Liberty High School (Peoria, Ariz.) basketball coach Mark Wood began his coaching career while in college through the YMCA. While coaching, he also officiated games at the Y. Coaching and officiating enabled the young coach to learn every aspect of the game.

From there, he volunteered during his student teaching assignment and served as an assistant to the freshman team at Cactus High School. Cactus head coach Ken Troutt offered him an assistant varsity position afterwards. Coach Wood served in this role for 5 years. Then, he took over as the head JV coach for a year while still assisting Coach Troutt.

After a semi-final appearance, Coach Troutt stepped down and endorsed Mark as the next head coach. He served as head coach for 4 years at Cactus where he won two regular season region titles and one region tournament championship.

Coach Wood then took two years off to spend time with his family. During this time, he was able to "find his identity, study the game, talk to coaches, build relationships, and figure out a vision and mission statement." Liberty High School opened up in 2006 right next to his home and his family supported his decision to start the program and build it from the ground up.

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ArizonaVarsity: Where did you attend high school and college - tell us about your playing career?

Coach Wood: Four years at Deer Valley High School. Then, it became intramurals and pick-up games. I still currently play in that capacity.

AV: How did you get into coaching?

Coach Wood: I have a passion for the game and a desire to work with young people. I feel God has led me in this direction.

AV: How do you manage your time during the season with respect toward your teaching/coaching duties and your social/family life?

Coach Wood: It's getting easier as my daughters get older. While they were young, I actually took 2 years off because I couldn't manage it. Now, I start with my priorities and my career gets the left-overs. Having said that, my family is very much involved with our program. They attend the games, and get involved. They also believe in and support our vision for these young men.

AV: What position do you hold on your school's campus other than your coaching job?

Coach Wood: I teach Driver Education, English and Health.

AV: Who are your coaching idols?

Coach Wood: I have a great deal of respect for a lot of coaches. One thing I try to do is develop relationships with as many coaches as I can. I have several who have my utmost respect and whom I believe do things the right way: Dan Mannix(Sunnyslope), Gary Ernst (Mesa Mountain View), Mark Nold (Arizona Prep Academy), Jason Pasinski (Sunrise Mountain), Steve Burke (Youngker), Jed Dunn (Deer Valley), Tarik James (Cortez), Howard Mueller (Greenway), Roger Lefebvre (La Joya), Tim Butler (Verrado), Joe Babinski (Desert Edge), Buddy Rake (Thunderbird), Michael Wirth (Skyline), Todd Fazio (Desert Mountain), Mike Serwa (Peoria), Curtis Green (Kellis), Ramon Marks (Sierra Linda), Rob Daggett (Buckeye).

There are several others who do phenomenal jobs, but these are the guys I feel I have the closest relationships to, and I respect highly.

AV: Do you have any current or past mentors and what did you learn from them?

Coach Wood: Ken Troutt - Learned the X's and O's of the game, especially defense.

Dan Mannix - The nuances of the game. The importance of developing your athletes and how to do so. How to run a practice. I sat with Coach Mannix one time and didn't say a word. I listened to him for 2 hours jotting down nugget after nugget. His knowledge is unreal.

Gary Ernst - The mindset of a champion, the fundamentals of the game. Terminology. Offensive schemes. He is humble and down to earth and will do anything to help somebody out.

AV: What are some of the personal rewards you've gained from coaching?

Coach Wood: The most rewarding thing I can get from coaching is to simply keep in touch and build relationships with my players beyond Liberty Basketball. More importantly, they stay close with each other. We have a vision and mission statement and when that comes to fruition, it's rewarding and gives me a sense of success and accomplishment.

AV: How could AZ high school basketball be improved?

Coach Wood: I think Art Hall (Executive Director, Arizona Basketball Coaches Association), Gary Ernst and the gang are making a difference with the coaches association. I'd like to see every coach in that and give us an even bigger voice. I think they're on the right track.

AV: How do you feel the Arizona Interscholastic Association (A.I.A.) is doing in their administration of the sport of basketball?

Coach Wood: I think they're trying. The overlap of sports is detrimental to programs trying to fulfill the A.I.A'.s mission statement: "Create and sustain an ethical culture through activities that encourages maximum student participation by providing A.I.A. member schools with an even playing field to ensure fair and equitable competition in interscholastic activities."

Exactly how can we have an even playing field and encourage maximum participation when they overlap sports so badly that it affects teams trying to give all players an opportunity to play athletics? The overlap is causing teams who encourage multi-sported athletes to be at an unequal playing field. It doesn't make sense.

AV: If you could pick any AZ high school to coach at (other than your current school), who would it be?

Coach Wood: I plan on getting buried under our gym. Liberty is the only place I'll be. I believe in longevity and I believe in being loyal. Sometimes it's not a good fit and you have to move on and cut ties. But, Liberty is a perfect fit for me.

AV: What was your biggest mistake made in coaching? (game or player management)

Coach Wood: Early on I didn't put as much emphasis on building lifelong relationships with my players and peers in the coaching profession. I think that caused some players early on to question if I cared more about them or the wins and losses. That's simply not the case. So, we structured Liberty in a way that the players understand we care about them before anything else. The wins and losses will take care of itself.

AV: What should the role of parents be during their child's high school years?

Coach Wood: Always a tough one. The best advice I would give any parent is this: If you give your child an excuse to fail, they will fail. If the blame is outwardly put on anyone, the child will actually fail because they have an excuse to do so. However, if a child doesn't feel a safety net and has to sink or swim on their own, they'll figure it out as long as they're passionate about what they're doing and they are doing it because they want to and they're not doing it because someone else wants them to.

AV: How do you balance playing time so that the entire roster feels included?

Coach Wood: Every player is valued regardless of the level of talents they've been genetically blessed with or not blessed with. We make sure everyone feels valued and included by being deliberate in making it known.

AV: How do you feel about players transferring into your program?

Coach Wood: It takes 3 years for a player to learn a system and the culture (provided the program has culture). Transfers are always behind the 8-ball initially. It takes a special kid to be able to effectively pull it off. It can be done, but it isn't easy.

AV: How do you balance listening to/implementing suggestions from your assistants to ensure that they feel their opinions are valued?

Coach Wood: I don't want yes men. I want men who support, are loyal and make me think. I personally recruit my coaching staff so I only bring on people who share the same vision and mission that I do. Naturally, I am going to make sure they all know it's OUR program. We implement their ideas all the time. There's no ego on our staff. My two top assistants, Eric Robison and Craig Marcus, are incredible men who coach the game the right way. Both of them will make very good head coaches.

AV: What elements do you focus on when giving your team a scouting report on their opponent?

Coach Wood: We do what we do and look how we can exploit their weakness by doing what we do. We don't change anything drastically. We believe in running our system.

In closing, I am amazed at how many great people I've gotten the opportunity to know through basketball. There are some incredible minds coaching basketball in Arizona that rarely get mentioned. There are men doing some things that are kept quiet, but differences in lives are being made. I've been challenged by some of the aforementioned coaches and it's made me better coaching against them. Thanks for the interview and we look forward to another great season. God bless!