Podcast – Retired @hornets_malvern Basketball Coach Dennis Tucci on Kenny & JT Show / @malvernhornetb1

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Kenny, it seems like more and more every time we interview a head coach of a basketball team, even football teams.

There are an alumni of the school that they're coaching.

Yesterday, Josh Hose, he was a fantastic Maslan Tiger Basketball player, state championship coach at Maslan.

Well, our next guest is another real life. Welcome back, Cotter.

And we've had him on the program before. He's won over 600 games at the high school level.

Coach Denny Tucci, but I wonder what's more important?

Winning 600 basketball games or being a distant relative of Mike Galina coach?

Well, I appreciate you guys having me on today. Mike Galina is a legend, isn't it?

You're the legend.

Great to have you with us.

Great to have you with us. What's again, coach? And what a magical season for the Hornets.

I mean, I don't know too many people that expected you guys.

Maybe you did because you're the coach and you deal with these kids on every day basis.

But a final four run, tell us about it.

Yeah, it was certainly exciting.

And we talked about it early in the year, though, because we had moved down to D7.

Even though, you know, guys, we only had two points of game coming back.

A trip my son, as a junior, I was two points of game.

And he was the only one that played varsity the prior year.

But we had a good JB team that was undefeated.

We started four softwares in a freshman on that JB team.

So we knew we had some talent.

But more importantly, we had a good path.

We know we've always been either D3 and running the teams like Lutheran East or Richmond Heights or cornerstone Christian.

Bedford Chanel one year when we were really good.

And then two years ago, we had the undefeated season.

We went into harvest prep when we were D3 out of the four divisions.

Now with seven divisions, we were six.

And we had to play either Highland or Monroe Central to very, very good basketball programs.

But this year we moved back down to D7.

And we knew that those no harvest perhaps out there.

And we knew Highland was D6.

So we knew we would have a chance.

At least someone a school like us would have to be this.

And as it turned out, we were playing our best basketball at the end of the season.

We were such a good defensive team all year long.

It's such an inconsistent offensive team.

But in the term we put all that behind us and we were just as good on offense as we were on defense.

How much fun was this season coach?

You know, we had just a great group of guys always.

And one thing now where we don't have to fight is we always have team first guys.

It's just the culture that we've created here.

And everybody puts team first.

But once in a while you still haven't killed them with power.

If you only got three points instead of five or got two e-mails instead of eight.

And they play as much as I wanted to.

And we simply, and people say, but we simply had none of that this year.

I took guys out.

They come over.

They got a water bottle on the towel.

They didn't stare me down.

They waited for me to call their name.

They jumped up.

We went to the score stable and helped.

Now we're going to win them.

And not only with the players, but with our parents.

Then we had no negative at diversity level.

We had no negative Facebook posts.

We had no buddy.

Look at me.

Look at me.

Look at me.

Funny in the grocery store.

We have no questions.

I mean, we're at the local establishment.

I mean, we were all men at every level.

And it paid off for us.

Coach, that's got to be difficult, man.

Because everyone down around that area, Malvern and Irva,

you can go as far as Carrollton.

First of all, everybody knows you.

So you're not going anywhere where you're not going to be noticed.

And I mean, it's got to be kind of tough because it is such a small community.

But it's a tight knit community.

Talk about your, yeah, talk a little bit about your fans, booster club,

and those parents.

Yeah, you know, and I know it's people start counting.

They say, well, it's just a little Malvern.

But when you're the head basketball coach at Malvern,

that's 24 hours a day.

So we have a 365 days a year.

It really is.

Yeah.

You know, when I go to the Mass on Sunday morning,

I'm the basketball coach at Malvern.

When I stop and have a cold one on a Friday night,

I'm the basketball coach at Malvern.

And when I go watch my grandson play a little league baseball game,

I'm the basketball coach at Malvern.

And with that, you know,

comes a lot of expectation.

And that's been great for me.

I don't know how it'll be for the next guy.

But it's really important for our community that we have good basketball here.

And fortunately, we've had good players and we've able to,

we've able to keep this round dawn.

But our record the last 10, 12 years has been, has been, has been crazy.

Yeah.

It has 500 wins that you're all the moderate over 600 wins all together.

Coach, a couple of state championships back in the day in West Virginia.

And now you're calling it quits.

Are you really calling it quits?

Because we always say once a coach, always a coach, right?

So you're supposedly retiring.

Is that 100% etched in stone?

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm really at peace with this.

I, I do this day was common.

I enjoy being in my backyard with the country music on and going across

with puzzles and read the book.

I only get to read about two months or two months out of the year,

July and August.

So I'll be able to read a lot more.

I felt like I was the worst grandpa in Ohio when I have a son,

I have a grandson who's, who's pretty good down in Newark Catholic.

Now I get to see him play in a baseball game.

I'll get to see him play in a football game.

Been two years, last two years.

I saw him play one baseball game.

And we're a basketball family.

His dad of course was the player of the year for the state.

And then his mom played at what West Liberty.

So we're all in on basketball.

And I saw one thinking game in two years.

And I felt awful about it.

And now my wife and I are able to drive down the Newark make a day of it

and see a lot of these games.

Not just next year's eighth grader, but throughout his high school career.

I'm really looking forward to that.

I want to ask you about your wife.

You've been married over 40 years and her name is Paula.

And we were reading up on everything that, you know,

you talk about a family affair.

Kenny, his son's probably going to be in the next school.

Have they named your son Travis the next head coach of Malvern yet or no?

They have not yet.

I'm hoping they do.

I hope they don't screw this up.

No one will have more passion about Malvern basketball than he does.

We don't want to miss the stuff.

We want things to stay the same.

And it'll be a little bit different.

I've asked you throughout the year.

I'll say, you're going to do this texture.

I don't think so.

Okay.

You know, I drill or a station that we do.

I think I'm going to tweak that with good.

Good.

And that's why I don't want to be around.

Because if I were still there, I don't think he could do that.

Okay.

He's going to put his mark on a couple of the drills we do and a couple of situations.

And who have a different idea of who we should scream is and things like that.

That should come from him.

It hasn't been announced yet.

And I hope they don't screw it up.

And all of our players and me and the other assistants were hoping that it's just a smooth transition.

Okay.

Talk about transition now.

You're going to have a lot of free time on your hands.

How is Paula going to put up with you?

Well, that is a good question.

You know, I tell people, I will not go to practice next year, but I will be at the Thanksgiving practice.

Because we host about 50 people.

And the last thing she wants is me there.

I promise you, I will be at the Thanksgiving at the Thanksgiving practice.

But yeah, you know, she's a junkie just as much as I am.

I couldn't have done it without her.

She's made many scouting trips.

And we've never had dinner on our anniversary.

Back last year, though, we did have lunch.

I said, we had something that night on our anniversary.

I said, you want to go over to McKilly Park and walk on the monument and go either have lunch

in the Harvest Pub.

That sounded great.

That was our anniversary dinner.

We got to have lunch at Harvest Pub and walk the steps at McKilly Park.

Where's comes the worst?

I can always get you a front table over at Doug's Doug out if you want.

I know some people down there.

Yeah, yeah.

I've been down there a time or two.

Coach, too, she is our guest right now.

What a great career you had.

Not only at Malvern, but you were also stops at Marlington along the way.

Did you play basketball when you went to Marietta?

I did.

I played two years.

And I had some injuries with my feet in my back.

And I decided to write down, you know what?

I'm going to get into coaching.

And my junior year, Marietta, I helped coach.

And then I must have done something well because my senior year,

I was actually the JV coach at the college.

Wow.

Well, I was coached.

I was a senior coach and freshman.

And that got me started in the coaching field.

The reason I asked that question.

Kenny, you might have played against this guy.

Well, yeah.

What years were you at Marietta, coach?

I was there from 80 to 83.

I think I'm a little older than Kenny.

Just a little bit.

I was my freshman year at Baldwin Wallace for, you know,

the basketball season was 1983.

So I was playing JVs, you know, in 19.

I think they put the statue of you and Paul Farah up at that time.

Hey, coach, true story.

We roomed together in college.

How about that?

How about that?

When I was at Lewisville, I was at Lewisville.

My junior high coaches were Paul Farah and Jeff Sharkey.

How about that?

How about that?

Wow.

That was pretty good.

We couldn't win the basketball.

Yeah.

But we couldn't win JV.

We couldn't win the basketball.

That's terrible.

You know, you bring up some other great coaching names.

And Paul Farah would coach the heck out of the football team.

But I want to ask you about your relationship with Bob Huggins.

Okay.

Because you go way back, don't you, with, with Huggy Baron.

And tell us about that.

Tell us about the camps in the off season.

And why is that guy so special even to this day for local basketball?

Well, he's been good to all, but started with his father, of course, Charlie.

And Charlie was the architect of all of that.

And he was the old school, did it his way.

And, you know, he was, he was one of a kind.

And Bobby, he just has that charisma.

He has the it factor, you know, that kids just want to play for him.

When, even when he comes to talk to the camp, the last coaches will be sitting around.

Everyone wants to hear what he has to say.

He just has that way about it.

This is a natural leader.

I was closer to his brother, Larry.

He actually runs the camp style.

Larry and I were the same class.

We both graduated in 1979.

Bobby was six or five or six years older enough.

But that family is just so special.

You talk about a love for the game of basketball.

And they're still giving back.

You know, they went down to find the four of them both.

Both made comments to other friends of mine.

And we got to come down and see two children in the state tournament game.

That meant a lot to me.

And they spent the whole weekend down there.

And, of course, they reach out and congratulate me.

But they've been so good to the game of basketball.

And that camp has been around forever.

I used to go down there and play on Wednesday nights back when they just had tomorrow.

And it's a service our community so well.

Our kids love going down there.

I've had three of my kids work there, you know, for the summer.

I've had many former players go down there and work for the summer.

Because we're relatively close for 25 minutes away.

So we've had a lot of summer opportunities for our guys from Melbourne just because of the Huggins family.

In fact, Jarrett Majestic, we all know Jarrett.

You guys all know Jarrett played it alone and scored over a thousand points for us.

He's going to do a first at the Huggins camp.

He and his beautiful Raffiance.

She's a teacher in our school, Kayla.

They're getting married at Huggins camp on May 30.

Wow.

Yes.

That's awesome.

But the Huggins family.

Jarrett's worked there.

Oh, I bought these work there four or five six summers and got to know the Huggins family well too.

And yeah, he's actually going to get married there on May 30th.

Well, that's going to be the socially better of the summer.

Perfect.

Well, if you're there, it's got to be.

If you're there, it's got to be the social event of any time.

Can you hear me tell this story?

I think it was 2011, 2012.

AD Anthony Davis is playing for Kentucky.

West Virginia is playing them in one of the rounds at the NCAA tournament in Cleveland.

And I sat with Larry Huggins.

That dude is a trip, man.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

He's one of a kind.

But those guys, when they watch basketball, they see things that we don't see.

It's just crazy.

I mean, they can watch five minutes of basketball and tell you where that kid fits in the next level.

It's just fascinating to me.

Yeah.

You know what's great to in recent years and last couple of years, coach, with the job you did this year, getting to a final four.

We just had masculine winning the division two state championship this year.

Last year.

It was called.

I listen to that car.

I still have a driveway on the absolute list of his call.

What a great job.

He just hosted a great job.

Don't get me wrong.

But I love that.

I love that W HBC broadcast.

That was fantastic.

Well, and here's the other thing to coach.

You think about Lewisville one last year.

Perry went to the finals last year.

You had a win this year for masculine back in 17.

It was Jackson winning the state championship.

You're in a final four.

We've got Walsh and what Jeff Young is doing over there at division two, making the sweet 16, right?

And Bob Huckich was there for him as well.

Isn't start county in the surrounding area underrated when it comes to basketball.

Maybe outside of the area.

People don't think of it like they do football.

I totally agree with that.

I don't know why.

You know, because just all those things you mentioned, I do out the name.

Now, Kramer, what he's done in Kansas.

That's what happened these last few years.

It's been.

I mean, he's been.

He's been.

He's been a regional.

Damn, they're every year.

I think.

And we can't give him over the hump because he's faced the same things.

Melbourne has faced in the past.

You either playing Lutheran East or.

Harvest trap or Richmond Heights or one of those type schools.

It's just tough to beat them when you're a local school.

All right, coach.

Let me ask you this then.

We're about the same age.

I think you got one year on me.

Growing up in this area, I think you've got one year on me.

So my question has got to be this growing up.

When you talk about great basketball in this area, it started for me anyway.

At layman high school, 1971, their state champions.

Who comes to mind when you think of great high school coaches when you were growing up before college?

Okay.

I was always a big Larry Wilson fan.

He was all red ash of course.

Yeah, but I remember a quick story when I was at Louisville.

I may have said this before to you, but my first year at Louisville, we were awful.

And they've not went any games the year before.

And our first game, we're in the federal league at Louisville.

And we're playing Perry Panthers game one.

I get the coach gets Larry Wilson.

Now, I want to stay championships, but I'm getting the coach gets Larry Wilson.

This is a highlight of mine.

So at the end of the first quarter, we're running down the clock together last shot.

We run to play perfectly.

This shot happens to fall off their rim.

I fall to my knees.

So I thought we played a perfect first quarter.

I look at the clock.

It is 21 to seven.

I think if we're perfect for three more quarters, we're going to lose by 56 points.

Oh, that's great.

That's the kind of machine he hadn't gone over there for years.

Coach, what about Fred Harald?

I haven't heard too many coaches remembering Fred Harald.

Fantastic coach.

I think he was athletic director as well at Timkin High School.

I remember Fred here.

He was just banging the heck out of those bleachers over there at the field house,

but he had some good teams.

He was pretty tenacious on the sidelines as well.

Yeah, outstanding stuff.

Hey, coach.

Thanks for making time for us.

Congratulations on a fantastic season.

Be an unbelievable career.

And then see coach.

Here's the other thing we'll throw out there.

Okay?

Because yeah, okay, you're going to go see your grandson play.

We understand that.

But this means you've got other free time to maybe come in and be a studio analyst

with us on the Kenny and JT show.

How's that sound?

I don't know if I'm worthy of that.

But.

Yes.

Certainly, I'm going to certainly enjoy that.

Let's get you out of the house.

I'll take that.

There you go.

Yeah, coach.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Congratulations and enjoy retirement.

Don't be a stranger, right?

I appreciate you guys having me off.

Thanks again.