From camp scuffles to NCAA titles: Penn State's new hoops coach set his path in central Pa.

Pat Flannery first knew Mike Rhoades as a rambunctious kid who put him in a bit of a family bind.

In the early 1980s, Flannery was a young assistant coach at Drexel hosting a basketball camp at Pottsville's esteemed Martz Hall. Rhoades was a 10-year-old camper who got in a "scuffle" with another young player who happened to be Flannery's nephew.

When neither child would let the dispute go, Flannery kicked his nephew out of the camp.

"My sister didn't talk to me for two months," said Flannery, who went on to a long career as a head coach at Lebanon Valley College and Bucknell. "I go back a really long way with Mike.

"But he grew up with that toughness."

Flannery watched as Rhoades channeled that toughness into becoming a star high school basketball player and then the leader of his NCAA Division III national title squad at Lebanon Valley. He followed along as Rhoades honed his intensity during his own coaching career.

So he's not surprised to see where his former protege has ended up.

Rhoades was announced as the new men's basketball head coach at Penn State last week. After six seasons as the head coach at Virginia Commonwealth, the Schuylkill County native is taking over a Nittany Lions program coming off its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 12 years and first tournament win in 22 years.

At his introductory press conference, Rhoades said his teams "will be blue collar" like the "people of this commonwealth." He announced Penn State legend Joe Crispin and fellow LVC alum J.D. Byers as members of his staff. He spoke about going to Penn State games as a kid and how his siblings and father attended the school.

With former head coach and Indiana native Micah Shrewsberry having departed for Notre Dame after just two seasons, Rhoades' hiring has been lauded by some fans as the homecoming of a loyal native son.

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Cliches aside, Rhoades will be well-compensated for returning home with a seven-year contract worth nearly $26 million ($3.7 million annually).

Still, Flannery said Rhoades' public persona is genuine and a product of where he came from.

"Hiring Mike Rhoades means you hired a Pennsylvania kid who wants to be here," Flannery said. "Mike is a guy who can fit in in Schuylkill County and always will, but he can fit in with the head of states. He understands the business, and he's grown. But he's really down to earth, and that's not a cliche. I take pride in the type of person he is."

Rhoades grew up in Mahanoy City and played high school basketball for his uncle, Mickey Holland, who won over 600 games in his legendary career. Flannery is close friends with Holland and also knew Mike's father, late state Sen. James Rhoades.

He said when the younger Rhoades wasn't "banging heads" with his brother over "checkers and everything else you can do in Mahanoy City," he was playing pickup games against older kids at local playgrounds.

"He could always jump in and play, and that was how you used to get better," Flannery said. "He was always a kid who could hold his own."

Flannery watched nearly every game of Rhoades' senior season in order to recruit him to Lebanon Valley. He said the point guard arrived on campus in 1991 as a leader who inspired other players to take after him. While Rhoades was a three-time conference Player of the Year, he "always tried to get better." Flannery said having a star player with that type of work ethic helped fuel Lebanon Valley during its 1994 national title run.

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Mark Hofsass, another member of that 1994 team who remains close friends with Rhoades, said his former teammate wasn't the most athletic player but become a "phenomenal" shooter and ball-handler from tireless practice. Rhoades left school as the program's all-time leader in points and assists.

But while Rhoades was coachable, the same fire he displayed at that youth camp could still bubble to the surface.

"If you talk to anybody on that team, they would say Mike and I had more head-to-head battles than I can remember," Flannery said. "He was headstrong and did things a certain way. You had to give him some freedom because he was such a good player."

Those who know Rhoades believe one of his biggest areas of growth during his coaching career has been finding a balance between freedom and structure.

He started as an assistant at Randolph-Macon — Flannery helped get him on the school's radar after departing for Bucknell — and eventually spent 10 years as the Division III program's head coach. Hofsass said his teams there were so structured that Rhoades' "imprint was on every possession."

However, Hofsass said his friend "loosened his control of the game" during his time at Virginia Commonwealth. VCU went 129–61 and made the NCAA Tournament three times in the past six years.

"He's basically given them the deal that if you play as hard as you can on defense we're going to give you some freedom on offense," said Hofsass, who previously served as the boys' basketball head coach at Palmyra and Lower Dauphin. "That's been different than earlier in his career."

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Rhoades will now take over a Penn State program that is coming off an excellent season but also has a blank slate. The Nittany Lions will graduate four starters and have already lost all three of their 2023 recruits in the wake of Shrewsberry's departure. Rhoades will likely turn to the transfer portal and his VCU connections in order to replenish the roster.

Still, those who've known him since his teenage years believe he'll keep the same principles he always has. As Flannery put it: "The kid has never been afraid of a challenge. And this will be a big one."

"His station in life has changed, and the money has changed, but that has not changed him," Hofsass said. "He's still the same guy. He's still involved at Lebanon Valley and in touch with all the guys who went there with him. We bust on him all the time, and he does the same to us. Just a regular guy. Penn State is lucky to have him."

Matt Allibone is a sports reporter for GameTimePA. He can be reached at 717-881-8221, mallibone@ydr.com or on Twitter at @bad2theallibone.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Penn State basketball: How Mike Rhoades started his path in central Pa