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Larry McKenzie is going to go down in history as one of the finest high school basketball coaches in the state of Minnesota, if not the finest.
McKenzie is one of only two basketball coaches in the history of Minnesota high school basketball to win four consecutive state titles.
Unless you are John Wooden, winning four consecutive titles at any level is an incredible feat. For those who understand coaching, the real work comes in preparing the team to play, teaching the concepts, and building a unit that is willing to work together, and sacrifice for each other.
Those are basketball tenets that you must have, regardless of the level.
McKenzie has demonstrated the ability to incorporate those tenets, and create a winning environment, throughout his coaching career.
As sports journalist Eric Pate, who worked in Minneapolis explained, “If Larry McKenzie isn’t the best high school boy’s basketball coach in Minnesota, then I don’t know who is.”
On Saturday, McKenzie added a fifth state title to his impressive resume, leading the Minneapolis North Polar Bears to a 68-45 victory in the Minnesota 1-A State title game at The Target Center in downtown Minneapolis.
But in truth, McKenzie’s real work, and his real victories, come in what he is doing with his players. He is not only teaching the winning tenets of basketball, he is teaching winning concepts of life.
McKenzie took over a program at Minneapolis North that was practically left for dead. The school is located in a part of the city that the Minneapolis Star Tribune once called as ‘embattled’.
Of course, we all know that means McKenzie went back to the hood, going to work at a predominantly black school that faces all the challenges that so many urban high schools in America face.
After thoughtful prayer, McKenzie went out on faith when he decided to return. He left a job at a prominent program with excellent facilities and resources to come back to the hood, where he had damn near nothing…except constant rumors about the school closing.
McKenzie took over a team that had finished dead last in competition, but also had kids who were struggling to find what it took to be winners in life.
McKenzie has worked to instill the discipline, work ethic and sacrifice it takes to be a champion, not just on the court, but in the classroom and in life.
Saturday, those young men got their reward with a state title. But for McKenzie, the true reward of his time with the young men on the Minneapolis North Polar Bears basketball team won’t come until he sees them become successful adults.
That is the true mission of Larry McKenzie, and that is his true greatness as a basketball coach.
