Former Hopkins Player, Coach Keeps Minnesota Ties on The West Coast

Former Hopkins player and coach James Ware may now be an assistant coach at Santa Clara University, but that doesn’t mean that he has forgotten his Minnesota roots. Ware has one former Royal standout on his team and has recruited several other Hopkins players such as Joe Coleman and Siyani Chambers.

Ware was an all-state and all-metro selection as a senior and was named a a Mr. Basketball finalist. The Royals finished 75-5 in his three years.

Ware started his basketball collegiate career at Colorado State, playing under then-head coach Stew Morrill. He transferred to Midland (Texas) Junior College for one season before signing with Texas Tech, where he was a two-year starter. Ware was an honorable mention All-Big 12 as a senior and an academic all-conference selection.

Ware began his coaching career as an assistant at Hopkins, a period when the Royals won the state title in 2002 and lost in the semifinals in 2003. He coached Mitch Henke, a 2008 Santa Clara graduate and four-year letterwinner with the Broncos.

Ware spent the next three seasons as the University of Minnesota's director of basketball operations under head coach Dan Monson.

He got his first college coaching job at Utah State, where he was reunited with Morrill. Ware helped recruit two straight classes that led the Aggies to back-to-back Western Athletic Conference titles and its tenth straight post-season appearance.

Ware has spent the past three years at Santa Clara. This past season, the Broncos finished 24-14 and won the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.

Hopkins Patch recently caught up with Ware to talk about coach college basketball and his memories of his playing and coaching career at Hopkins.

Hopkins Patch: How many years have you been at Santa Clara?

James Ware: Going on three years at Santa Clara University. Enjoying every minute of it.

Hopkins Patch: Talk about your coaching career.

Ware: I started off coaching high school at Hopkins with in 2000. I did that for three years. We had really good teams. We had a team that won the state title in 2002. A lot of good players like Adam Hoffarber, Kris Humphries, Dan Coleman, Mitch Henke, Darren Clarke, Zach Puchtel, David Gardner, to name a few. From Hopkins, I went to the University of Minnesota as the director of basketball operations role when J.B. Bickerstaff went to the Timberwolves to do radio. From the University of Minnesota, I went to Utah State as an assistant coach for Stew Morrill, who is obviously a successful head coach on the West Coast. From there to Santa Clara, where I have been for nearly four years with head coach Kerry Keating. 

Hopkins Patch: How did that first job as director of basketball operations, where you do a little bit of everything, prepare you for becoming an assistant coach?

Ware: Quite honestly, I wasn’t prepared for that job. I am going to be honest with you, I wasn’t prepared for that job. That was a job, I walked into that role, not really knowing what to expect, but with people like assistant coach Vic Couch, who was there at the time, he really showed me the ropes and taught me what I was doing. I had a lot of good connections in the Minnesota area being from there. I let those connections work for themselves and try to be good to people in Minnesota and be honest with them and give kids opportunities all over. 

Hopkins Patch: You still have those Minnesota ties with former Hopkins player Ray Cowles on the roster and having recruited other Minnesota kids?

Ware: The thing I feel about Minnesota is that a lot of the kids have a lot to them, in terms of things that we called 'glue’. Things that stick kids and teams and stick programs together. From the standpoint when you get a Minnesota kid, they may or may not be the most talented guy on the team, but they are going to have all the intangibles, all the glue that allows them to be successful and not every kid is successful at the Division I level.  

Hopkins Patch: July is the busy month for college recruiting. Do you like recruiting or are there things about it that you don’t like? 

Ware: I love it because to is an opportunity to represent opportunities to young men. For those who played the game, I was in their shoes for what seems like not that long ago. I am 34 now, so I am getting older, but what feels like not too long ago, I was playing these same events and same tournaments and all I wanted was an opportunity, a chance. I like to say that I am a living testament to what a Minnesota young man or young athlete can be, if you give him a chance. I really want to give that same opportunity back to other kids in the state and all over the country at this point.

Hopkins Patch: Minnesota only has one Division I school, so a lot of other schools from across the country will try to recruit kids that the University of Minnesota doesn’t recruit. Is that one of the reasons that you have recruited this area?

Ware: No question. So much of basketball recruiting is relationships and if it is a place where I already have deep-rooted relationships from high school coaches, AAU coaches, families, kids that I have seen and young people that are getting up to high school age. It doesn’t stop, it keeps coming. Minnesota is growing and getting bigger and better. I think the coaching in Minnesota is what makes the talent in Minnesota improve as well. I think there has always been good talent in the state, but I think now there is starting to be really good coaching. I think that is what is making things really go through the roof for Minnesota.

Hopkins Patch: You have a lot of things that you can sell at Santa Clara. You are in California, nice weather. You had a good season and won a postseason tournament.

Ware: We won the College Insider Tournament, the CIT. We finished with 24 wins, the most wins since the ‘67-68 season at Santa Clara. We are just trying to build on that. The things that we really have to sell at Santa Clara are academics and basketball. It is a private school, located in a suburb of San Jose. Silicon Valley. It is in a great area. There is a ton of basketball tradition with guys like (NBA All-Star point guard) Steve Nash and Kurt Rambis, the former head coach of the Timberwolves. There are a lot of positives for young men that are looking for two things, which are academics and basketball. We have those at a really high level.

Hopkins Patch: You have a Hopkins kid on your roster in Ray Cowles, who had a freshman year and a solid sophomore season. He is someone you are counting on to have a big junior year, right?

Ware: Absolutely. Ray Cowles is an integral piece of our program. Year-in and year-out, he is the hardest working player we have. That comes from the other players saying that about him. He is a guy you never have to worry about. He is always in the right place. He is always doing the right things. In the CIT championship game, he had 13 points and five rebounds and made big shot after big shot to help us win a championship.

Hopkins Patch: What is the biggest misconception about being a college coach from what the average fan might think?

Ware: I think the biggest misconception is that our job is fairly easy. It is a tedious thing. We start at eight in the morning and go until ten o’clock at night, and it is day after day after day. You are away from your family and it is tough that way. But again, the rewards, on the flip side is seeing young people be successful. Seeing young men become successful because they have dreams. I had a dream one day and that was just to play Division I basketball and somebody gave me that opportunity. We are just trying to give that opportunity back.

Hopkins Patch: In July during the busy recruiting month, how many days will you be home?

Ware: The recruiting period goes the 6th to the 15th and then the 22nd to the 31st and every single one of the days you are out and on the road. If you are not on the road, you are getting ready to go on the road and preparing your head coach and the other assistant coaches for what they are going to see and what they are going to do, what kids you are going to see, who you are going to target and who you are going to go after and hopefully, who you are going to sign. 

Hopkins Patch: What stands out for you as some of the highlights of your playing time at Hopkins?

Ware: I would say just having the opportunity to watch and coach under Kenny Novak. He was the ESPN Rise Coach of the Year this year and I think that it is funny that he is ESPN’s national coach of the year, but he has never been Minnesota State Coach of the Year. I definitely think that was one experience that was exceptional, being able to watch him. I played for him at one time, but being able to be on his staff and watching him motivate, how he encourages and how he gets young people to want more and expect more of themselves is a really great thing. How he has gotten them to believe in themselves to accomplish what they have accomplished to me, personally, was the most incredible thing in my time at Hopkins.

Hopkins Patch: Unfortunately, people think that he has great players at Hopkins, so he doesn’t really have to do a lot. But you know better and that he is really good coach. 

Ware: The one thing that he does with those great players is that he motivates them. Not all great players end up being Division I players. There are a lot of talented guys that don’t end up going Division I. You look at the track record of Kenny Novak and his winning percentage and you combine that with the number of guys that move on and have successful college careers at all levels, Division I, Division II and Division III. You look at guys like (St. Thomas guard) Tyler Nicolai, who wasn’t a Division I player, but was an All-American at the Division III level and had a fabulous career. Those are the things that I think are overlooked with Kenny Novak and his program. It is not just the players. It is getting the players to expect a lot of themselves and then go be the player that they can be.

Hopkins Patch: I know that you are busy with your own team, but do you get a chance to follow Hopkins much?

Ware: Absolutely. We obviously recruit that program very hard. We had a lot of success with that program. We are believers. Obviously, I am a little biased because I played there and coached there, but I think his track record speaks for itself.   

Hopkins Patch: I know that some of the past players like Dan Coleman have credited you and your teammates for really getting the program rolling and now they have won six titles in the last ten years. How does that make you feel hearing players thanking you for their success? 

Ware: At the time, we had no idea. We just wanted to play basketball. The one thing that Kenny Novak did at that time was he kept the gym open. We could get in there and play and that was all we tried to do. We just wanted to play and now it is something that has self-perpetuated itself and keeps going and going. Quite honestly, I don’t seeing stopping anytime soon.