MIDLAND, Texas — This month, Trinity School of Midland announced the hiring of a new girls basketball head coach and program director.
Tawanna Flowers returns to West Texas after spending time at the Trinity Valley School in Fort Worth. Flowers played high school basketball in Levelland before moving on to play over at Texas Tech.
Sports reporter Jenna Elique sat down with Coach Flowers to learn more about her background, vision, and goals for the future of the program.
Read the transcription of the full interview here:
First, just tell me a little bit about your background that your bringing here to the Trinity School.
"Well, I grew up in Levelland, Texas, and we actually had eight state championships as a school. I was not part of one of those, but I was apart of being coached by a legend, Dean Weese. He's in the Hall of Fame, so the fundamentals have been ingrained in me. That's in my coaching. Fundamentals are extremely important. If you don't know your fundamentals, you're not going to be able to do the elite things. Actually, you might be able to, but it would be a little harder so fundamentals are extremely important. I've been coaching since I was a freshman in high school. People don't know that about me. I got nominated to coach little dribblers, in Levelland, Texas, and then they voted me to coach the all-star team, so I've been coaching for a very long time. I did some select coaching there. I thought I wanted to be a nurse. Basketball always called. Every time I've tried to run, my sister's like, 'You're gonna go back."
You obviously have some coaching experience. What are you taking into this new coaching job that you've learned previously?
"This will be my second independent school, so one thing that I learned, and it was an extremely valuable lesson, at the previous independent school that I was at, is that life is not always about basketball, right? This kids are growing individuals, and very rarely will you coach a kid that's gonna carry that into a career, so it's more focused on life lessons. Am I gonna be able to respond to somebody higher up, an authority figure? Am I gonna to stand up for myself if I don't agree with something in a respectful manner? Am I gonna be able to take instruction whenever I'm fatigued? Things like that.
"I tell the kids all the time, 'It's bigger than the game.' You know it's bigger than basketball. That's one thing I want to instill into these girls. I'm really big on girls being confident because I believe that they're going to be the next CEOs, they're gonna be running business, and you're starting to see it more and more now. I saw a superhero movie the other day and it was a girl in charge, so they've been more empowered. I want to be part of that. "
With a lot of new coaches, the thing that you usually hear is, 'I want to change the culture.' Or 'I want to do this with the culture.' The 'culture' is always a big buzz word. Is that something you're looking to either change or keep. What are you looking to do with that?
"I think it's balance. Coming in here and being surrounded by such kind people, I want that to be consuming. You know kindness is so important. To be kind first in all that you do, but at the same time, show competitiveness and kindness can go hand in hand. You can be competitive and kind at the same time. It's not necessarily changing the culture. I think it's more so adding to the culture.
Is there a way you practically teach that balance? Even when you talk about it, you want to be competitive, but you want to be kind. How do you think those two go hand in hand and how do you coach it practically?
"First and foremost, the teams that I have coached, it's always been about family. Regardless of if you disagree with this one person or some people you meet and immediately you're like, 'You know what, I don't really like that person.' You just don't vibe with them, right? But you will respect them, and that respect comes from kindness. That is a family member. You don't always like your brother, sister, maybe an uncle or somebody that you don't take too kind to, but you will respect them. That's extremely important, not only in the program, but I think across the board. In P.E. , if you start early, then those kids will know your expectations and it will just spread like wildfire. Those are the types of things you want to spread anyway in a community. Not the cancerous gossip and things like that."
It's your first season as the head coach here. How do you define success regardless of the wins and losses? I know that's kind of the easy way to go, but sometimes it's kind of the soft things that you don't necessarily see.
"Success here as a first year coach I think would be kids coming back to play the next year. If the program grows, then I know I had a successful year in the first year."
This is going to be my final question. Is there anything that I didn't ask you that you want to talk about?
If anyone is watching that is part of the community, or not part of the community, just come out and enjoy being apart of something that I think is going to be special. It's so good to see kids go through some adversity and still have a smile on their face. I am honored to be able to provide that for them. It's not always gonna be easy because it's a sport, right? You have to go through some things. It won't always be easy, but we'll have fun. I am the type of coach that, you know, if I find out that everybody had a big test today, I can read that well when they come into the gym and look exhausted. I'm like, 'Let me see if I can go rent a bus. Let's go get some froyo.'
"Traditionally, at the previous school I worked out, we did a lock in at the beginning of the season and we had a midnight practice and ordered pizza. I know that this isn't a collegiate school. I'm not coaching collegiate players, where this is a business. It's not like that. I'm growing individuals. That's the most important thing, as an educator. It's not about you. It's not about your wins or your losses. It's about you getting those phone calls when those kids have families and getting those invitations to those baby showers and those weddings and they're coming back to alumni weekend and you're one of the first people that they want to visit. That's what it's about to me."