Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Sam Penrod ReportingA longtime basketball coach is getting national recognition for promoting high school sports. This is the story of a retired small town coach, who still finds a way to teach that basketball is a lot like life.
Wilbur Braithwaite: "I walked around the floor, looked at the goals and I had tears falling down my eyes because I really didn't want to quit coaching."
It's been 18 years since Wilbur Braithwaite coached his last game at Manti High School. He had a 37-year career as the head coach, with 534 wins and 267 losses and not one technical foul! Over four decades, Braithwaite coached high school basketball, a game he still loves.
Wilbur Braithwaite: "I still get butterflies when I see a team enter and a pep band plays."
While he always focused on fundamentals, Braithwaite worried more about teaching his players sportsmanship, than scoring a winning record. Even today, he believes a coach's greatest challenge is to teach players to never give up.
Wilbur Braithwaite: "You cannot play a game without making a mistake, and to try to try seek perfection is just not going to work."
Last month, the National Federation of State High School Associations presented him with its highest honor, the prestigious Award of Merit, for his lifetime of accomplishments and sharing his philosophies of coaching.
Wilbur Braithwaite: "I always told high school kids, I said, 'You don't want me as your coach, the best coach in the world is you, because you know what's going on out there, become knowledgeable, read about the game, study the game.'"
Braithwaite just celebrated his 80th birthday, and he says the older he gets, he realizes the real satisfaction from his career is from having the chance to mentor the youth in his hometown.
Wilbur Braithwaite:"My greatest memory of coaching is when a player comes up, ten years, twenty years, thirty, forty years after you coached them and they say, 'Thanks coach.' That's the greatest thrill there is in coaching, that's what coaching is all about."
A lasting influence on his players, from a coach who proves that basketball is much more than a game.
Today, the school has a new gym, appropriately named after Braithwaite. Students there still refer to him as "coach" even though some were not even born when he retired.
