Mark DeLap has had a long career in basketball despite facing many setbacks. After breaking his neck and being told he could no longer play, he pursued coaching and has since coached over 500 games at multiple levels. Though he faced losses early in his career both as a player and coach, the setbacks only made him more determined. He coached not just to win games but to create memories and stories with his players. After almost 40 years of coaching basketball, DeLap has impacted many lives through the game and found passion and purpose in his career.

1. HOMETOWNEXTRA
Steele County Times • Tuesday, August 2, 2016 • 1D
Notes from the hardwood
By MARK DELAP
Managing Editor
Fifth grade. I held a basketball in my
hands for a first time. I missed the first
shot I ever took. I played in my first
organized game in seventh grade and
we lost that first game. I wanted to play
college basketball and I broke my neck
and felt as if I had lost again.
The losses and setbacks only made
me more determined and more persis-
tent. Tell me what I can’t do, I’ll show
you what I can do.
After I had broken my neck and the
doctor said that I’d never play again,
I took a different path that could still
keep me close to the game I loved.
Changing my major in college from
music education to journalism educa-
tion came from my talent for writing.
Changing my minor to “coaching”
at the University of Wisconsin – Eau
Claire came from my love for basket-
ball. I wanted to teach ONLY because I
wanted to coach. Basketball.
The first job I took as a coach was an
Eau Claire Parks and Recreation team
back in 1976. We lost the first game
I ever coached. Shocker. The defeats
didn’t make me give up, but made me
go through.
I was tempted though. To give up.
Pride told me I could, then, pride told
me I couldn’t and so I’ve since quit
listening to that voice. After an al-
most 40-year love affair with coaching
basetball, I’ve coached and played in
America and overseas. I have gathered
over 500 coaching victories for all ages
and both sexes including a stint in the
Women’s Pro Leagues, college coach-
ing, coaching at the prestigious 5-Star
camp where I developed a set of teach-
ing videos, am an international coach
at the national camp in Scotland and
was inducted into the V-300 club at the
2010 Basketball Coaches Association
of Michigan Hall of Fame ceremony. In
addition, I boasted the State of Michi-
gan’s leading scorer in 1995, have not
had one player who didn’t graduate,
and have published four books, one of
which was written especially for bas-
ketball players and coaches.
All of that and $7.86 will get me a
small chai latte at Starbucks. I coached
not to amass records, but memories.
And oh, the stories I could tell. My
office back in Michigan is wall to wall
pictures of the kids, shelves full of tro-
phies and awards and one very special
plaque that hangs over my office door.
It’s my prize possession because it was
from one of my teams.
It simply says, “Coach,” and as you
get closer, you see that the word itself
is made of shoestrings braided together.
It was given to me by my players at the
end of the 1993 season and the follow-
ing words were written:” The diction-
ary describes the word lace – to lash
or whip; a cord run through eyelets to
hold things together, as a shoelace. This
could describe our season with Coach
DeLap. To lash or to whip. I’m sure
there were times as he took the new
North Muskegon basketball team last
November that he would have liked to
lash or whip us… but being the quiet,
easygoing person he is – he guided us
through many eyelets, holding together
a team that was willing to learn and
wanting to win. The excitement, the
spirit and the love he has brought to
North Muskegon High School is some-
thing we feel has taken many hours and
many laces. It is with great pride I pres-
ent this from the 1992-93 North Mus-
kegon basketball team to you, Coach
DeLap… Your Team’s shoelaces.” So
you’ll never forget us. So you will al-
ways have a part of us with you on your
amazing journey where we have been
so blessed to call you “Coach.”
I not only recovered from a broken
neck and played and coached, but I’ve
had wonderful kids who also play the
game with the same fire and passion
that I did when I played. Five of my
kids went on be their high school bas-
ketball team MVP for their senior year,
three went on to play college basket-
ball, a fourth could have and a fifth is
my junior in high school waiting in the
wings with a basketball under his arm.
What was the fascination with this
sport? Perhaps it posed a challenge
that I could never completely conquer.
Perhaps it was the simple fact that I
saw a parallel to life itself within the
parameters of its end lines.
Taking a round leather sphere and
putting it into a cold steel ring was such
a small part of it. I saw that the game
had boundaries and enforcers of those
rules and you had to live within them.
You had to work with a team against
an adversary who was out to beat you.
You had to know your role. You had to
respect the voice of authority. You had
to plan your practice and then practice
your plan. You had to perform in the
screaming throng of those thrown into
your life, some who were familiar,
some who were not familiar.
Some hostile, some kind. Some
who would root for you and some who
would root against you. And all this
pressure had to be done and completed
within a short span of time.
It’s one thing to play. It’s quite an-
other to coach. There is an excerpt from
my book that I would love to leave you
with today. It’s simply entitled: Buried
Treasure. “Success is not just locating
the buried treasure in your players… It
is rather, the ability to help them bring
that wealth to the surface. Resting on
their ocean floor is your next champi-
onship.”
For teaching, videos and all things
basketball, please feel free to visit my
coaching website at coachdelap.word-
press.com
You will see some vintage Steph
Curry at 5-Star, some Lebron teach-
ing, some great Scotland basketball
and some great teaching videos. For
my basketball book of motivation and
prose for players and coaches, please
go to Barnes and Noble or Amazon and
search for “A Warrior’s Heart.”
From left to right: 1- Coach Mark DeLap with his Varsity seniors from North Muskegon High school.
2- On court teaching, 5-Star Basketball Camp in Pittsburgh at Robert Morris College. 3- A teaching
moment for one of the national teams in Scotland. 4- With former NBA player, B.J. Mullens at 5-Star
Louisville. 6- Coaching The Minnesota Fillies of the old Women’s Professional Basketball League at
the Minneapolis Auditorium. 7- Posting up a Scottish player in low post drills. 8- A Warrior’s Heart by
Mark DeLap. 9- Picture day with his Varsity girls in Ithaca, Michigan. (Submitted photos)
‘Coaching was never just
my livelihood, it will al-
ways be my passion.’
- Coach DeLap