‘I’ve changed a lot.’ Coach’s personal ‘tweak’ helped spur wild run to Sweet Sixteen.
Ashland Blazer’s basketball season needed what UK Coach John Calipari might call a “tweak.” It started at the top.
The one-proud program before Sunday hadn’t qualified for state since 2002. Ashland’s 33 tournament appearances are the second-most in state history, and it’s number of victories — up to 49 after an improbable first-round win Wednesday over Owensboro in the 102nd Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen — are the most of any team.
Their last win was the Tomcats’ fourth in a row, and put them two games above .500 at 18-16. It was only the second team in the last 35 years to enter with 16 or more losses and win in the first round. The Tomcats, in part, can credit an attitude adjustment.
Jason Mays, the Tomcats’ first-year head coach, was previously an assistant at Georgetown College under Happy Osborne and last year was the interim head coach at Kentucky Wesleyan College. Mays stepped away from basketball to work as a financial advisor and insurance agent during a seven-year layoff between stints at Georgetown and Valdosta State, where he coached two seasons before joining KWC’s staff in 2017.
He realized about halfway through this season that high school was a whole different animal.
“All I knew was college basketball prior to this year, and you can’t talk to them like there’s a scholarship on the line and that you own the air they breathe, so to speak, every day because you awarded them that scholarship,” Mays said. “I didn’t recruit these kids. I have to meet them where they are as people and as players, and I did a little bit too much of having them meet me where I was, if that makes sense.
Ashland lost six of its first nine games. “Getting our tails kicked and having some heart-to-heart talks with our players” helped Mays gain some humility. He changed how he spoke to his team and how intense Ashland’s practice schedule was earlier in the season.
“Their bodies don’t recover like college athletes do. They will eventually, but right now, no,” Mays said. “Some of these guys don’t drive a car or have their first girlfriend yet, and here I am trying to practice them three hours a day, five or six days a week. ... I’ve changed a lot, and it’s a credit to these guys for letting me.”
