A freak injury derailed this senior’s season. Instead of quitting, he’s coaching.
With tipoff approaching, Jaden Hansen takes his seat on the Rocky Mountain boys basketball team’s bench.
He owns a spot among the Grizzlies’ coaching staff, right next to head coach Dane Roy. But the chair is largely ceremonial. He doesn’t stay seated for long.
Seconds after the ball floats into the air at Capital High on Friday, Hansen pops out and begins shouting instructions to the Grizzlies.
“Keep working, black!” he encourages.
“Good job, Cam!” he cheers.
“Corner!” he howls, pointing out an unguarded opponent.
These are Hansen’s contributions this season. He figured to dominate this winter as one of the Treasure Valley’s — if not Idaho’s — top players. Then the senior tore the ACL and meniscus in his right knee in late October, ending his final season before it could even begin.
But he never left the Grizzlies’ side. He joined Rocky Mountain’s coaching staff this year as an assistant, and he has attended every practice and game since, offering his insight as a four-year varsity player to a group almost entirely new to the varsity level.
“I know how bad he wants to be out there,” Rocky Mountain senior Jaden Melton said. “I know how much he loves basketball, and how much he wants to do this.
“For him to take a lesser role like that really shows how much he loves the game.”
FROM BASKETBALL PLAYER TO COACH
After an offseason lost to the coronavirus, Hansen and several Grizzlies took themselves to a Utah club tournament weeks before the season began. Roy encouraged it, figuring any time on the court would benefit a team not allowed to have an offseason to slow the spread of the virus.
But within the first few minutes of the first game, Hansen lay crumpled on the hardwood. He swiped a pass and broke into the open court only to have his knee give out. No opponent touched him.
Roy said he was devastated when he heard the diagnosis. He admits coaches shouldn’t have favorites. But a four-year point guard at the varsity level remains rare.
Hansen previously bided his time on some loaded Rocky Mountain teams, serving as a distributor and a role player as the Grizzlies went 72-9 in his three previous seasons. But Roy said he planned to turn the 6-foot-2 senior loose this year and couldn’t wait for everyone else to see what he could do.
“You could tell this was going to be his moment,” Roy said. “This was going to be his year to be the guy to lead this team and do some special things.”
Roy planned to give Hansen some time to absorb the injury. He said he understood if Hansen wanted to walk away from the sport after having it so cruelly ripped away from him. But the day Hansen received the MRI, he promptly informed Roy he wasn’t going anywhere.
Hansen said he saw some of the passion drain out of the Grizzlies when he went down. He couldn’t allow that. He said he would have become a water boy if that’s what it took to stay with his team.
“I would have done anything to stay involved,” Hansen said. “I could not sit out and just sit at home. I had to be here.”
TRUSTED AND RESPECTED
Hansen still has a spot on the Grizzlies’ roster. He still owns a jersey. He still performs individualized high-fives for every player announced during the starting lineups.
But he’s also not a token presence as a coach.
He breaks down pregame matchups with assistant coach Brian Sweaney on a whiteboard. He runs drills at practice. He even offers Roy advice midgame.
“He sits up front right by me on the bench,” Roy said. “I pick his brain a lot, and he’ll tell me things that he’s seeing. I trust and value what he says.”
That trust extends to the rest of the Grizzlies. He may have stood as their peer months ago. But his experience, basketball IQ and demeanor command respect up and down the roster.
“We treat him just like Coach Roy,” Rocky Mountain senior Kobe Warr said. “If he’s talking to us, everyone is stopping and listening to him. We respect him.
“… He always sees the little things and is always helping us out.”
A ‘TESTAMENT TO HIS CHARACTER’
Back at Capital High, Hansen looks the part as a coach. He works the refs. He pumps up the Grizzlies. He rubs his left thumb into his right palm over and over again, a nervous tick to let some of his energy out.
Only when Rocky Mountain pulls away in the third quarter and the running-clock, mercy rule starts in the fourth does he become a teenager again, celebrating with his teammates and fawning over Cam Williams’ breakaway dunk moments earlier.
This isn’t the role anyone wanted for Hansen this season. But he still wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
“It’s just a huge testament to the kind of character he has that he brings it every day, knowing this was his time and his year,” Roy said. “He’s just unselfishly giving everything he has to the rest of our team, trying to do everything he can to still make every player better.”
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 2:21 PM.
