Mt. SAC Women’s Basketball Head Coach Brian Crichlow sits down with SAC Media’s Tai Taylor to talk about earning the All-Sports Coach of the Year Award for the third time, after previous wins in 2013 and 2016.

Transcript

Tai Taylor: I’m Tyrie Taylor. I’m sitting here with Coach Crichlow. He is the women’s basketball coach. He has won the Coach of the year again for the third time, is that correct?

Coach Brian Crichlow: Yeah, for the all sport. This for the, all sport coach of the year. So on the women’s side, all the sports, they voted me as a coach of year.

Yes.

Tai Taylor: That is awesome. So you won the award in 2013 and 2016. And how does it feel after winning it, like those years after all that time coming back and winning it again?

How does that feel?

Coach Brian Crichlow: it’s always a humbling, deal and, an honor, that your peers vote you as the coach of the year.

I give all credit to my players, to my players and my coaches. without them doing the work on the on and off the court, without my coaches, doing their jobs. I just micromanage, but the rest of it, the rest of it is all them. It’s all them.

Tai Taylor: And that’s, I’m really glad that you’re bringing other people into the conversation because the next question actually doesn’t lead into the coaches, but it leads more into the players and I saw that you have coached two time, this is a mouthful. C-C-C-W-B-C-A SoCal Player of the Year and State Tournament, MVP. Daja Mitchell, is that correct? And how is that experience being able to coach such a high talent? how is that?

Coach Brian Crichlow: With Daja, High Basketball IQ team leader, being able to coach her every day was a joy.

She came and she was the hardest working player in the gym every day. She was just fun, fun to coach. She took care of our locker room, that was a part of our big success last year. Her leadership, when you have a player of her stature that’s also willing to lead, it helps eliminate some of the things you have to do when you know your locker room is covered by the players.

All you have to do is coach, and she made my job so much easier.

Tai Taylor: And that’s cool. It sounded like she was very, team player, even though she. Had the skills, really, high. She never thought of herself as like, bigger than the team or nothing like that. She was like, these are my dogs. These are who I’m

going into battle with.

Coach Brian Crichlow: Tremendous young lady, she came in and she was team first, everything else she got, she knew that she couldn’t get what she was gonna get or the accolades that she’s accomplished. She couldn’t get those without her teammates, so she wanted to make sure that her teammates and her were on the same page, always.

For the benefit of the program, the benefit of each other, and then what came after that. She was very, grateful and gracious from her teammates helping her get those accolades.

Tai Taylor: And you won 12 CC North division titles and this is your In Five State Championships. How are you able to succeed at such a high level and maintain that success level?

Coach Brian Crichlow: It’s just working. I think the program speaks for itself. The reputation of the program draws student athletes here. and the fact that we win that also helps. But, I mean, this was established, I’ve been going on 26 years now. This was established with my old boss, Laura Beeman, and we’ve just kept the ship sailing.

But I think, it’s a true testament to what we’ve done here. For years, you know what I mean? Just getting kids scholarships, kids graduating, winning championships. and I think in this culture, kids need that in their lives. Now. you need see some success, as we’re growing older, I was their age at one particular time, and the more success I saw, the harder I worked.

So I, I think it all plays, his hand in everything

Tai Taylor: And yeah, success is a strong mentor. Oh yeah. Yeah. I remember I originally came to this school for the soccer program. I was a soccer player and the winning culture around the school was the main reason why I came. I live in Ontario. I could go to Chaffee High School, but I was like, nah, I think.

Mt. SAC is better. They have more of a winning culture. I wanna be there. So that’s what brought me here. So you’re saying that makes a lot of sense.

Coach Brian Crichlow: And look at you, you know what I mean? Look at you, you came to, to, to something that, that, that provided a winning atmosphere and now you’re here, editor covering all the sports, and making it, making this do what it does, right.

You know what I mean? Yes, sir. Now maybe we’ll see you on. On the TV screen in a little bit, hopefully. Yeah.

Tai Taylor: And, I also saw that you’re a kinesiology professor. You Yes. also teach, a class of basketball. which is very cool. Yeah. Do you think that, influences your coaching or like, kind of blends into your coaching by any chance or anything like that?

Coach Brian Crichlow: Being in the classroom, you’re always teaching. I mean, whether you’re in the classroom or on the court. You’re teaching first, regardless to the title coach is a teacher of whatever sport. and then being in the classroom, teaching, they go hand in hand. You’re just trying to make a student the best student they can be, or trying to make the athlete the best athlete they can be and giving them all the tools needed to be successful in life.

Tai Taylor: Right. So it’s like whether they’re calling you professor or they’re calling you coach. You’re doing the same job, get everyone to the next level. Oh yeah, most definitely. That’s awesome.

And, is there anything else that I may have didn’t ask you or touched upon that you may wanna talk about your journey with getting this award or anything like that?

Coach Brian Crichlow: Like I say, all, all praises to God first, he put me in a situation to be able to touch the lives of these young athletes and be successful. and then just to shout out to my players, this award, I couldn’t have gotten it by myself. They had to do the work on the court.

They had to represent for the, program in our institution. And, they’ve had to buy into whatever I’m selling or teaching, right? So, and that’s what makes it all special. Whatever I, believe is, what we should be doing. They follow it and they were able to. max out and get a state championship.

Tai Taylor: Well, I thank you Coach Crystal for your time. Thank you.