Photo by: Luke Della
Mac Drives The Bus
10/2/2019 8:15:00 AM | Men's Basketball
DENTON — Following a 2006 Thanksgiving basketball tournament at Angelina College, the then Midland College head basketball coach Grant McCasland got in the team bus.
But not in a passenger seat.
The then 30-year-old McCasland hopped into the driver's seat, checked his rear view mirror to make sure the team was all aboard and then puttered off.
The only licensed coach on the team who could drive the bus that was more like a van you'd see at a two terminal airport, McCasland drove the team the nearly 500 miles back to Midland on Thanksgiving day.
Occasionally cutting turns too tight and romping a curve that led to jokes and laughter, which lit up the dark and silent bus, the team stopped for dinner at the only place that was open on the holiday.
A convenience store.
After eating what was essentially their postgame meal of Ho Hos and Mountain Dew, McCasland and his team got back in the bus and set off for their next game.
"You just appreciate so much the people who are willing to go through that with you for the common goal of something that isn't about glitz and glamour but something bigger than yourself," McCasland said. "It's all about the relationships of the people inside the bus that you were doing life with. Always has been."
As the 2006-07 season went on and McCasland drove the team from one game to another, the road of the junior college basketball season eventually led the Chaps to Hutchinson, Kansas, at the NJCAA National Tournament.
Midland won the national championship that year by winning four games in four days, including knocking off the No. 1 ranked team.
Despite winning a national championship and coaching on the opposite end against legends such as Mark Adams and Steve Green, there was no ESPN national championship postgame interview. No steak dinner back at the hotel. And certainly no private jet waiting for them on a runway.
There was the bus.
And the same people who got off that bus at the convenient store on Thanksgiving night got in after winning the championship.
"Junior college basketball and the grind you go through separates the boys from the men," said senior North Texas guard Roosevelt Smart who began his college career at New Mexico Junior College. "You've got to really love being part of a team and love the game to go through that."
Now in his third season at North Texas, the 42-year-old Mean Green head coach has established within the program many of the same characteristics that led him to becoming a junior college national champion coach.
"The backbone to our program has been and will continue to be guys who are true grinders," McCasland said. "They aren't entitled to what they feel they should get out of it. Their interest is the team and what they can give the team to win. And junior college guys have a good understanding of that."
Six players on the Mean Green — 40 percent of the team — have come to UNT from a junior college.
Every coach on staff has some junior college tie.
"You find a love for the game and your team that you didn't know you had in high school," said junior Javion Hamlet who went to two different junior colleges before landing in Denton. "Try telling me I don't love the game when I had to live in a house with 16 other teammates in a city I didn't know and eat grimy food every day."
McCasland's love for the game and the experiences that life has brought him and his family doesn't just extend to him driving a team bus.
Before becoming the head coach at Midland, McCasland was an assistant at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colorado.
But when he was hired as the second assistant, he needed to first find a job on campus as there was no full-time coaching positions available.
A resident hall assistant is what he got.
So he and his wife Cece, both in their early 20s and just a week into their marriage, packed up their bags and moved into Herboldscheimer Hall on the campus of Northeastern JC.
Crammed into a small dorm room in a building that held 80 students, McCasland coached during the day and patrolled the dorm at night.
"I still remember being up at 2 a.m. and writing up women for having chew tobacco cups in the lobby," McCasland said. "Then Cece and I would wake up and make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the team.
"But at the time I didn't wish I was doing something else. I'm still close with the people from Herboldscheimer Hall. And they didn't play basketball. They were friends of my wife and I. They were family. It was all about the relationships of the people inside Herboldscheimer Hall that you were doing life with and the similar experiences you were going through" he added.
But not in a passenger seat.
The then 30-year-old McCasland hopped into the driver's seat, checked his rear view mirror to make sure the team was all aboard and then puttered off.
The only licensed coach on the team who could drive the bus that was more like a van you'd see at a two terminal airport, McCasland drove the team the nearly 500 miles back to Midland on Thanksgiving day.
Occasionally cutting turns too tight and romping a curve that led to jokes and laughter, which lit up the dark and silent bus, the team stopped for dinner at the only place that was open on the holiday.
A convenience store.
After eating what was essentially their postgame meal of Ho Hos and Mountain Dew, McCasland and his team got back in the bus and set off for their next game.
"You just appreciate so much the people who are willing to go through that with you for the common goal of something that isn't about glitz and glamour but something bigger than yourself," McCasland said. "It's all about the relationships of the people inside the bus that you were doing life with. Always has been."
As the 2006-07 season went on and McCasland drove the team from one game to another, the road of the junior college basketball season eventually led the Chaps to Hutchinson, Kansas, at the NJCAA National Tournament.
Midland won the national championship that year by winning four games in four days, including knocking off the No. 1 ranked team.
Despite winning a national championship and coaching on the opposite end against legends such as Mark Adams and Steve Green, there was no ESPN national championship postgame interview. No steak dinner back at the hotel. And certainly no private jet waiting for them on a runway.
There was the bus.
And the same people who got off that bus at the convenient store on Thanksgiving night got in after winning the championship.
"Junior college basketball and the grind you go through separates the boys from the men," said senior North Texas guard Roosevelt Smart who began his college career at New Mexico Junior College. "You've got to really love being part of a team and love the game to go through that."
Now in his third season at North Texas, the 42-year-old Mean Green head coach has established within the program many of the same characteristics that led him to becoming a junior college national champion coach.
"The backbone to our program has been and will continue to be guys who are true grinders," McCasland said. "They aren't entitled to what they feel they should get out of it. Their interest is the team and what they can give the team to win. And junior college guys have a good understanding of that."
Six players on the Mean Green — 40 percent of the team — have come to UNT from a junior college.
Every coach on staff has some junior college tie.
"You find a love for the game and your team that you didn't know you had in high school," said junior Javion Hamlet who went to two different junior colleges before landing in Denton. "Try telling me I don't love the game when I had to live in a house with 16 other teammates in a city I didn't know and eat grimy food every day."
McCasland's love for the game and the experiences that life has brought him and his family doesn't just extend to him driving a team bus.
Before becoming the head coach at Midland, McCasland was an assistant at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colorado.
But when he was hired as the second assistant, he needed to first find a job on campus as there was no full-time coaching positions available.
A resident hall assistant is what he got.
So he and his wife Cece, both in their early 20s and just a week into their marriage, packed up their bags and moved into Herboldscheimer Hall on the campus of Northeastern JC.
Crammed into a small dorm room in a building that held 80 students, McCasland coached during the day and patrolled the dorm at night.
"I still remember being up at 2 a.m. and writing up women for having chew tobacco cups in the lobby," McCasland said. "Then Cece and I would wake up and make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the team.
"But at the time I didn't wish I was doing something else. I'm still close with the people from Herboldscheimer Hall. And they didn't play basketball. They were friends of my wife and I. They were family. It was all about the relationships of the people inside Herboldscheimer Hall that you were doing life with and the similar experiences you were going through" he added.
Players Mentioned
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