BJ Ivey continuing legacy started by his father as director of the Suncoast Youth Basketball club

SARASOTA - BJ Ivey's roundball epiphany unfolded like this.

The boys head basketball coach at Sarasota High School was pulling double hoop duty as director of Suncoast Youth Basketball, founded by his father, Bill, in 1991.

The playoff game at Arlington Park BJ watched resembled little the basketball he knew, either as head coach at Riverview High, as head coach of Nike Team Florida and Adidas Team Florida, or as director of basketball operations at Florida Gulf Coast University.

"It was a different level of basketball than what I was used to," Ivey said. Indeed, before Suncoast, many of the participants, age 5 to 17, had never played.

But as Ivey watched a close game, moving into its final moments, a player on the team in front blocked a shot from an opponent, then taunted him. The officials whistled a technical foul, and given a choice from the players on the floor to send to the foul line, the coach of the team in the lead picked a girl who hadn't scored all season.

Stepping to the line, she made both free throws. The fans in attendance erupted in cheers, and the smile worn by the girl matched the moment. It stayed with Ivey.

More: Sarasota names BJ Ivey new boys basketball coach

"After the game," he said, "I remember calling my dad and saying, 'I get it. I get it now.'''

Bill Ivey never intended Suncoast Youth Basketball to be about wins and losses. It was always about the kids. "You're fortunate in life in being able to do what you like to do," the 81-year-old Ivey said. "I love basketball and I love working with kids and that's the bottom line. I went to pastor Bill at First (Sarasota) in 1991, and the rest is history."

Bill Ivey had the necessary resume to make it work. He coached in high school and college before holding his own nationwide football and basketball coaching clinics which attracted the likes of Dean Smith, Jim Boeheim, Steve Spurrier Lou Holtz and Larry Brown, among the 75 coaches who attended. On one such clinic, held in the Grand Tetons/Yellowstone in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Ivey received a key to the city for the clinic's financial impact.

Ivey also served for seven years as the director of Prince Presents The World of Coaching. In his role, Ivey held coaching clinics across the country. He's restarting his Grand Teton/Yellowstone Football/Basketball Clinic in Jackson, and is making great progress in getting Spurrier, Boeheim, Tom Osborne, Bill Snyder, Lon Kruger, and Larry Shyatt to serve as his board of directors.

When Bill Ivey  founded Suncoast, it had, at its peak, close to 700 players. "There's three things about my father," BJ said. "No. 1, he's a great teacher. The second thing is he's an unbelievable people person. His ability to remember names is unbelievable. We had a parent meeting with 35 parents and he remembered every single person's name."

Said Bill, "I've done it with 200 parents."

"Great teacher," his son said, "great with people, and he's always been there for the kids. It's never been about (him). It's always to make sure the kids can play basketball."

But as he reached 80, Bill Ivey wanted to step down as Suncoast director, and he had a successor in mind. "I asked him about two or three times (before)," he said, "but I never twisted his arm."

"He called me and said he didn't want to do it anymore," BJ said. "He said he'd be happy to allow me to run it." It added another 20 hours to the plate of the high school coach and teacher Ivey. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, two gyms are used, and one on Mondays and Wednesdays. And on Saturdays, basketball is played for 16 hours. As his right-hand men, he has Vince Cherry, the current boys hoop coach at Cardinal Mooney and a former Ram point guard who played for Ivey, and Mark Wade, an assistant for 10 years under Ivey at Riverview.

"My wife says I have three full-time jobs," BJ said. "The biggest responsibility is making sure the kids are having a positive experience. We're trying to make sure we're educating the kids on the process of becoming good people, not just a good basketball player. We're trying to educate parents on how to handle a child in sports and how to set the right example.

"I feel like we have a really good reputation of doing things the right way. I think anybody who knows us knows we try to do things the right way and do it for the kids." Since BJ Ivey took over, Suncoast Youth Basketball has undergone a change. It's now Suncoast Youth Basketball club.

"What's kind of happened with the rise of travel ball is kids coming to our league early, they fall in love with the game, and, obviously, they want more and more." Suncoast has games one night a week and on Saturdays. "We went to a club model," Ivey said, "and the future is we're going to offer a travel basketball, but it's going to be done, in our opinion, the right way."

And to BJ, the right way is stressing a player's development. "We're not going to chase wins," he said. "Trying to make sure we're not chasing another revenue stream and that we're actually doing it for the kids."

That shouldn't be a problem for BJ.

He simply needs to recall how his dad did it.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: BJ Ivey continuing legacy started by his father as director of the Suncoast Youth Basketball club