently and moving forward. Well, that was kind of what drew me to that. I'll tell you what, too. Your work had a chance to work under a future Hall of Fame head coach at Waukee Northwest. What have you taken from him down there that you might bring to Ogden when, because let's be honest, we're always stealing here, coach. We're not reinventing the wheel. So what are some things you might take from him? You know, so, you know, obviously Sam, Sam and I have coached together. We coached three years together at East. Actually, I was his assistant before I became the head voice coach. And then when he got the job at Northwest, he called me up and we were able to run it back out there. But you know, there's so much. And I think the biggest thing to say, number one, I mean, he cares about the kids, but number two, his attention to detail. Everything is planned out, you know, whether it's practice plan, you know, itinerary for going out of town for a team camp, whatever. It's the attention to detail on and off the court that you take from him. And you know, it's just like anything in coaching. You take what you like, you change what you don't like, but there's so much about, you know, how I want to run a program and things like that, that I have taken and either used directly or tweaked from him. He's been an immense help to me. Well, I tell you, I told you this off air and we'll talk about it right now, but I said it's always the easiest to interview for your job when you already have a job, Trent, and you are obviously already well, you know, established at Wauke Northwest. So tell me a little bit about the process. What was the interview like? And it sounds like you had a pretty fun panel to talk to. Absolutely, yeah. So we did a screening with Reed on the week before and then I just interviewed this past Wednesday. So did a tour and then had a player panel and a coaches and parent panel. So everybody had their questions to ask me and if you haven't noticed, I talk a lot. So everything kind of ran a little along with me. But, you know, it was so good. You know, it's always interesting walking into a room full of players. You don't know, you know, you just don't know what you're gonna get, their receptivity to certain things. And, you know, when you already have the job, you get to go in and be genuine about what you're saying to people. You're not worried about getting the job. You want them to know what exactly is gonna happen if you're put in charge of this program. And so it was, we just had a lot of, you know, I had fun questions and I got the opportunity just to be open with everybody, to be honest. And everybody had such great things to say when they're referring to the school and the community. And it was one of those things that kind of just solidified in my mind that I was trying to come to the right place. Well, I'll tell you what, Trent. I've been doing these welcome to, you know, interviews for a long time. I'm not gonna tell you how long, cause I hate aging myself anymore than I need to. But you said something to me off air that I want to talk about on air because it was the first time I've ever got this. And I always ask my coaches, you know, what was the best question that you got during your interview? And then I always ask them to, hey, what was the hardest question? Trent, you had an interesting answer to me cause you said it might be the same question actually. Yeah, you know, I thought the best question was, what is, you know, this first year, what does a successful season look like? And, you know, up front, it doesn't sound that hard. But honestly, it's hard to know that without getting into it, you know? And so for me, that's a two-parter. Is number one, you want to go out and one of my goals is to at least get us back to 500, if not better. I think that's completely doable. And, you know, while I want to build a culture, that's the other part of it, is building the culture on the back end. I have a duty to the seniors. I got a duty to the older kids to make this season as good as possible year one. You know, I don't sit there and go, well, hey, we're going to, in three years, we're going to be really good. I have a duty to those kids, because they don't get to go run this back again. No, true. And so you come out and, as I said, you have the best season possible. Ideally, sit around 500. But on the back end of that, we have to establish the culture that makes us successful moving forward. And that's how we act. That's how we play. That's everything from the ground up. And if we've established that, that's going to be a heck of a season for us. Yeah, I thought that was a very interesting way to look. I don't think I've ever had a coach tell me that trend. So there's your first compliment. How about that? You get one of those. All right, so obviously, it's not your first head coaching job. It's not your first coaching job. So this next question, I'll be interested to hear what you say, but have you thought about what it's going to be like the first time you walk out of the gym, you shake hands with the opposing coach, you have that first referee conversation with your players? What's that going to be like for you, coach? Gosh, I got me excited to go here. You know, that's, I don't know, that's going to be the best, honestly. Like, it's so fun, that anticipation leading up to the game, knowing that you've prepared, knowing that, you know, your guys are ready to go and that we're in a go battle. I can't wait for it. Honestly, it's just like anything. You know, it's every game you have a little bit of nerves, regardless of whether you're playing the best team or the worst team, you know, but it's just that energy and hopefully that, you know, when people come out and watch us this year, that energy that I bring to the table, that the guys bring to the table is contagious and we fill the stands and we got a lot of gym. All right, final one from me, Trent. I'll make it just as difficult as I just did with the one before that. And that is what kind of a team do you think you're going to put on the court? What would you consider to be, because everybody has kind of a style. Some coaches like to get up and down. Some coaches want to, you know, dig in and play tough defense. And if they beat you, you know, 35, 34, as long as it's a win, they don't care. But tell me what kind of a style do you think your team will have coming up this winter? You know, ideally I love to get up and down. I love for intense defense to create offensive opportunities. You know, I'm not, I don't want to just go out there and jack up shots. I want us to play hard defense, full court pressing, things like that, where we're creating turnovers and creating extra opportunities for our offense. Now, that's how I like to play. If we get into it and that's not what looks good, then we may have to adjust. You know, there's no point in sticking a square peg into a round hole. You know, you adjust and you build to whatever that program, the whatever the program is that you want it to look like. But you know, for me, I want it to be exciting. I want to go out there and score. I want to go out there and press. I want a brand of basketball that night in the night out. People are excited to come watch. We're diving on the floor. We're winning the 50-50 balls. And, you know, we're making, we're making life real hard for the other team, Winterloops. Trent, I'm looking forward to it too. Now you got me excited for hoops. I guess I got the NBA and WNBA season that's coming up. But now I'm all excited for hoops too, but gosh darn it. Anyway, congratulations again though, Trent. We're really looking forward to working with you, obviously coming up this winter. I know summer is going to be real busy. And as always, if you ever need anything, you know, drop me a text or whatever, and we'll definitely help you out as much as we can. But just first off, congratulations. And second, welcome to Ogden. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You bet. That's new Ogden Boys basketball head coach, Trent Smith joining us on KWBG.