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Cloverdale's Pat Rady resigns, Rady Jr. takes head position
CLOVERDALE -- Traveling for an hour up Interstate 70 for a basketball game is not how most people make a living.
However, for one 70-year-old basketball coach, no ride could've been more appropriate, as he made the trek from Terre Haute to Cloverdale for every game and practice last season to coach the players he loved.
Pat Rady, Cloverdale's head boys' basketball coach for the past 11 seasons has resigned. The announcement was made Monday at the regularly scheduled Cloverdale School Board meeting.
His son, Coach Patrick Rady Jr., was also announced as the new head boys' basketball coach.
"I just felt it was time," the elder Rady said. "There was no specific reason and no record or anything that I was waiting for. I almost didn't come back for last year but I talked to everybody and decided to go another year."
Rady has coached basketball for 51 seasons and hold the second-most wins of any Indiana high school coach with a record of 761 wins.
He began his coaching career in the 1964-65 season at Bainbridge High School. In his second year he coached the Bainbridge Pointers basketball team to a Regional Championship and a Semi-State game at Lambert Fieldhouse.
"I'm grateful to J.J. (Wade) for allowing me to coach until I was 70," Rady said. "At times like this I can reflect on the past. I don't usually. I started playing in the fifth grade. When I coached at Bainbridge, I thought that was it. I was a varsity coach in Indiana. I thought I had made it. That was the top I thought."
Since that fateful ride, Rady has racked up 20 sectional championships, eight regional championships in four different decades, four final eight appearances in three different semi-states with one final four appearance.
Rady has been inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame and been awarded the 2013-14 boys' basketball National Coach of the Year by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Coaches Association among many other awards.
"In a small way I hope I've given something back to the game of basketball," Rady said. "I know I'll never repay what it did for me. I've had so many players and I hope I taught them as much as they taught me. Whether it was a leading scorer or someone who didn't play that much I loved being around all of them."
Patrick Rady Jr. says that when following a coach like his father, a lot of the fundamental elements of a winning program are already in place.
"One of the fortunate things that I have with Coach Rady having a program is that there are a lot of things that you don't have to go in there and change," Patrick Rady Jr. said. "Our teams were organized. We were always ready to play. The players were respectful of the game. They respected the school and the tradition. If you don't have that going in it can be very difficult. When you are following Coach Rady everything's always been about the team and the community. It helps that we don't have to change that culture."
Rady Jr. believes he has the understanding of the players in the Clover program, having coached under Pat Rady and says that taking the head-coaching job was an easy decision.
"I think the ability to relate to the players," Rady Jr. said. "I'm a business teacher. You can't have discipline without developing a relationship. I've been able to build a great relationship with the players over the past seven years here, seeing them come up from the elementary school through high school."
Rady Jr. also said that as an assistant he was able to be involved in more decisions about the teams and that helped prepare him for his second head-coaching venture.
"The great thing about Coach Rady is, he's the kind of leader that you'll get out what you put in while coaching under him," Rady Jr. said. "He allows you to do a lot of things if you are willing to put in the work. I've been fortunate enough to coach with him at Terre Haute South for nine years and then coach seven here at Cloverdale. As far as being seasoned and ready, he lets his assistant coaches coach and make suggestions so you are ready to take that step. He said he always wanted his assistant coaches to have dreams and aspire to be head coaches."
Pat Rady will tell anyone that his son has a great passion and knowledge of the game and said that he has learned so much from Rady Jr. and other coaches that he has been able to talk to.
"It's kind of how coach raised me," Rady Jr. said. "You have to be your own coach. You take a little bit from me. You take a little from other coaches that you've been around and watched. Then you develop your own philosophy."
As the head coach for Southwestern Hanover, Rady Jr. took a struggling basketball program and helped lead it in two sectional finals and a .500 record which the Rebels haven't seen since 2002.
"You'll see a lot of similarities in the style of ball that we play," he continued. "One of the things that Coach (Rady) was good at is to adjust your system around the players that you have. It will be a little different of a style on the offensive end because we are not going to have the height that we had. We'll spread out the floor a little bit and use our strength on the perimeter."
Rady Jr. will be leading a talented group of underclassmen including junior Cooper Neese and sophomore Jalen Moore on a Clover team that lost five talented seniors.
The new head coach will be looking to continue the tradition of great basketball at Cloverdale, its latest endeavor, a regional berth after a sectional championship last season.
"The fact that this is such a great basketball community," Rady Jr. said. "I'm very humbled just to be a part of the long tradition that they've had at Cloverdale. I love being around our players. They are committed to being the best that they can be. I just love coaching at Cloverdale."
Rady Jr. said he will be looking to help make his Clovers not just better athletes but better individuals, which is one of the main values of the 51-year Hall-of-Fame coach.
"He uses a quote, 'Have character don't be one'," Rady Jr. said. "The importance of these young men that we have influence on, leading them, stressing the importance for them to be great workers, great husbands, great fathers and someone that the community can count on to be productive in society is far more important than any success you'll get on the basketball court. Success on the court is a by-product of high character."
Pat Rady said he will hopefully be spending his time at different practices and getting the chance to talk with different coaches.
"It's just been very rewarding," Rady said. "I've been blessed to have never missed a game. Faith and family are the key to longevity. I've been fortunate because of the people I've worked with, not just the players but coaches and Margaret. She understands and she's right there. Whether it's a big win or a tough loss she's there."
Rady said of course he will miss coaching but he's been lucky to have enjoyed every second of it.
"I hope that some will say I was good to the game," Rady said. "It's not the x's and o's but the Jims and Joes, and I've had a lot of them. I enjoyed being around them and I appreciated them all even the bus trips. I enjoyed everything. I've had a great ride."