Brad Felder: Coach of the Year

Published online on Friday, Apr. 04, 2008

Two Hanford basketball coaches prove that substance wins over style.

Between Fresno and Bakersfield to the north and south, Lemoore and Visalia to the west and east, and all those dairies and acres of cotton, nectarines and almonds in between, boys and girls basketball coaches Brad Felder and Tom Parrish of Hanford High did as those who supported them -- with flesh, not flash.

The Bullpups throng that motored from Kings County to Selland Arena for the Central Section Division III basketball championships a month ago represented the coaches' personalities -- a lot of dirt under fingernails, unconditional work ethic and belief as rich as a Superior Dairy ice cream cone on Douty Street.

Felder is a big, burly guy who hardly fits the prototype appearance of a basketball coach. But just try to beat him: 351-139 in a 17-year career at three schools, including a Hanford-record 31-4 mark this season.

Parrish, as manager of more than 3,000 acres for Zoeneveld Farms in the county, is balancing a rare lifestyle. Yet the daily transition from work boots to tennis shoes is working: 70-20 in three seasons with the Bullpups, including a 25-5 record this season.

Today, they stand as one -- Central Section champions, The Bee Coaches of the Year and, above all, proud fathers of children who figured prominently in their success.

Historical season

To make history in boys basketball at Hanford means something.

This is a program that has captured more than 30 league championships and, in the past 50 years, has won 70% of its games while producing the likes of Doug Timmer, Anthony Cardoza, Kenny Heuseveldt, Jimmy Joe Carpenter, Pete Verhoeven, Mel Ramsey and Ismael Castaneda.

Yet, despite beating his own school wins record by two, Felder won't be seen organizing a parade on 7th Street.

"It hasn't been a big celebratory thing just because we had those expectations," he says. "We expected to win the league, section and a state playoff game. And the fact that we did was almost more of a relief to get through it than joy."

It was a dominant season: 12-0 with an average victory margin of 17 points in the West Yosemite League; 3-0 in the section D-III playoffs with an average spread of 25 points; and a Southern California Regional 56-53 win over Oak Park before it all closed with a 56-53 road loss to second-seeded Bishop Montgomery-Torrance. They finished ranked No. 7 in the state's D-III by Cal-Hi Sports.

Hanford delivered the WYL Player of the Year in junior point guard Cougar Williams and first-team selections in forward D.J. Jackson-Maciel and center Barrett Felder, the coach's son.

It was a group that Felder had groomed since fifth grade in AAU competition.

"We had enough size and strength inside, shooters on the wing and somebody [Williams] to penetrate and break people down," says Felder, who is 269-110 (.710), with a 2001 D-II section title in 13 years with the Bullpups.

"It was also a team with good chemistry and parents who trusted me enough to take their sons to Hawaii. It was a special thing the way things came together."

From farm to gym

Raised as a farmer in Laton just northwest of Hanford, Tom Parrish was trained to take things into his own hands.

And that's how a coaching career took root.

He's watching his youngest child, Madison, play on an AAU all-star team seven years ago as a second-grader, and he's not pleased with what he's seeing. But the discomfort's not with his daughter.

"I was so disheartened with how she was getting coached," he says. "I sat there thinking, 'Gosh dang it, I can do a lot better.' So I gravitated toward that."