Green Bay East hires alum James DeVault as its new high school boys basketball coach

GREEN BAY – The Green Bay East boys basketball team couldn’t have done a much better job finding a replacement for longtime leader Rick Rosinski.

At least that’s the opinion of Rosinski, the all-time winningest coach in program history who stepped down in August after 20 seasons.

He’s elated with the school’s decision to hire James “J.D.” DeVault, a 2003 East graduate who played for Rosinski during his first season and has served in various coaching roles under him for the past eight years.

“I am so proud of J.D. and excited for the opportunity he has to be the varsity coach,” Rosinski said. “J.D. is family, and when I found out he got the job, I got emotional.

“East has a great guy to lead young men. Words can’t describe how thrilled I am for him.”

The East job is the only one DeVault felt like he’d ever be interested in.

The fourth-grade teacher at Howe Elementary School didn’t know what to expect when he entered the process. He wasn’t certain how much the lack of head coaching experience hurt his chances despite all the time he has put in with the program.

But he also felt he was the right person for the job.

He started his coaching career with the eighth-grade futures team after Rosinski asked if he’d do it.

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DeVault had fun with the experience. His first group of kids included future East standout Rafe Whalen, who scored 1,045 points during his varsity career from 2016 to 2019 and ranks fifth on the all-time scoring list.

DeVault moved with that group the following year and served as East’s freshman coach, before being elevated to junior varsity a year later. He coached JV for two seasons before moving up again to varsity assistant.

“I would never turn down an opportunity to do anything at East,” said DeVault, who played at Missouri Valley College after high school. “When Coach would ask me to come help out and stuff, being a teacher, it was kind of natural. Being a ballplayer, it was kind of fun. I enjoyed it.

“How this all happened, I guess you could say I kind of fell into it. I didn’t pursue it. Coach called me.”

DeVault has picked up plenty of knowledge playing for and coaching with Rosinski. The biggest thing is to just stay calm throughout a game.

DeVault found himself to be a bit high strung early on, but after watching Rosinski, he noticed how even if he got excited or fired up, he never got too high or too low.

There are plenty of challenges that come with coaching at East, and it would be difficult to find a new coach who understands that better than DeVault.

Anything his players have or might experience, it’s a good bet he has encountered plenty of it during his young life.

He was raised in a single parent home, with his mother working hard to help support her three children.

DeVault moved 12 or 13 times before arriving in Green Bay at the start of sixth grade.

He was born in Boston, and along with Massachusetts, he lived in Pennsylvania, Arkansas and Louisiana before arriving in Wisconsin. He also lived in Korea while serving in the Army.

“I feel like I can,” DeVault said of being able to relate to players. “That’s where a little of my own personal values come in, as a staff member. As a coach. I walked the same hallways as they did. I come from the same area. The same neighborhood. Similar situations.

“There is not really anything too much that goes down or that can transpire that is really going to blow me away or make me feel like, ‘Uh, oh. This is too much for me.’”

DeVault will have some familiar faces with him on the sideline. He expects longtime assistant Jim Hayes to be back and doing stats on the bench.

He hopes to add former East and Marshall University basketball star Dennis Tinnon as a varsity assistant.

The first person DeVault mentioned was longtime team manager Eugene “Geno” Phillips, who attended East in the 1990s and has been a bedrock for the program even longer than Rosinski. If Phillips wants in, he has a spot with the team.

The Red Devils are coming off a season in which they went 19-8 and won a regional championship. But the core of that squad has graduated, including all-time leading scorer Ryan Sweeney.

It’s a strong bet there are going to be growing pains, and that East won’t come close to 19 wins again this season.

DeVault still is optimistic about the future. Sure, there can be pressure replacing the coach who has led East for almost the entire century, but that coach has taught the new one well.

“If all falls in my favor, I feel like I got at least 20 more to go,” DeVault said. “I don’t know if it’s pressure outside so much, but inside personal pressure. Just being a player of Rosinski’s and working for him, he does a lot. He’s done a lot for his players.

“But I’m excited to step in and get things going on the youth side. Get everything churning as to where we can start building here and start getting some strength back within the program and have some fun and get some wins.”

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay East hires alum James DeVault as new boys basketball coach