How new Atwater, El Capitan basketball coaches plan to turn programs into winners

Kanoa Smith and Tyler Trammell have similar plans to turn their their basketball programs around. Both new coaches want to reach out to young kids and get them interested in basketball early.

Smith, 27, takes over the Atwater High boys basketball program after Jason Boesch stepped down. Smith graduated from Atwater in 2007 and has been teaching at the high school for five years and coaching in the Falcons program for a decade.

Trammell, 23, takes over the El Capitan High girls team that struggled to a 14-44 record in the first three seasons under Michael Davenport. Trammell, who works from home, will be a walk-on coach.

Trammell played high school basketball at Buhach Colony for John Bliss and graduated in 2012. He played junior college basketball at Merced College for Bill Russell. Last year he helped coach boys and girls basketball at Cruickshank Middle School while also serving as an assistant for the El Capitan boys junior varsity team. Yeah, he was busy coaching three teams in one season.

Trammell hit the ground running as the Gauchos girls coach by starting a youth program and getting the high school girls playing during the summer.

“Playing more summer ball, that’s going to be a big part of the future at El Capitan,” Trammell said. “It’s something they haven’t had here before. One of the first things I did was start a youth program a week after I got the job. We had four or five tournaments for fourth grade through eighth grade girls at the high school.

“I feel if you can get the same girls to stay together and run the same system – offensive and defensive. If they can continue having fun it will lead to success all the way up to high school.”

Trammell realized at a young age he wanted to coach.

“Basketball has always been such a huge part of my life, I wanted to give back,” he said.

Smith played for John Kane at Atwater and has coached under Jason Boesch and Tony Hillyer. He says he’s also learned a lot coaching basketball with Seneca Ybarra, who coached JV basketball at Atwater before taking over the Falcons football program this past spring.

He says he’s picked up a little something from everyone along the way like dealing with players from Kane, to putting in time over the summer like Hillyer, or overseeing the entire program like Boesch.

Like Trammell, Smith believes he’s got to tap into the youth early to get them interested in basketball. The new gymnasium at Atwater High that will be ready for use this fall will also be a big help.

“Success starts at the lower levels. It starts with the community and we’ve got to get kids in the gym,” Smith said. “That’s something Atwater hasn’t had. We’re going to have a brand new gym, which will give us two facilities now. We need to try to open up those facilities as much as possible to get kids in the gym.”

Being around different coaches the last 10 years, Smith has seen the Falcons run different offensives. He plans to adjust the Falcons offense to their players.

“I’m not a systems guy. I want to go with what I have,” Smith said. “I’d love to run a dribble-drive offense with taller guards. My guys are undersized. We’re going to try to pull bigs out of the paint. The good thing about coaching under so many people is I’ve seen different systems.”

Smith said there was no big excitement when he was officially given the job in May. He knew Boesch was grooming him for the position and that eventually he would get his chance to run a program.

“I’ll celebrate when I do something,” Smith said. “We haven’t won league in 40 years. It would be nice to put something up in the gym. It would be nice to get to the playoffs routinely. I’ve told our team other teams come to us thinking they’re not going to lose. We’ve got to work to change that. We have to change the culture. Success isn’t going to come overnight. I know that, but I’m in it for the long haul.”

This story was originally published July 6, 2017 at 3:17 PM with the headline "How new Atwater, El Capitan basketball coaches plan to turn programs into winners."