Few people will ever make as big an impact on you as your coach. Over the tenure of a high school career, you’ll spend more time with that person than you will spend with your parents, your girlfriend, the pastor of your church, or anyone else that might cross your path. During that relatively brief stint of your life, the good ones will influence you in ways that you’ll probably not understand at the time – but influence you they will. When you get “out there” doing whatever it is that you do, you’ll find yourself reacting to situations, and the lessons that you absorbed back then will surface and be made clear. Then you’ll understand why your coach was so hard on you!
Coaches are not there to “baby” you, or tuck you in at night. Successful coaches will not treat you like a child because athletics demands more. It’s our first taste of responsibility and the trials of being dedicated to something other than the softer things in life. The good ones force you to do a “gut check” on almost a daily basis. They push you to excel, and demand things of you that you might not have even imagined possible – they make you push yourself. In some cases, they will break your spirit, and let you figure out how to put it back together again, or they might give you a challenge that if met will point you in the right direction. There are no guarantees if or when an athlete will come back. However, when something is broken and fixed, it is generally stronger than it was. When a person is broken and subsequently fixed, they become stronger, less rigid, and more capable of success. Coaches live for such results.
Coach Stanley Galyon’s influence on me was significant, and I have found that influence to be something that I’ve carried way beyond the basketball court. Given that perspective, some of this article is from a very personal viewpoint, and with good reason – I experienced it, and gained from it.
Breaking You Down
Coach Galyon was a tough-minded man. When things went wrong in a game or in practice, he was abrupt, aggressive, and directly to the point. The directness was sometimes harsh, and the emotion behind it was real, in fact, I’ve never had anyone be so angry with me, nor has anyone ever talked to me as did my Coach on many occasions.
One such occasion was my senior year in a game against the district leading Tellico Plains Bears at Midway late in the season. Our team was really coming together that year – our guards were playing well, and several other players had stepped into key roles and made up what was our best team in a couple years. Also, I had learned to press the game the way Coach Galyon wanted it – we took it to that Tellico Plains team – a team that had been in the district finals the previous 2 years, and even with all their players back, we were beating them soundly. The stats that I took into the locker-room at the half included 26 points, and several steals made from my back-line position in our full-court press defense, however a pass had gotten over my head, and I was to hear about it at half-time. What waited for me there probably changed my life.
I entered the locker-room and sat down on the bench filled with energy … and Coach Galyon promptly threw a towel at me. Eventually, he got so mad that he couldn’t even talk. When he tried to write on the board, the chalk broke and he kicked at it when it hit the ground. Coach Galyon had been mad at me before, and with good reason. However, this was different – very different – it wasn’t just a missed opportunity at a stolen pass. I think that he sensed an opportunity to push on me extremely hard, and then to see how I would respond to it. While it may sound like he was playing games; what he was actually doing was giving me an opportunity. It takes a lot of courage to push to the point of breaking someone’s spirit.
Coach Galyon was more of a perfectionist than some people might remember. He told me on several occasions that a post player should shoot 80%, and I believed him. So, when I made a mistake, and let a ball sail over my head to a Tellico Plains player (who subsequently scored), he saw it as something near cataclysmic – the “symmetry” of the game that I was playing in was lost. The beauty of that first half, both from an individual and from a team’s perspective, was gone forever. Twenty-six points in a half was totally insignificant in the face of the missed defensive assignment.
Being “pushed to a limit” is tough business. As the team made its way back to the court I had never been so drained of emotion and confidence, and so filled with regret and embarrassment in my life. I was certainly in no shape to play basketball. The gym suddenly felt frigid, and the couple of shots I took to loosen up for the second half felt awkward. Several players came up to offer encouragement.
I didn’t score in the third quarter, and with just a couple minutes to go in the game – Tellico had actually taken the lead. I had been totally useless in that second half, and I didn’t understand why Coach Galyon left me out there. In hindsight, I don’t know exactly what thought went into it (if any), but that night, Coach Galyon put me in the position to either step up, or crawl into the proverbial shell and pack it in. As we broke the huddle after a time-out with about 2 minutes remaining in the game, Coach Galyon held me back, and said quietly but sternly, “show them what you’re made of.”
We won the game. Beat a district leader, and I got the chance to grow up. Why then? To put it bluntly, I don’t know. I do know that my coach put me in the position to have that chance, and that’s what coach’s do. Sometimes they do it consciously, and sometimes not. Sometimes, it’s just the mere force of their personality. But they do it like this: they break you down, and then build you back up again. The Marines do that too … they just don’t do it in the span of a high school basketball game.
I’ve never had a “business” situation that was as tough as the situations and circumstances engineered by Coach Galyon, and I’ve never dealt with anyone as demanding. There have been situations that reminded me of that Tellico Plains game, or other situations that reminded of what could be literally hundreds of examples that were somehow tucked into a mere 4 year span of time – a 4 year span of time, that if you never did anything else, would have prepared you for success in life. Coach Galyon is a legend due the fact that he could take a bunch of mules, and prepare them for something grander than themselves.
Coach Galyon was a fine strategist and tactician, and he was to say the least … colorful. What follows are some of the stories, legends, and possibly myths that were generated during his time has the Head Coach of the Midway Greenwave.
Coach Galyonisms
• Great Days. Possibly, the most prolific period of athletic accomplishment in any sport at Midway High School came in the form of the 1977 and 1978 boy’s basketball teams. The resume’ reads: 2 district championships, 2 region championships, 2 sub-state championships, and 2 appearances in the high school state tournament (including an appearance in the final-four).
How did those teams pull it off? There were a couple of pretty good shooters like Sanford Narramore and Dale Pressley, but those guys also rebounded and played defense like it was the only aspect of the game that mattered.
Everyone on those teams played defense like their heritage had been insulted, and loose balls were always claimed by 
the Green team. Players like Brice Woody epitomized the “give me that ball!” attitude. It was hustle that won games, and one way or another, Coach Galyon instilled that into his players.
• Mules. During the run to the State Tournament in 1977, Midway faced some formidable teams. I recall someone pointing out that they took on and beat 3 teams that were ranked #1 in the state at the time Midway played them during that tournament run. As a result, a reporter pointed out to Coach Galyon that his team didn’t seem to have the “race horses” to keep up with the teams like Rockwood (with a 6’9” center and a 30 point per game scorer) or a Sale Creek team sporting over 30 wins and only a single loss. Legend has it that Coach Galyon replied with something like, “my team isn’t made up of race horses, they’re a bunch of mules, and mules are better for the long haul.”
That team became known, literally, statewide as the “Midway Mules.” In 1978, in our return trip to the State Tournament, the Tennessean had a short article that led with “The Mules are Back…”
The precedent of what it took to be a “Midway Mule” was set by players like 5’10” Gary Humphries taking it to a 6’9” Rockwood center. For several years, I heard Coach Galyon challenging players to “play defense like Gary Humphries.
• Assistant Coaches. Midway has some great fans, and some are louder than others, and a lot of them are not shy about expressing their opinions. Some fans didn’t care for Coach Galyon’s coaching style, and vocalized it. After a big win in the sub-state, Coach Galyon was heard asking for 5 extra seats to be placed on the side-lines for his “assistant coaches” which were some of the most vocal of Midway fans. As far as I know, none of the seats were ever taken.
• Coach Wettig’s Losing His Job. After a tough loss in the 1978 state tournament, our team received a visit by the University of Tennessee’s head basketball coach, Cliff Wettig. It was a foregone conclusion that Coach Wettig was going to be replaced at the end of the year, but it was still great to see the orange clad coach wander into our dressing room – when Coach Galyon noticed him, he immediately stuck out his hand and said, “hey coach, I hear they’re trying to get your job.” Coach Galyon laughed like they were old friends – Coach Wettig shifted about nervously as he agreed.
• The Art of War. A few years ago, a Chinese philosophy book called “The Art of War” became popular when it became public knowledge that successful coaches like Steve Spurrier and Pat Summit considered it to be very influential in their successes. One thing that the book advises is that if an opponent is “stronger than you, then irritate them.”
Being a top seeded team in the district gave you some privileges – Coach Galyon took those privileges and more when it was possible to do so. He often claimed the best dressing room at Hiwassee College where our district tournaments were played. Sometimes, I think he just told other coaches that “they told us that we could have this one.” It bugged some of the opposing coaches a lot, and I’m sure it affected their attention to the game
Another element of the book talks about deception, and Coach Galyon was not shy about using it. I don’t think a single player was listed as being 6 feet tall in the state tournament program in 1978. Everyone lost a few inches – I lost 5.
I have no idea if Coach Galyon was ever aware of that book – it wouldn’t surprise me if he was at least aware of it. Regardless, he was practicing the “Art of War” long before Spurrier and Summit made it popular.
• Chinese Defenses. During our State Tournament years in the 70s, Midway wasn’t the only team in Roane County experiencing good times. Harriman and Kingston might both consider their teams of that era to be their “best ever.” Both made it to the final four of the state tournament just as the Greenwave did, and during the regular season there were some serious inter-county battles. However, Coach Galyon really saw these games as opportunities to practice – these teams were not in our district. So lets say we were playing Kingston on Tuesday night: we might have not even mentioned them in Monday’s practice. We probably prepared for an upcoming district opponent.
But, we did prepare for Kingston or Harriman a “little bit”: our team would gather in the gym for about 30 minutes on the day of the game and walk through our defensive assignments (in our street clothes) for that evening’s game. Then we would go give Harriman and Kingston a whole lot more than they wanted, and typically, we would frustrate them with our intense man-to-man defense. Apparently, the Kingston Coach thought we were doing something very special for his team: he asked Coach Galyon what kind of “Chinese Defense” he would plan for their next game. Coach Galyon didn’t tell him anything about the amount of time he had spent preparing his team for their games.
Coach Galyon is a Midway High School legend for his contributions to Midway athletics, and for the individual influences that he had on so many of us. Personally, I have a degree in mathematics due to his challenges, and it was from him that I first learned the value of fighting for what is right regardless of the popularity of the cause as I personally watched him take up issues having nothing to do with the game of basketball, but more about the greater challenges of life as we knew it then, and as we would come to know it in our unclear futures.
Coach Galyon directly challenged our mental fortitude, and our willingness to put in the effort to win. He challenged our system of values, and gave us our first opportunity to fit ourselves within the framework of a team, and then gave us the opportunity to accomplish and succeed.
There’s no doubt within me that I’m better off today due my experience as a Midway Basketball Player. Coach Galyon represented, when all was said and done, a tremendous opportunity for individual growth.
I’ll leave this story with a final thought:
The expanse of Heaven must be deep and wide, and in the immenseness of it all there’s a small school nestled within a beautiful emerald forest with a basketball team whose odds were routinely stacked against it. One day it must have been apparent that they needed a ball coach. They needed a ball coach that could make racehorses out of a bunch of mules.
Coach Galyon died on April 29, 2002. He is missed by former players and students.
Dedicated to Barry and Lewis Galyon. My classmate and teammate.