Leading a class of 30 kids through a basketball drill in a hot gym while clad in a shirt and tie, Corey Thacker looked every bit the part of Douglas High School's next basketball coach.
"One of the things the school district does is they have applicants for teaching positions teach a lesson in front of them," Douglas athletic director Jeff Evans said.
"We were looking for a teacher and a coach that would be able to fit seamlessly into the program and mesh with the kids.
"We saw Corey with the kids and he just stood out. He fit both packages that we were looking for and it's like he came to us gift-wrapped."
Thacker, who coached Spring Creek for the last six years (five as head coach) and led the Spartans into the Northern 3A Regional semifinals last season and into the Nevada 3A state tournament the year before, was hired as Douglas' new boys' basketball coach this week.
It follows the same route of Douglas took with previous coach Rob Streeter, who led Dayton to the 3A state finals several times before making the leap to 4A ball.
"I talked with Rob about the job and talked a lot about it with my family," Thacker said. "We really liked the community atmosphere. It's a bigger town for us, but it still has that small-town feel.
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Thacker said his primary focus as a coach has always been defense.
"Defense has to come first," he said. "We'll be looking to continue the defensive tradition Rob established. Then we'll be looking to push the ball and teach the kids how to react to certain situations."
Streeter, who in May accepted a coaching position at brand-new Clovis North High School in California, took Douglas to the Northern 4A Regional championship game last season where the Tigers lost a 56-55 nail-biter to eventual state champ Galena.
"Corey is coming out of a similar situation to what Rob had at Dayton," Evans said. "He came in to a program that was 2 and something and turned them into a
contender.
"He's coming into a situation at Douglas where he won't have to turn anything around, he'll just have to maintain and build on what we already have. We're very excited about him as a coach."
"We heard so many good things about him, but the one quote that stood out was someone told us that kids will run through a brick wall for this guy. That's a pretty powerful statement.
Thacker came with high praise from Streeter.
"We saw each other for four seasons when I was still at Dayton and we were very similar in our styles as coaches," Streeter said. "Whenever we played Spring Creek, I knew his kids were going to play hard.
"He likes getting his kids to step up and be aggressive on defense. He will be a great fit at Douglas High School and I think the team is really going to like him."
Thacker is a native Nevadan and graduated from Elko High School in 1996. He averaged 19.9 points per game as a senior for the Indians and was named first-team All-Northern 4A, second-team all-state and an All-USA honorable mention.
He broke Elko school records in career steals (115), career assists (152), season 3-point percentage (41.7) and season 3-pointers made (82). He also played football and ran track. He was a first-team all-state tight end in football.
He went on to play guard at Albertson College in Idaho, where he stayed for five years.
"This will be a big move for us," Thacker said. "College was the most time I spent away from Elko. I hope this turns out to be a long-term situation. The area, the job situation, it just fits our whole family."
"Just watching him teach the lesson, you can just see he's a very talented and gifted athlete," Evans said. "He walked in there and boom, boom, he had the kids going right along with them. We just had an immediate liking for him as a teacher and as a coach."
Thacker said one of the hardest things about leaving would be saying good-bye to his group at Spring Creek.
"It's hard trying to figure out what to say," he said. "You get to know them so well and they work so hard."
Incidentally, Thacker also won silver medals at the U.S. Olympic Team Handball Festival in 1995 and the Senior National Championship. He won a gold medal at the Junior National Handball Championships.
"That was a funny thing," Thacker said. "I was at Dresslerville, of all places, for a basketball tournament when I was still in high school.
"A guy from Fresno was going around recruiting people to play team handball and I ended up playing with his group for about three years. We did well. It was a fun experience."
Thacker will be moving to town with his wife and two children, ages 4 and six months. He will teach physical education at Douglas next year.
"I think he's going to step right in and do a wonderful job," Evans said. "You're not going to replace a Rob Streeter with a Rob Streeter. Corey will start the Corey Thacker era here. We'll just wait to see what happens."
n Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
