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Saturday, February 18, 2012

More Than a Game: Austin Vasiliadis becomes Langley High’s player-coach

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More Than a Game: Austin Vasiliadis becomes Langley High’s player-coach

Toni L. Sandys/THE WASHINGTON POST - Langley’s Austin Vasiliadis, second from left, helps the team’s coaches make decisions, often playing the tiebreaker during disagreements.

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Langley High basketball coach Travis Hess was at home watching television on a Friday night last fall when his phone rang. The number belonged to the school’s athletic director.

“It was 8:05 and a weird time to call me,” said Hess. “I was instantly worried that one of our players was hurt.” Several members of the school’s basketball team play football in the fall, including senior Austin Vasiliadis, the team captain.

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Vasiliadis, a starter on the basketball team since his sophomore year, made the basketball all-District and Northern Region tournament first teams last year.

“I knew he was playing quarterback and liked to run the option. The rest is history.” Vasiliadis tore his left anterior cruciate ligament while making a cut out of bounds.

Football was Vasiliadis’s second sport. It was something he did for fun, and to stay in shape, but basketball was his love. Earlier in the summer he had committed to play for Johns Hopkins. “He was going to win all kinds of awards,” said Hess.

Worried about his player’s psyche, Hess wanted to make sure Vasiliadis still had an important place on the basketball team. “I didn’t want him sitting at the end of the bench thinking ‘I wish I was out there,’?” Hess said.

The next day he spoke with Vasiliadis on the phone. “I promised him that we would turn it into a positive and that we would make the best out of it,” Hess said. “I wanted him to be an assistant coach.”

“I knew I was still going to be a part of the team, I just didn’t know what my role was going to be,” said Vasiliadis. “I knew I was still going to be around and come to everything I could.”

He had planned to come to every game and sit on the end of the bench. Only now, it would be the other end.

Vasiliadis was excited after speaking with Hess. With months of therapy on the horizon, he had something to look forward to. “I was excited to have some sort of a role on the team.”

All the team’s coaches agreed it would help Vasiliadis’s development as a player. Point guards often are considered an extension of the coach on the court. Running the offense on the court by distributing the ball, point guards must always be aware of their coach’s wishes.

“He probably doesn’t even realize it,” said assistant coach Scott Newman, “but he’s soaking up good things. He’s hearing what coaches think and what coaches talk about as they watch a game. That’s what point guards need. They need to think like a coach.”

“It gives me a unique perspective,” said Vasiliadis. “I get a better sense of a lot of the personnel decisions, like who goes in the game when, and how a coach looks at the game.”

The other coaches call him Coach Vasiliadis as they stand together before a game assessing the opponent. His is just one hand that officials come by to shake. During time outs, Vasiliadis rises from the bench and joins the other coaches on the floor for a huddle before they talk to the players. His opinion is valued as much as any other.

“We make a lot of collective decisions on the bench,” said Newman. “We’ve definitely used Austin as the tiebreaker. He’s made some good calls. He has a good feel for the game.”

“You wouldn’t do it with everybody,” said Newman, “but it’s his team. It really is.”

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