Crusader’s coach is cruising down victory lane
TAMPA, Fla. (BVM) — When Don Dziagwa decided to get into coaching boys basketball nearly 40 years back, he never thought about what his wins/losses column would look like. He never thought about how long he’d stick at one school, or what his legacy might be. He was more focused on impacting people’s lives.
Fast-forward to 2021, and Dziagwa is not only fulfilling his mission of influencing athletes’ lives, but he’s a 600-win head coach in the midst of his 30th season at Tampa Catholic High School.
He’s coached professional athletes like Kevin Knox, a current NBA player for the New York Knicks, and his own son Thomas Dziagwa who now plays professionally in Lithuania. His players who weren’t as fortunate to make a living out of basketball have gone on to become valuable members of society: doctors, attorneys and principals, amongst other things.
Dziagwa has positively affected generations of athletes, and the wins have been paying him back for his service. Or maybe he’s just a good coach. But he has a funny way of looking at it.
“I think 600 wins just indicates that I’m old,” Dziagwa joked. “I mentioned that to one of my coaching buddies and he said, ‘Well you are old!’”
With that age came the abundance of wins, and even though that’s never been his focal point, people have been making sure he embraces them. For 400 wins, his family got him a poster for Christmas that highlighted his milestone. For 500 wins, he was given a basketball that featured the updated tally. Now, he’s well aware of 600 wins because he has so many reminders.
The night he hit win number 600, Dziagwa’s text messages and email inbox were blowing up. He had congratulatory messages from guys who remembered him that he coached almost 40 years ago. He had a text from one guy recalling how Dziagwa was his very first coach. For the longtime Tampa Catholic coach, this was special.
But for Dziagwa, the wins just aren’t that important. Whether he is just being humble or truly believes that, the veteran coach is more impressed with his longevity in the game.
“You know, I have 300 and some losses too…but in the next year or two I’ll hit 1,000 games that I’ll have coached. That’s, in my mind, more of a milestone than the wins,” Dziagwa said. “The wins are dependent upon how good your players are. I’ve been very, very fortunate to have some really, really good players; I’m just kind of enjoying it.”
His players might chalk up some of their success to Diazgwa, though. He has adapted to the times as a coach, developing a fun, modern style of play that attracts players to Tampa Catholic. They run the full-court press, they shoot lots of threes, and if you miss you won’t get yanked from the game; keep shooting. That’s their pace.
Because of that, the Crusaders roster consists of 12 players who all believe they can play at the next level. The coaching staff tries to be honest with them by saying the chances all 12 of them play college ball is slim, but because those are their aspirations, they listen.
“Their thought process is that’s what they want to do (play college basketball) so they are susceptive to us telling them what they have to do in order to do that,” Dziagwa said. “A big part of that is how hard you work at it so we have guys that work real hard.”
But as previously mentioned, Dziagwa got into coaching for what he considers the right reason. Whether his team was producing wins or losses wouldn’t matter as much to him as the true calling for coaching.
“I think those of us that get into coaching, it’s for having an impact on somebody, helping somebody. You certainly shouldn’t get into coaching because you think you’re going to make all kinds of money,” Dziagwa said. “Although there are some that make a heck of a lot, even those coaches think the more important thing is the impact you have in somebody’s life.”
He appreciates the lessons that basketball teaches, and wants to emphasize those to his athletes. The ideas of sacrificing for your team, wishing well for your teammates, not being selfish. These are the lessons that Dziagwa has been pushing during each one of his now 600-plus wins.
“We tell them they are going to have a job, a family, and have to work with other people. What better way to learn how to work with other people than being on a team,” Dziagwa said. “That’s not to say you don’t learn a lot in your math class or english class, you certainly do, but those life type things are what you learn from athletics.”
Having coached the game the right way has brought about some good karma for Coach Dziagwa. 600 wins and counting is no small feat, no matter how much he downplays it, and by the time he’s done there could be many more where that came from.
