Falcons’ Hough happy to be coaching at alma mater
Rob Burchianti
Joe Hough is a Brownsville graduate who has already made an imprint at his alma mater as a boys basketball coach.
Hough was an assistant under his brother Paul when the starting blocks for a team that would win a WPIAL championship under Pete Logan two years later were placed.
Since then Hough has been a head coach at Beth-Center and Avella and back as an assistant at Brownsville.
This season he’ll take over as head coach of the Falcons for the first time.
“It’s a little surreal because I graduated from Brownsville and coached there before and as I always tell the kids, I’m a Brownsville kid just like them,” Hough said. “It’s really weird because if you go back to my yearbook quote my senior year, it’s to be the head coach of Brownsville High School and lead them to a WPIAL championship. So it’s kind of a coaching career fulfilled in some respects, the opportunity to come back and coach at a place I absolutely love is amazing.”
Hough admitted there’s a little more pressure when you’re coaching at your old school.
“There is when you’re back home because you so badly want to do well and want our kids to succeed,” Hough said. “I wanted that at Beth-Center and Avella, too, but when you’re coaching at your alma mater you just want it a little bit more.”
Hough takes over for Rob Ramsey who stepped down after three seasons at the helm of the Falcons.
Hough has a solid core group returning.
“I do have several kids back who had a good amount of playing time last year,” Hough said. “They are (sophomore) Silas Patterson, (senior) Cameron Phillips, (senior) Kaden Wimmer, (junior) Max Dieudonne and (senior) Jaiden Praster.
“That is huge because usually when you’re taking over a program you look around and there’s almost no starters left. Those five kids played a bulk of the basketball last year for Rob.”
There is a transition going on with a new coach.
“The thing right now is, because we’re changing our philosophy somewhat, we’re changing our system, it’s a little bit different for them in that respect,” Hough said. “But it helps a lot when you have some kids who have been through some wars.”
The Falcons have some depth, also.
“We have an idea who our starting five is going to be but we have enough versatility with our top eight kids that we can run a bigger lineup or we can go a little bit small depending on the opponent,” said Hough, noting sophomore Alex Remington, senior Jaylen Blair and junior Will Early as key players off the bench.
“Jaiden Praster is probably going to be our point guard. That’s where he’s always been and he does a really good job. I had him in middle school.
“Silas and Max are going to be the wings on our offense. When we go with our two big dudes it’ll be Cameron and Kaden. We also have Alex Remington off the bench who may get a spot start once in a while when we go smaller.
“Blair is a kid we are counting on that did not play last year. He is about 6-foot, can jump out the gym and gives us really good energy. He’ll be our first post player off the bench.
“So we have a lot of versatility in what lineup we can put out there.”
Hough has good numbers in his first season.
“The 17 we have on our basketball team right now are 17 really good kids,” Hough said. “We’re going to play varsity and JVs right now. That’s the other really good thing is because we’ve got some younger kids that we think are going to develop pretty well, now we don’t have to have them just sitting on the varsity bench. If we can get 12 to 15 JV games in during the season it’s really going to help the program.”
As for the varsity, Hough noted his team is filled with solid leaders.
“I’ve got several guys that have really stepped up into leadership roles, pretty much most of those guys I’ve already mentioned,” Hough said. “Silas, Max, Cam and Kaden have been really good. Jaiden Praster has been phenomenal. They’ve all been leaders in understanding what’s changed and what we want.
“They’ve bought in pretty quickly.”
Hough isn’t one to try to fit a square peg in a round hole. He adjusts to what he sees on his roster.
“One difference now is I wasn’t a big press person when I was at Beth-Center or Avella, but we have some good athletes here and we’re going to use them to the best of our abilities and maybe be a little more up-tempo than I’m used to,” Hough said. “But we think that’s what’s best for our kids to be successful. We assessed what we had over the summer. We will be a base man team like always, but playing faster, scoring in the open court, pressing people, forcing turnovers, we think that’s something this group should be able to do very well.”
Hough’s assistant coaches are Cody Castor, volunteer Greg Johnson and Tony Molish with Nick Seto coaching the middle school team.
Hough, in turn, helped Castor, Brownsville’s head coach in football, out during the fall.
“We didn’t get to do much in the fall because a lot of the kids were playing football, which we absolutely wanted them to do,” Hough said. “My helping Cody with football allowed me to get to know the kids a little quicker than I normally would have.
“They’re working hard. They want to be successful. They want to win. That’s the big thing.”
Keeping kids on the court was a problem during Ramsey’s and his predecessor Stewart Davis’ reigns, something Hough is aware of.
“Suspensions and injuries really hurt Stew and Rob and that’s been a problem here,” Hough admitted. “We sat down with the kids and told them we’re not going to put up with you not doing what’s right in school. You have to police yourselves. We tell them we expect more of them and we want them to be successful on and off the court.”
Hough said he realizes his team will likely go through some growing pains during his first season.
“We told the kids there’s going to be bad times but our goal is to be playing better basketball in January when it counts,” Hough said. “We don’t have an easy exhibition schedule. But we tell them there is a playoff team in this room if you want to be a playoff team.”
Hough sees last year’s Section 4-3A champion Southmoreland as the team to beat.
“Southmoreland is going to be really good again,” Hough said. “Waynesburg is going to be solid. Charleroi is going to be well coached with Joe Dunn there. Mount Pleasant has a new coach and Ligonier Valley usually has pretty good shooters. So we’re going to have to play really good basketball to get a playoff spot.
“Our tough exhibition schedule is so that they’re prepared for when we get into section play.”