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DOUGLAS M. BOVITT/Courier-Post
Steve Selby (center), a former Collingswood star and head coach at Paul VI and Washington Township, conducts practice Monday for the AAU South Jersey All-Stars.
STEVE SELBY |
By KEVIN CALLAHAN
Courier-Post Staff
www.courierpostonline.com
Steve Selby is back on the sidelines, back where he belongs.
The former three-sport star at Collingswood High School in the mid-'70s went on to have a great basketball career at Rowan University before quickly becoming one of South Jersey's best and most respected scholastic hoops coaches at Paul VI and Washington Township.
After leaving the coaching ranks two years ago to pursue a career in administration as a assistant principal, Selby is back coaching boys' basketball on the 16-and-under AAU circuit.
"We have a great group of kids," Selby said. "They all come from solid coaching programs, but probably the best thing about them is they are all good young men, they all bring something special to the team.
"When you coach long enough it is not always about the talent, it is about the kids you surround yourself with."
This is Selby's second year coaching the South Jersey All-Stars AAU team. He was approached last winter during a freshmen basketball game by Joe Campbell about starting a team.
"Joe said to me, "What are you doing in the summer, do you want to start an AAU?' " Selby said. "I said, "If we do it the right way.' I had heard the horror stories."
Anyone who has ever seen Selby's teams at Paul VI and Washington Township know his teams play the right way, so it was a foregone conclusion that his AAU team will be run the same way. "We only enter quality tournaments, we have set practice times and practice schedules are developed," Selby said. "It is just not typical of what I believed had gone on in the past in AAU. We truly run a first-class operation.
"It is an extension of high school basketball, that is the way we look at it."
Selby was quick to credit his assistant coaches, Campbell, Doug Pauls and Selby's son Stephen, a former star player at Haddon Heights, with helping to make his AAU coaching experience special.
"Joe does a phenomenal job, these kids don't pay a dime, he goes out and beats the bushes and so does my son Stephen and Doug," Selby said, crediting his assistants for drawing sponsorship from P.J. Whelihan's in Haddonfield and American Discount Fence in Runnemede and Marlton.
The South Jersey All-Stars will host an AAU event the weekend of April 1-2 and at Paul VI and Haddonfield high schools. Participating teams include the Central Jersey Hawks, Monmouth Power, South Jersey Jazz, Haverford Hawks, JKMBA, Jackson Tar Heels and the New Jersey All-Stars.
The South Jersey All-Stars 16-under team is comprised of 10 sophomores from area high schools: Michael Selby (Haddon Heights), Darnell McCargo (Collingswood), Michael Calzonetti (Gloucester Catholic), David Campbell (Haddonfield), Greg Console (Haddonfield), David Laury (Riverside), Rob McFeeters (Haddonfield), Jeff Pauls (Haddon Heights), Jack Brennen (Sterling) and Keith Davis (Woodbury).
This is Selby's third year as assistant principal at Chestnut Ridge Middle School in Sewell.
"I love it, it is challenging," Selby said.
Selby taught health and physical education for 21 years in Washington Township before moving into administration.
Selby said he doesn't expect to get back into high school coaching. When it was suggested to him that he would be a good fit at Rutgers-Camden, he sounded satisfied to be coaching on the AAU level.
"I missed the teaching aspect of the game," Selby said. "It is nice to get back in and teach and give back and that's why I'm doing it.
"It is always nice to be around kids who want to learn, it makes it that much more rewarding."
Actually, the kids are the lucky ones. Reach Kevin Callahan at kcallahan@courierpostonline.com