Hi everybody, I'm Scotty
games this week on be better.
I was so lucky to sit down and chat with
the true legend Regis Jesuit head coach
Ken Shaw has been coaching boys basketball
in Colorado for the last 47 years.
He's got 777 lucky total wins.
He's 15 state titles as a coach,
1/2 as a player at Marino High and oh,
by the way, he's a chasa Hall of Famer.
None of those accolades
compared to his character,
professionalism and true love for the game.
It was a humbling experience to hear
from coach and hear him reflect
on his life and career and share
some coaching philosophies too.
Ken Shaw is absolutely nothing
but class and we hope you
enjoy. Coach Machine in an interview.
About 11 years ago or so mentioned
that you were just a coaches
dream of a player you always
love going in putting up shots.
You mentioned that you're still
putting up shots here at Regis Jesuit.
Where did that love for
basketball come from for you?
You know when I trace it back Scotty
I the first time I saw the ball
swished through the net I was hooked.
For some reason it just connected with
me and when you grow up in small town
nowhere and there's not much else to do
and basketball is one of those great
things that you can do by yourself.
I just had a magical attraction to me.
How special hey.
So from 1981 your first state
championship at Yuma High School,
undefeated season and then you win
in 1984 with Sterling High School.
But then you go all the way to 2009 until
you three peat here at Regis Jesuit.
I'm wondering from 84 to 2009
where you had great seasons but
couldn't collect state championship.
How were you able to keep pushing
forward and coaching for that long
of time when maybe sometimes you
guys wouldn't win the big game
you were hoping to win at the
beginning of the season?
You know I had some.
I had some very good teams along those ways.
We just weren't quite able to get it done,
but I never based my success on
winning state championships I think.
In this business where you're defined
somewhat by your by your record,
or by winning, everybody's path is different.
I mean, everybody wants to compare somebody,
whether it's pro college or high school.
Somebody with somebody else.
Everybody's path is different in this thing,
and the kids you have the places you've been,
and the things you've done.
You know,
I really think in coaching Scotty that.
The two things that determine great success,
number one or preparation and anybody
can prepare your kids coaching well.
And the second thing is opportunity.
Sometimes the opportunity is just not there.
I mean you might have
good kids that work hard,
but they might not just have the
talent to be state champions, I mean.
The greatest single factor in
success in coaching is good players.
And obviously we're.
We have the duty of to try to
develop them the best we can,
but everybody has a ceiling and high
school basketball is about taking
the kids that walk in the door.
The kids you have and try to mold them
into good players and obviously the.
Side bars of that is good
people things that they can take
with them the rest of their
lives. In 47 years of coaching you just
mentioned right what your dream is is
to mold athletes to be better people
from freshman year to senior year.
And I'm guessing throughout
their lives as well.
From let's just say 81 your
first state championship 2 now.
How is your coaching philosophy
change through the years?
The basis of it has stayed the same.
There's, you know.
Experience is a good teacher,
but it's not the only teacher.
And times have changed.
Kids have changed.
Kids have changed with the Times,
and that's not good or bad.
We've probably all changed a little
bit with as things go on an.
I think as a coach you kind of
just grow with the times and
the kids that the biggest thing
is if you love the game and.
I think I'll know when it's
probably time for me to get out
that I won't enjoy the grunt work.
The offseason work, the practices, the time.
In the summer I still enjoy that.
I still enjoy being in the gym
with my guys and working with them
and developing that camaraderie
and that chemistry that it takes
to become a good a good team.
Why do you enjoy it so much?
Well, I love the game number one.
I've been blessed with very good kids.
Along the way, and.
I don't know, basketball is just
always had a special attraction to me.
I think for me when I found something
in my life that every day you get
up and you look forward to doing.
What you like to do?
That's that's been the
biggest attraction to me. It's
pretty spectacular.
You've coached so many different
athletes throughout the years.
What have they taught you?
You know, I think kids in general
teach you great lessons and they keep
you young when you're around 'em, but.
One of the great things I've
learned in coaching that was hard,
very hard for me and for at 1st
and I still have to remind myself.
The Golden rule doesn't really apply,
and you know that sounds like
somebody might say, whoa,
that's that's pretty drastic.
In other words,
treating people how you'd want to be treated,
I learned pretty early in my.
Career that the kids I'm coaching
weren't like me as far as what the game
meant to me and what I put into it.
And looking at it more through
their eyes than my eyes, Ann.
Not putting them in my position and say,
well, why don't they love the
game as much as I do well?
They think you know when they
play win or lose,
the sun is going to come up next day
and we're going to go on with life,
whereas sometimes I wasn't so sure
and you have to get that perspective.
And I probably have that perspective
now more than I ever have.
Probably in the last 10 or 15
years of my coaching career.
I've understood that the goals I
have each year are not winning
and losing things that I control
about what I put into the game and.
You know?
Put put in the best I can and
always try to do it the right way.
When you look back on remembering
your coaching career and all the
different schools you've been at,
what comes to mind for you.
Lot of the kids.
A lot of the kids I've had.
Excuse me, have been very special.
And I keep in touch with a
lot of 'em even to this day.
Kids that I've had.
4550 years ago on my teams and.
It wasn't just a game. It was it was
more than that. It was your
life. It was an at that point in their lives.
It was pretty special too.
I think, but you know that they've moved
on and they they do different things.
And I I'm kind of doing the same thing,
but that's alright.
I like I said I still stay in touch with
some of those guys and I I think it.
That tells you how much
meaning it had to them. To
have the opportunity to still
keep in touch with those guys,
how much does that mean to you?
You know what? That's the greatest.
Awards and gifts. I get in this game is to.
Hear from them. Get a note from them,
something about their lives and
coachee were still following your team.
Well, they they have no connection.
A lot of 'em that didn't go to Regis
Jesuit that were at my previous stops.
Along the way.
They have no connection to that,
but to still follow Mycareer
and what I'm doing.
That's pretty special really
is coach. I'm wondering in your life, right?
You coach these guys for 47 years
now I can go on and on about your
now 777 wins which is very lucky.
Sounds it's a fantastic number to
be at right now. But how about you?
Personally, what is it when you
look back and even right now?
How do you like to approach
living your own life?
You know what I mean? Obviously
most people would say well,
why is he still doing this, I mean,
but why did he retire and go play?
Some golf or something?
I really don't have any hobbies.
I have a very supportive wife that.
She doesn't always understand
my my addiction to basketball,
but she puts up with it. Anne. It's.
It's just part of who I am I guess,
and what I love to do an. Um?
I don't have any plans to.
To retire?
I mean, unless and the good Lord
willing that I'm in good health and
I'm able to continue to do this.
I I'm going to.
I'm going to do it,
but I mean the realization.
I know that I'm closer to the
end than I am the beginning,
that's for sure, but.
I I still enjoy it and.
As long as I can connect with
kids now, there might be.
Somebody taps me on the shoulder and says
a coach it's it's not working anymore.
It's time to. Time to stay home then.
You know, obviously,
that that time will come,
hopefully I'll be wise
enough to know that and.
Will be able to move on,
but for right now I I still enjoy it.
I hope I'm still able to have
an impact with the kids that I
coach away from wins championships scores.
All that in your coaching career in
your life. What are you most proud of?
You know? My two goals that I go into
every year with I have two goals.
To put my heart and soul into it,
do it the best I can for the kids that I
coach and to try to do it the right way.
Those are my goals and it's not.
To. If you have a season where it's
not great or what did you meet?
Your goals win so many games
that's not part of my goal.
I just try to do those things and the
reason those are so important to me is
is because I totally control those.
It it doesn't make any difference on with
the call goes your way goes against you.
Young man might get hurt.
Might not be able to play or
whatever and so could have won
a couple more games or whatever.
Those are things I control an I try to
do those things every day in practice
every day in the game and try to
conduct myself in the right way and
just try to try to do it the right
way for the young men that I'm coaching.
That's spectacular,
it really is spectacular.
I love that if there is.
A quote, a type of philosophy
or just a mindset that you like
to take to your days each day.
What do you think it would be? Well,
our program slogan, which I stole from
Pat Riley back in the mid 80s when he
was coaching the Los Angeles Lakers and
I worked a couple of his summer camps.
And I found him saying this,
your attitude and hard work
are your only guarantees.
And from that time when I heard that,
I've always adopted that wear,
whatever schools I've coached At's are.
Total program saying is your attitude
and hard work are your only guarantees,
and again it goes back to.
Those are things you always control.
It's not anything on the outside.
It's those things.
If you have a great attitude and you
work hard at something, you control that.
I think those are probably the two most
important things in life, and I hope that.
The young men that I coach along the way.
They look back on those.
Maybe you're able to even impart those
with their their kids when they get
older and have a family that hey,
those are things you you control.
Not just in basketball,
but in academics or basically
anything else you do.
And if you have those two
things on your side,
there's a good chance
you're pretty successful.
Regardless of what the win loss record says,
or whatever you're trying to achieve.
Put your heart and soul into it.
They do it the right way and just
control what you can control. Yep,
thank you so much for that. I'm really
appreciate it. Thanks Scotty.
I appreciate you having me Sir.