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Owls Basketball: New ERA, New Beginning
With the basketball season starting today, the Jarvis era is
ready to be set in motion. But it hasn't come without some fans being upset
with Jarvis being picked over then FAU assistant Mike Bolado.
Regardless of what has been
written about Mike Jarvis in the past, there is always a new beginning on a new
journey. Some documented troubles off
the hard court (even though the NCAA did not sanction him), kept many schools from
giving him another chance, even with a proven track record of winning on the court.
With a new chapter about to begin, Mike
Jarvis has a unique opportunity to coach a program in his home town of Boca Raton, Florida.
It has been a long hiatus away from the hard court for
Jarvis, yet he found a way to stay involved by teaching at clinics and helping
young men develop not only as basketball players, but as individuals. His work as an analyst for Yahoo! And ESPN also
helped bridge a gap and help fill a void in his heart for a game he truly
loves. The time away may have been long,
but his hopes of returning to coaching a game that is implanted within his DNA
never diminished, and life's new journey has brought him on a collision course
with building a program with very little
foundation.
Things do happen for a reason, and Mike Jarvis had to endure
some burdens that overshadowed him, pushing forward with willpower and purpose
- not driven to prove people wrong, but instead found the strength and inner
peace of a higher power found in all of us as motivation to carry on a path
that would one day lead him to his true love again.
And that love for the game is not just about coaching
basketball, but teaching young men the values of becoming complete individuals,
to succeed not only on the hard court, but in life in general.
It's not every day you have a chance to hire someone with
the qualifications of a Mike Jarvis, Matt Doherty had similar highly held
qualifications, but with Jarvis came more controversies. Florida Atlantic made sure to proceed with
due diligence, which did not sit well with many fans as the recruiting period
was fast slipping by and the hopes of landing any recruits of any worth.
Even with a lengthy coaching search, there is no doubt that
FAU will benefit from having Jarvis at the helm. Jarvis' return to coaching might have been
long overdue, but his patience was rewarded.
Some might say it's not much of a reward, coming to a
program that lacks many of the things the more establish program have to offer,
yet sometimes the rewards are not as apparent to the naked eye and an individual
like Jarvis can envision and create the opportunities that will lead to those
rewards.
Unlike his previous predecessors of Matt Doherty and Rex Walters,
Jarvis understands what it takes to building a program with very little resources
in place, yet he did not shy away from the challenge, he embraced it. Sounds familiar, Jarvis might very well become what Schnellenberger is to FAU Football.
Edited by: Rick Smith
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