Coach Carson brings winning record to M-A Coach Carson brings winning record to M-A (February 25, 2004)

By Jonas Raab

Special to the Almanac

Four wins and 21 losses. This was the record of the Menlo-Atherton High School boys basketball team in the 2000-2001 season, before Coach Craig Carson showed up.

Carson brought the record up to a solid 18-11 in 2002-2003, his first season as coach. The team went 22-5 this year overall and 10-2 in the Palo Alto South League. The Bears also entered the San Mateo County playoffs, finishing with an intense two-point overtime loss to Burlingame on February 20 at South San Francisco.

In tournament play in December, M-A took first place in the Sacred Heart Gator Classic in December and second in the Tracy Winter Holiday Classic.

Success is not new to Carson. He began his coaching career in 1994 at Balboa High School in San Francisco, leading the girls basketball team to the California Interscholastic Federation championships in 1995 and 1996.

For five years, starting in 1997, he coached boys basketball at McAteer High in San Francisco, where his team racked up a 36-2 record in the 2000-01 season.

Carson, 37, has been steeped in basketball since youth. His father coached the girls lightweight basketball team at McAteer. Growing up in Burlingame, Craig Carson played for the Mills High team. He went on to get a bachelor's degree at San Diego State, where he did not play, and is currently working on his master's at St. Mary's College.

In addition to coaching at M-A, Carson teaches physical education. His wife Jenna, who coaches the girls soccer team, teaches math there.

Carson speaks highly of the players' academic record: "I had nine returning guys this year and eight of them had GPAs over 3.5. It's a really good school. Kids are in class, the A.P. scores are great and the staff is excellent."

When Carson first appeared at M-A, however, not everyone was happy to see him. Many of the players could not understand why there had to be a coaching change.

"There was a bit of an uproar," says senior starter Steve Yob. "But as the season went on and the wins started piling up, that all changed."

This was not the first time that Yob had encountered Carson.

"We scrimmaged (his team) when he was with McAteer. We didn't really know much about him except for his team's record, which was impressive. We got killed."

So when Yob and the rest of the team heard that Carson was to be their coach, they listened to what he had to say. "With a record like that, we knew to listen to him."

Carson recalls some minor problems early on: "Steve was a little set in his ways. It's tough having the green light starting as a sophomore and then to have a new coach come in and tell you what you're going to do and where you're going to play. He's improved tremendously."

Even up to the first scrimmage, players were trying to play on their own terms. "I asked them to just give my way a shot," says Carson. They did, and the record speaks for itself.

Carson says the previous coach, James Davis, did a lot to bring the team together and attributes the Bears' previous poor record to several factors. "He (Davis) was a young coach who had never coached at the varsity level," says Carson. "He had the team going in the right direction and, given time, he could have turned things around."

M-A had three head coaches over four years and this made it hard for the players to feel and function as a unit, Carson says.

The players give Carson a lot of the credit. The overall top scorer, junior Dan Trautman, who sank 26 points in the last game against Burlingame, attributes much of the success over the past two years to the coach's emphasis on defense and fundamentals.

Simply put, "He has good methods," says Trautman.

For Carson, a good work ethic is vital. "I try to reward those kids who are working hard," Carson says. "Many of them didn't really know what it meant to play hard. They had to put up with a lot of hard practices ... and me yelling at them all the time."

Things are not over for the Bears. There are several games to be played in the CCS Division playoffs. The team will get a bye into the quarter finals and will play San Benito on Saturday, February 28.

Asked if he intends to remain at M-A for a long time, Coach Carson replies: "As of right now, yes. I've got a great group of guys and I really enjoy what I do."

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