News that Laurel Hill School boys basketball coach Kent Zessin is stepping down caught me off guard, but I wasn’t completely surprised.
Knowing Zessin had a stroke in 2007, I had a feeling health concerns, which he confirmed, were the reason for his decision.
I’m glad Kent is stepping away from basketball while he has his health. I’m equally happy that he will remain as LHS’s volleyball coach and athletic director.
I’m glad that I’ll still have the opportunity to chat with him about volleyball, basketball or how his Alabama Crimson Tide football team looks compared to my Tennessee Volunteers. I’m glad that LHS students and athletes will still have the opportunity to learn about life as he teaches sports.
Kent Zessin is one of the coaching profession’s good people. He has always treated me with the same class and dignity, whether the Hoboes won by 20 or lost by a point in overtime. You would be hard-pressed to find any sports writer or opposing coach who had anything bad to say about Zessin.
I covered Zessin all 13 years he coached LHS basketball. That he won 257 games in that time speaks volumes for him as a coach. Think about it: His basketball teams averaged just less than 20 wins a year playing against tough teams like Paxton, Malone and, at times, Central.
Zessin took the 2006 team, led by brothers Brad and Jeffery Reese, to the state semifinals. The 2006 Hoboes were good enough that all you had to do was throw them a basketball and they would do the rest. Anybody with minimal knowledge of basketball basics probably could have won 18 or 20 games with that team.
He was the second-longest tenured head coach at his current school in North Okaloosa County, just behind Crestview baseball coach Tim Gillis. He was the second-longest tenured boys basketball coach in Okaloosa County behind Fort Walton Beach’s John Lavin.
Zessin didn’t just win with great talent. He had the gift of taking average players and elevating their talents with a team-first and aggressive coaching style that kids enjoy.
I’m confident that Zessin, along with LHS Principal Lee Martello and assistant principal Greg Brock, will make the best hire possible for the Hobo basketball program.
Whoever takes the program will have big shoes to fill on and off the court.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: DICKSON: Kent Zessin, one of the good guys