By DEB BENTLY
Staff Writer
“I think I taught them all the things they needed to know as beginners,” comments NRHEG senior Jaylin Raab, who unexpectedly found himself as coach of the district’s seventh-grade boys’ basketball team, which consisted of 12 players.
It was not how he expected to see his senior year with the sport develop.
“I wanted to play with my team,” Raab remembers. “I expected to play…until I got the bad news.”
Active on a number of NRHEG teams since middle school, Raab remembers the spring day at a 2023 track meet when he took a run for the long jump. “I landed wrong,” he describes. “I heard a weird sound, and I felt a lot of pain.
“I crawled to the other side of the area and I went to the emergency room at the Albert Lea hospital right away.” Though Raab used crutches and wore a “boot” for a while, it was eventually determined he had experienced damage to the peroneal nerve in his right leg. As fall and then winter began, the injury caused him pain and led to “foot drop.”
“I had surgery on December fourth,” he said. “That pretty much ended my chances of getting any playing time during the [basketball] season. My leg was getting a little better, but I expected to spend my senior year on the bench.”
His expectations changed, however, when the district activities director Dan Stork asked whether he would be interested in serving as coach to the seventh-grade team. The position had been open for months, but no applications had been received.
“ I said yes right away,” Raab recalls. “I was nervous at first. I knew I would have to step up in a whole new way.
“I think I’m going to look back on it and say I’m glad I was able to do it. It helped me build a lot of character, and I learned I’m capable of doing more than I realized.”
Raab says he relied heavily on everything his own coaches had done to help his team get in shape each year. He expressed gratitude for eighth-grade coach Joe Isder, who was frequently nearby with his team during practice. Isder is a long-term coach who has worked with elementary and middle-school grades for several years.
Based on what he saw, Isder complimented Raab as being “passionate, inspired and energetic.” He couldn’t help speculating the coaching position was likely “outside [Jaylin’s] comfort zone,” but observed he “could relate with players on a personal level, but demanded respect and effort.”
Raab says, of his own progress during the season, “I learned to be very forgiving. I learned it’s hard to remember everything you tell your team members under stress.
“I taught my team members it’s not bad to ask for a break if you need one.”
Of the 25 games his seventh-graders played during the 2024 season, they won 19 and lost only two.
“I think I can say our record speaks for itself,” Raab observed. “The team members worked hard and I helped them learn the skills they needed.”
Among those skills he lists layups, free throws, dribbling without looking down and not traveling.