How teamwork, defense and a high school reunion led to Big Valley basketball turnaround
It’s almost like Miles Scott was destined to come back and coach basketball at Big Valley Christian.
A recently married Scott moved away from Modesto with his new wife and child, opting for Southern California to be close to family.
More than five years after leaving, Scott returned to the place he grew up, and to the school that gave him his first coaching job after he finished college.
Scott began his career with Big Valley Christian. He took over as head coach in 2010 and coached four seasons, tallying 37 wins.
Though he moved to Southern California, Scott said he always felt a calling to the northern part of the state. “I always knew something was calling me back to this area, Modesto,” he said.
He didn’t know how or when, but when the calling is there, sometimes there’s no choice but to let things work out.
He accepted a position back at Big Valley Christian as a PE teacher and director of spiritual life. When the head coaching job became available after the 2022-23 season, he jumped at it.
“It was weird,” he said. “Everything worked out for me to get back here. It was not like it was a plan for me. It was kind of like everything fell into place for me to be back here.”
The Big Valley Christian boys basketball team won 20 games this year for the first time since 2007-08. It qualified for the playoffs, as a No. 8 seed, for the first time since 2019-20. Tuesday, the Lions earned their first playoff win since 2016-17. The team hosted Bret Harte in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division V playoffs, its first home playoff game since the 2008-09 season.
It takes a village
During his first stint as Big Valley’s coach, Scott’s teams won nine, 11, eight and nine games, respectively. The school came close to qualifying for the postseason but could not extend its season each year.
In his second stint, Scott and the Lions raised their win total from seven in 2022-23 to 22 so far in 2023-24. The Lions went 15-2 against nonleague competition including a 3-0 record in the Riverbank tournament.
Tuesday night against Bret Harte, the Lions jumped out to an early 15-3 lead, weathered runs from visiting Bret Harte and pulled away in the fourth quarter en route to a 71-53 win. The Lions advance to the D-V quarterfinals Thursday.
“These guys that we have right now, they’re hungry. They want to continue to build upon what the guys in the past have done,” Scott said. “These guys are clicking right when we needed them to click tonight.”
Like many successful leaders, Scott defers when asked about how he spearheaded the turnaround. He instead gives a lot of the credit to those who came before him.
The Ron Gutierrezes, Jairol Reds and Bill Rays all put in their time at the helm of the Lions. Whether they had a winning season, made the playoffs or finished outside one of the league’s top three spots.
And then there is “Coach Pete”, Peter Vargas, who coached a number of the players on the current roster. Scott said Vargas laid the foundation for what fans of Big Valley Christian basketball, both new and old, saw Tuesday night.
Scott calls Vargas regularly to talk and offer his appreciation for what he gave to the program. Scott compares the impact of he and Vargas to a pair of coaches at basketball’s highest level. One laid the foundation for another to build on.
“I say, ‘Hey, Coach, Pete, you’re the Mark Jackson and I’m the Steve Kerr. Thank you for what you did and the sacrifice,’” he said.
High school reunion
The return to Modesto was a reunion.
Scott was back on the sidelines with high school teammate David Paris. The two played for Modesto Christian and played a part in leading the Crusaders to the 2001 state championship game against state powerhouse Santa Ana Mater Dei as juniors. Chuck Hayes was the team’s leader in nearly every statistical category in a dominant senior campaign that season. Scott and Paris are also still close with the Cole family. Scott grew up in the Modesto Slam-N-Jam program and said coach Bobby Cole is still like a second father to him. Bobby Cole Jr. was also his teammate at Modesto Christian.
The pair of Big Valley coaches went on to play college basketball, Paris at Cal Berkeley and Scott at Holy Names University.
Paris has also coached in the area for the past few seasons with a stint at Davis High.
“It’s funny how everything comes back full circle,” Scott said. “Me, David and Bobby Cole Jr. all played together and now we’re pretty much coaching the kids. … It’s good to have my buddy back and we worked well together on the court and now we’re coaching together and working really well.”
They introduced a lot of principles they played with at Modesto Christian. It starts with a pressure defense that extends the length of the court, a style that isn’t that common among small school hoops. Offensively, they spread out the defense with four perimeter players and one low-post man. They put pressure on their opponents by attacking the rim to score or dump the ball off to the post for a lay-up.
“David and I, in the old MC days, this is the style we played,” Scott said. “We were getting up in guys and there’s not anybody else that plays this, so a lot of people are confused. It really disrupts people because nobody’s pressing guys full court anymore. (Now) it’s get back, sit in a zone, motion offense, and they don’t want to get out and run.”
They are a young team with just two seniors in the everyday rotation. The Lions start two freshmen, two sophomores and a senior. Titus Boone, a sophomore, leads the team in scoring with 16.1 points a game. His brother, Cohen, is second at 12.1 points and freshman Solomon Paris, David’s 6-foot-3 son, scores 9.3.
“When you get young guys on the same page and they get to see these playoffs for the first time and win the first playoff game at home, the next year they’re gonna get deeper and the following year they’re gonna get deeper,” Scott said. “This is just the start of what’s to come for these guys and it’s great to get this experience as freshmen and sophomores.”
When he moved back to the area, Scott knew the team had potential to be great. He credits David Paris for making the transition smooth and working on a lot of the X’s and O’s.
“I think I already kind of knew these guys’ DNA because coach David has been with these guys for a long time,” Scott said. “A lot of times (David Paris) is the mastermind of the basketball part of it. I just tried to lead them and continue to help them focus on the goal. Coach David is the basketball IQ.”
Matchup against a small school giant
Big Valley advances to the second round when it travels to top-seeded Ripon Christian Thursday at 7 p.m.
The Knights are what the Lions are working to become. Last season, Ripon Christian won its 12th section championship and has senior leadership, a strong interior defensive presence and a sophomore star of itsr own who leads in scoring.
“For years, Ripon Christian has always been a solid basketball program,” Scott said. “They’re always great in everything, their character, their behavior on and off the court. We have a lot of respect for them, but we want to give them a game. You respect people by playing hard.
