#CoachingTree January 22

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For January 2024 several of us will be participating in the “30-Day 6 Degrees of Separation Coach4aday Challenge”-today we dive into leaders that are part of my personal COACHING TREE.

Last week one of my best friends and former assistant coaches John Haskins decided to retire after 35 years at UNC Pembroke. He will finish out the season as Head Women’s Basketball Coach. I had several inquiries on who were some of the leaders that I considered to be part of my Coaching Tree.

Today’s post is an attempt to take that on producing that list, but I really need to give credit to Dave Patton at East Carolina University who gave me my start in 1975. He was the Southern Conference Basketball Coach of the Year (1974-75). Some of the influential coaches in my life were players or coaches at ECU included Butch Estes, Billy Lee, Bob McEvoy, Chuck Mohn, Gregg Ashorn, and Herb Krusen.

Rules of the Challenge

Many people have heard of this concept. The notion of six degrees of separation grew out of work conducted by the social psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. It then became a 1993 film named appropriately “Six Degrees of Separation.”

Organizing a six degrees of separation challenge involves creating a chain of people, each connected to the next by a mutual acquaintance. The goal is to demonstrate that any two people in the world can be connected through a chain of six or fewer personal connections.

How to Participate

Here is how to participate:

1. Identify the First and Last Person in the Chain.
2. Go thru the connections with a brief explanation.
3. Do this daily for 30 Days posting on social media with the hashtag #Coach4adayChallenge

Day 22-Dan Kenney Coaching Tree

1. Dan Kenney was an Assistant Coach at UNC Pembroke from 1977-1980 (then called Pembroke State)-players from that era that went on to become coaches included Kelvin Sampson and Mike Rotolo
2. Dan Kenney was an Assistant Coach at Pembroke for both Billy Lee and Joe Gallagher
3. Dan Kenney was an Assistant Coach at Western Carolina University 1980-1985 for Steve Cottrell and worked with Rick Miller-Steve Grogan-and replaced Jack Fertig on the staff.
4. Dan Kenney became the Head Coach at UNC Pembroke 1995-1992 (then called Pembroke State) his assistant coaches included John Haskins and Scott Colclough-partial list of players who became coaches include Ken Spencer-Jeremy Sampson–David May-Jeff Davis-David Simmons–David Graham–Thomas McPhail
5. Dan Kenney became the Head Coach at Winthrop University (1992-1998) where he was hired by Steve Vacendak-his assistant coaches and players included Bobby Stevens–Greg Domecq–Mark Peeler–Bart Lundy (who also played at Pembroke)-Al Poynter–Tyson Waterman
6. Dan Kenney became the Director of Athletics at UNC Pembroke and while as AD hired or worked with a list of coaches/staff that included Pete Shinnick-Wendell Staton–Ben Miller–Paul O’Neil–Larry Rodgers–Mike Schaeffer–Phil Hindson–Shane Richardson-James Miller–Steve Johnson–Robin Langley–Drew Richards–Ray Hedrick–Daniel Roose–Chris Little–Ben Thompson–Tony Jascik–Todd Anderson–Pamela Mason–Marco Genee–Jason Tinsley–Khary McGhee–Beverly Justice–Susan Edkins–Michael Blackburn