Profile: Kenny Osborne

By Dan Stillwell
Register-Herald Senior Writer

ATHENS July 04, 2009 11:41 pm

— College basketball coaches usually put thousands of miles on their cars every year, traveling to see potential recruits.
Not Kenny Osborne.
The Concord University basketball women’s coach prefers to look just a few miles up or down the road from Athens.
“The big joke here is that my recruiting budget needs to be $25,” Osborne said.
And why not? Osborne has turned his team into a West Virginia Conference power by signing girls from Summers County and Princeton, Greenbrier East, Wyoming East and James Monroe.
Sure, he signs the occasional player from Virginia, maybe Pennsylvania or Maryland.
But Osborne is sold on home-grown talent, which sets him apart. Even in the WVC.
Just a couple of years ago the Mountain Lions had Greenbrier East’s Sam Nester in the post, and Summers County’s Sierra Brown and Joanna Mills as her backups. James Monroe’s Shari Walker was lighting it up at two-guard, Wyoming East’s Cassidy Smith was stepping up at forward and Princeton’s Lyndsey Repass was the top reserve at guard.
“We were 41-18 during that period. We were regionally ranked and nationally ranked,” Osborne said. “We’d never had a 20-win season here until Walker’s senior year.
“I think that’s proof southern West Virginia girls can win. They want to win and they’re very competitive.”
Which also describes the coach.
-----
Kenny Osborne got involved in college athletics by starting on the ground floor.
Make that the laundry room.
Never a star athlete himself, he worked as a student manager for sports teams at Glenville State College.
“I was a student flunky. I had a master key to the physical education building,” Osborne said. “I did the stats, laundry, you name it.”
When Gary Nottingham became men’s basketball coach in 1983, he didn’t have an assistant. So he’d ask Osborne to come along and help drive on recruiting trips.
Soon, Osborne was traveling with the team, doing things like setting up meals. Before long he decided he wanted to become a coach himself, particularly on the college level.
He earned his degree in physical education and safety education in 1985 and then spent three years getting his master’s degree at Radford College in Radford, Va. He returned to Glenville in 1989 to teach and be Nottingham’s assistant.
There was a catch. He had to coach another sport.
“It was originally to be cross country. I’d never even been to a volleyball match, let alone tried to coach women,” Osborne said. “They told me to do it for a year and I really enjoyed it.”
He didn’t know much about volleyball, but he got some books and talked to coaches. It was a learning experience.
Osborne spent eight years as Glenville’s volleyball coach. His last season, 1996, the Pioneers earned a then-school record 23 wins.
He was also the men’s assistant basketball coach for six years and assistant women’s basketball coach for one year. He taught 12 hours each semester and also served as the school’s compliance officer when the WVC joined the NCAA.
The 1996-97 school year Osborne went back to another alma mater, Gilmer County High School, and coached its girls basketball team. The Titans went 20-4 and went to the state tournament, but ran into a Tucker County team that was on a 50-game winning streak.
He took the women’s basketball job at Bluefield State College in 1997 and led the Lady Blues to the WVC tournament semifinals.
Still on the move, Osborne became assistant men’s basketball coach at Concord in 1998. He took over the reins of the women’s basketball team in 2000.
Wins were few the first couple of seasons, but his overall record is now 129-126.
“We struggled for a couple of years until we got a good recruiting base in,” Osborne said. “We got better.”
-----
Concord had a great player in All-American Renee Gagnier, and the Lady Lions reached the WVC semifinals in 2002.
In the fall of 2004, Walker transferred to Concord from Glenville and Osborne signed Nester from Greenbrier East.
“They’re what got things going,” he said. “They’re special people. Walker is a great leader with that bubbly smile and attitude, and she can shoot the eye out of the ball.
“Walker led (Greenbrier East) to the state championship game, but unfortunately she had to play against Alexis Hornbuckle and Renee Montgomery (South Charleston stars who went on to college fame at Tennessee and Connecticut, respectively).”
Not only did Walker and Nester prove to Osborne that southern West Virginia girls could be outstanding WVC players, but they drew other star players to Concord.
First there was the Summers County connection.
When some schools backed away from Mills after she nearly lost her life in an automobile accident, Osborne signed her.
“She was probably the best post player in the state before the accident,” Osborne said. “She’s done everything she’s been asked to do, but she’s still not fully recovered. Then we went back to Summers and got Sierra Brown and Sarah Blevins.
“It’s the best program in West Virginia.”
Princeton’s Repass could run and defend. Smith had a stellar career at Wyoming East, as did Sarah Tuggle at James Monroe.
And then 2008 state player of the year Jolysa Brown, Sierra’s sister, signed with Concord.
“All those kids came from good programs and good families,” Osborne said. “That makes my job easier. They were rivals in high school but they get here and they form a bond.”
This year he signed yet another Summers County star, state player of the year runner-up Emily Blevins (Sarah’s sister), PikeView standout center Trista Thomas, Princeton’s Amanda Smith (one of the top players last March in the state tournament) and former Woodrow Wilson sharpshooter Camisha Alexander, who is transferring from Youngstown State.
Osborne now gets most of the players he wants from the area. The exception was Shady Spring all-state guard Emily Daniels who signed with Shepherd University.
“Emily wanted to go away,” he said. “Those things happen, but the kids we want, I think we have a great chance of getting.
“Concord is a great school, and it’s close. Grandpa and grandma can see them play.
“We’ve had great fan support the last four or five years. This year at Senior Day, between Smith and Repass, they probably had 50 people between them. It says a lot.”
-----
Osborne, 45, admits he takes a little getting use to. Like several other former Glenville coaches, notably RIch Rodriguez who went on to football fame at West Virginia University, he can be a little loud.
And profane.
“I can be very fiery,” he said, matter-of-factly. “I tell them during the recruiting process that I yell. I scream. I cuss some.
“I tell them that probably the second phone call. But I also tell them it’s nothing they won’t hear in the halls of their high schools.
“Right or wrong or indifferent, I’ve been doing it 45 years. I was only the fourth or fifth-best cusser at Glenville. My wife asked me if they teach cussing there as a class!”
Osborne said he likes coaching women because they have their priorities in order.
He believes they’re more organized and have a better idea of what they want to do with their lives.
“They practice as hard as they can and compete as hard as they can,” he said. “But once the game is over, once they’ve eaten, they realize the sun is going to come up tomorrow.”
Osborne also thinks women are not only better students and get into less trouble than men, but they’re more coachable.
“Every guy (men’s coach) Steve Cox brings in, or (Nottingham) at Glenville, they all thought they’re going to the NBA and play for pay,” he said. “Women know this is it, so they’re going to listen to you.”
-----
Last season, Concord was 13-15 overall but 11-9 in the conference. The team was streaky.
“It hurt us to lose Sarah Blevins (to an injury) in our third game. She was the only experienced point guard we had back,” Osborne said. “We’d win three, lose two. But we got six in a row going in February.”
He is enthusiastic about the coming year. Everyone returns but Smith, Repass and forward Amber Showalter.
Besides the local recruits, Osborne made a few other signings and has some redshirted players who will make an impact as well.
“We’ll have a lot of depth,” he said. “I think we have a chance to be really good.”
Don’t be surprised to sometimes see the Brown sisters, the Blevins sisters and Alexander on the floor at the same time.
“You’re talking four Summers County girls and a Woodrow girl,” Osborne said.
“So there’s that $25 recruiting budget.”
— E-mail: dstillwell@register-herald.com

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.