Published: October 10, 2008 12:00 am      

Assistant coach Bruce sees MSA as ‘something special’

For Arkell Bruce, returning to Beckley — his home away from home for four years while at The College of West Virginia/Mountain State University — wasn’t so much a return to familiar digs as it was an irony.

The assistant basketball coaching position he took at Mountain State Academy could have been anywhere ... in the state.

“It could have been anywhere in West Virginia and I would have taken it,” the Huntington native said. “It could have been on the border in Ohio or Kentucky back home and I would have taken it. Did I ever think I’d be back in Beckley after I left? No. But this is a wonderful opportunity.”

Bruce is a former AAU coach who was also an assistant coach at Huntington High during O.J. Mayo’s senior year and last year was a graduate assistant at Marshall for coach Donnie Jones.

“I really thought I’d be at Marshall this year,” Bruce said. “But this was too good an opportunity. What we’ve got going on at Mountain State Academy could be something special and I want to be a part of it.”

For the record, Bruce said the assembled talent at MSA is better than that at Huntington High School.

“But they don’t have the wild card and that’s O.J. Mayo,” Bruce said. “He was head-and-shoulders above these kids. But that’s not a bad thing.”

Indeed, Mayo was the No. 4 pick in last summer’s NBA draft, going to the Memphis Grizzlies after a year at USC.

Bruce said he was contacted about the position by MSA head coach Rob Fulford.

“Arkell’s been around AAU basketball, he was coaching and I knew he was looking for a full-time coaching position,” Fulford said. “He really suits the level that we’re trying to develop here. He really excels at individual workouts. Above all, he is a good guy. I coached Arkell when I was a volunteer assistant for coach (Bob) Bolen at Mountain State. They don’t come any finer that Arkell.”

Bruce played for MSU when it was still known as The College of West Virginia. He was on the first team that made it to the NAIA national tournament.

“I’m proud of being there when we turned the corner,” Bruce said. “We made it to the Sweet 16 twice, got beat in the first round a couple times. But you could tell what was going on. Coach Bolen did a great job recruiting and building that team. The best small school program in America.”

“Arkell was a very talented player,” Bolen said. “His knowledge of the game was excellent and his skill level was very high.”

Bolen isn’t surprised Bruce is coaching.

“Not at all,” he said. “With his knowledge and skill level, and the fact that he enjoyed kids, I knew it would be an easy transition (into coaching) for Arkell.”

“I wouldn’t want to do anything else,” Bruce said. “In fact, I hope to coach in the NBA someday. In five years.”

That’s some timetable, but Fulford wouldn’t be surprised if he makes it, what with his contacts and his ability to develop talent.

“Every kid wants to play in the NBA. Some make it, some don’t,” Fulford said. “The NBA is more about player development than it is coaching. And he has a knack for that.”

Bruce’s driving force, other than an intense passion and knowledge of the game, is his daughter Kamden and his fiancee Kristen Berry.

“The hardest thing in the world was leaving them,” Bruce said. “But this job allows me to take care of them the way I want to take care of them. They are the most important thing in the world to me.”

Considering his love of basketball, that’s saying something.

In other MSU Academy news: Deniz Kilicli, the 6-foot-9 Turk who is drawing interest from just about every Division I program in the nation — including West Virginia — and 6-4 guard Kofi Mensa will take their unofficial visit to WVU tonight for the Mountaineers’ Midnight Madness practice at the Coliseum.