Alum takes reign as head basketball coach

GONZALES — The choices one makes in life affects their path toward success. For A.J. Irwin, his choices have finally landed him a spot as head boys’ basketball coach for his Gonzales Apaches.

This summer, athletic director Kodi Crane hired Irwin as the head boys’ basketball coach, citing Irwin’s passion as a big reason behind selecting him as the new head coach.

“He’s passionate about Apache basketball,” Crane said of the hometown alum. “He wanted the job. It was evident in his presentation whenever we were interviewing him. He just sold us that our kids — our program — was in the best hands if he was in charge. We opened the job up, we interviewed several people but his passion and dedication to Apache basketball [sold us].”

This upcoming season will be Irwin’s fourth as part of the staff and sixth overall as a coach. He has dabbled in multiple sports from helping out on the sideline of football games to assisting in basketball, softball and much more. However, this will be his first as a head coach for a varsity team here in Gonzales.

It’s telling that the photo used with this article is that of Irwin in the old gym. The class of 2005 Apache alum wants to bring it back to when he put on the orange, black and white colors and take it to the “Runnin’ Apaches” days.

“It’s no secret what we’re going to do,” Irwin said. “The way you can beat every single defense is by not letting them set up, beating them down the floor. Well how are you going to do that? By being the Runnin’ Apaches. We’re going to run down the floor. “

The head coach believes that the best offense is having a great defense. Naturally, that means his iteration of Apaches will be pressing.

“We’re going to attack and play very aggressively,” Irwin boasted. “I plan on having every able body that is physical and mentally ready to play at the varsity level play.”

The Apaches have gone away from this way of play years ago and the alum turned head coach wants to right the ship.

“I remember coming here years ago and watching Gonzales play basketball like I’ve never seen Gonzales play basketball,” he retold. “I don’t mean that in a [good] way. I’m watching Gonzales where we got lightning quick kids on the floor, but they’re playing a half-court style game. We’re walking the ball up.”

Irwin believed the coaching staff at the time either thought their team didn’t have depth, or that slowing the game down would, in theory, make the score closer.

“I can understand that, but that also tells me that whoever it was, as a coach, you weren’t able to focus on the little things,” Irwin said. “Well, the beauty in the way that I coach and what I’m going to coach now is that all of those little things are going to be things that we do every single day. And all of those little things that we do every single day ties directly to the offense we’re going to run every single day. And our offenses that we’re going to run every single day are going to be things that transition us directly into our defense, which is how we’re going to play defense, every single day.”

The talent is there. Whether Irwin can take that talent and push the Apaches into heights they haven’t reached in a long time, well, time can only tell. But opportunities are coming, the head coach said.

“They’ve been playing in Moulton. I’ve been watching them,” he noted. “They play with a lot of energy, they’re real tenacious. They want to win. You can tell that it hurts them — it really hurts them — when they lose. That means that they care. And the fact that they care makes it that much more fulfilling as a coach. Any coach will tell you that.”

Now the question is whether Irwin will be able to harness that talent and mold it into a successful program.

“My head coach [David Peavy] saw something in me that I didn’t,” Irwin said of his playing days in high school. “Now, the team that I inherited, there’s a lot of potential. Mind you, I coached some of the kids back when they were eighth graders, seventh graders. There’s a lot of kids I see in them what they can’t see in themselves yet because they’re not there just like I wasn’t there.”

One of the difficulties in coaching high school is not only getting the athletes to buy in to your system, but also appearing relatable to the youngsters. Despite being from here, there still is a few facts folks may not know about Irwin’s upbringing.

“He has a deeper inside of the kids that we’ll play,” Crane noted. “I think that gives him an advantage.”

“Some [people] don’t realize that I know like 85 percent of the people on ‘the hill,’” Irwin said. “I had a friend of mine [where] I used to stay at his house…in trailer parks. And I say that because a lot of our kids go through a lot of rough stuff. And when you look at me you don’t think that because I don’t fit that stereotype.”

Irwin went on to mention how he didn’t get a pair of brand shoes until late in junior high.

“They were like cross-training shoes, probably $19 at Academy,” he recalled.

But getting to where he is now, Irwin believes that he can be a shining example of hard work translating into success.

“I got to embody what I do and what I’ve done to get to where I’m at and show them that it doesn’t matter where you are or where you’ve come from…where you’re going is [based on] the choices you make.”

Irwin’s choices have led him to a head coaching job at his alma matter. He hopes that the choices his athletes make can lead them to success both on-the-court and off it.