UTEP women's basketball assistant coach Bill Damuth spoke with the Iceman Brandon Cohn's Speech classes at Bassett Middle School on Wednesday.  Damuth, who has been an assistant coach with the program since 2010, amazed the students with his wisdom, humor, and inspired them with some remarkable advice.

Coach Damuth began by speaking with the students about his education, and asking them what they are good at.  He told my students how fortunate they are to actually be in school receiving a quality education.  Damuth mentioned how he was voted least likely to go to college during his senior year of high school, and how he has now ironically enough, obtained his Master's degree in sports science and management.

Bill then began to speak about the power of effective communication in life.  He noted that being a good communicator gives you confidence, and said "there must be communication on the basketball court in order to get things accomplished."  Coach played a communication game with the students where he whispered something silly like the big blue rabbit jumps into the pond after school, and then the message was relayed to other individuals.

Of course the original message was drastically changed by the time the last student received it; hence being a good example of how effective communication is imperative.  Damuth told the students to try not to walk around mad all of the time, he noted that having a positive attitude can take you far in life, and that it's extremely important to attempt to communicate with everyone.

Coach answered several of the student's questions and even brought two of his National Championship rings that he won at Trinity Valley Community College.  Damuth talked about his hectic recruiting schedule and told the students, "recently I took a trip to Baltimore and visited four recruits in one day, starting with the first one at 9:00 A.M. and didn't get back to my hotel room until after midnight."  Bill also told my students that he has only had two losing seasons in 22 years of coaching.

Coach Damuth's Junior College National Championship ring with Trinity Valley Community College. (Photo By Brandon Cohn)"
Coach Damuth's Junior College National Championship ring with Trinity Valley Community College. (Photo By Brandon Cohn)"
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Bill went on to give the kids some valuable advice that they will hopefully remember for the rest of their lives.  Here are a few of his quotes, "life gets worse unless you make it better, don't blame anyone for your failures, just keep trying to succeed, when someone is getting on your case, it is a good thing, if you're good at something and want to be great, you have to get out of your comfort zone, and finally, there are two different ways to do things in basketball and in life.  I'm going to do what I do, and I'm going to do what they do (in reference to his opponent in basketball) and go on to win championships."

My special thanks to UTEP women's basketball assistant coach Bill Damuth for taking time out of his busy recruiting schedule to come visit my Speech students at Bassett Middle School.

 

 

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