Above photo: The UMHB men’s basketball team alongside the players from Cross Plains High School and UMHB alum and Cross Plains head coach Trace Richey
CROSS PLAINS, Texas When first-year Cross Plains High School boys basketball coach Trace Richey saw the bus pull up outside the small gym at Baird High School on a Friday night in mid-January, he initially didn’t know what to think.
“At first I was like, ‘What team is coming to scout us? I hope we’re not seeing them down the road,’” Richey told True To The Cru with a laugh. “Then they walked through and I saw Coach [Clif] Carroll.”
Indeed, it was the entire Mary Hardin-Baylor men’s basketball team, in attendance to support one of their own. With a difficult loss at Hardin-Simmons the day prior, and a pivotal road duel at McMurry the following afternoon, Richey was taken aback. Baird was a 20-minute drive from Abilene, and the game was late on this particular Friday night.
But the bonds built within the UMHB men’s basketball program are long-lasting. With Richey, who graduated last spring after playing two seasons with The Cru, set to coach in one of the biggest games of his young career, Carroll made sure it was one he and his team didn’t miss.
“We surprised him,” Carroll said. “Baird and Cross Plains are rivals, so that was a big game. We showed up and had a lot of fun with both fan bases.”
The Crusaders certainly brought energy in what turned out to be an overtime battle, helping Richey’s squad push forwards and stay engaged. The fact that it was a surprise made the night that much more memorable for Richey, as he thought back on it weeks later.
“It meant so much,” he added. “I had no idea that they were going to show up. Knowing that they had lost a tough one the night before, the fact that they were so selfless and thought, ‘We have a guy coaching down the road’ [made it meaningful]. Knowing it was going to be late, and that they had a huge game the next day, it just showed the bond that Mary Hardin-Baylor as a whole has. Everyone makes you feel like family.”
Establishing a culture that is focused on family has been a priority of Carroll’s through his four seasons at the helm. It has been seen in the chemistry shared by the players on and off the court, but instances like this serve to show that the idea of the program being a “family” does not end when the final buzzer sounds on a player’s time inside the Mayborn Campus Center.
“The fact that we were in Abilene, he’s got his biggest game of the year 20 minutes down the road, and we were able to go there and support him was special for me and special for Trace,” Carroll said. “But it was also great for our guys. We have a lot of new guys; guys who aren’t entrenched in this program yet. That’s just part of what we do. When you’re part of us, you’re part of us forever.”
For Richey, that aspect made it all the more meaningful. While he was on the roster in each of the last two seasons, this year’s squad includes several newcomers whom Richey never took the court with. Yet, they brought the energy and showed their support just the same. Through a program built on more than just winning percentage, they shared a strong connection.
“That was the neat thing too,” Richey added. “Over half of those guys are new, and I don’t know them. But they came in like I had played my two years with them. I don’t have enough words to describe the gratitude I have for Coach Carroll and all those guys who showed up.”
The Crusaders made their presence known, too, which is an aspect Richey fondly reflects on. One of the things Richey took away from his two years playing for Carroll is the importance of the bench being vocal, infusing positive energy and creating momentum for their five on the court.
For instance, once the team has gotten back-to-back defensive stops, the bench starts yelling “Kill”, as a “kill” is equivalent to three consecutive stops. And when an offensive rebound is pulled down, the bench shouts “Money”. When they break-out of huddles, they join together in yelling, “Together We Attack”, something started by current senior guard Kyle Wright. Richey immediately applied the same chants when he took over at Cross Plains, though getting buy-in was difficult early.
But with UMHB inside the gym, it came a little easier.
“If you don’t fully understand what it looks like, it’s difficult,” Richey said. “When we said, ‘Together we attack’ to break it out, Kyle and Jo kind of looked at each other like, ‘Did they just say what we say?’ It locked them in for the rest of the game.
“The first time we got two stops, we were yelling “Kill”, but we weren’t fully bought into it. And then, all of a sudden, the entire Cru started yelling, “Kill!”. And then we got an offensive rebound and they would yell, ‘Money’. Man, it was a special thing. It brought the juice.”
Richey became part of a such a special program via Wayland Baptist University, where he opened his college career and spent three years. A native of Gail, Texas (pop. 231), and the son and grandson of accomplished Texas high school coaches, he was always drawn to sports, and established himself as a standout multi-sport star at Borden County High.
That carried over to Wayland Baptist, where he played football, basketball, and baseball at points during his time in Plainview, as never one who sought a break from competition.
“I played everything at Borden County, so I didn’t know what an offseason looked like,” Richey recalls. “The first time I was faced with it, I thought, ‘Man, I have a lot of free time and I don’t like it.’ My roommate was playing JV basketball that first year, and they played JUCOs, who were, a lot of times, better than the varsity teams.
“With four or five games left, [my roommate] said they were short a few guys. I talked to my dad about it, and he said, ‘You know what, the worst case scenario is they’re going to say no.’
He ended up on the team, balancing his spring course schedule with football offseason workouts in the mornings and basketball in the afternoon and evenings.
“It was brutal, but I loved it,” Richey said. “It’s a lot harder to do at the collegiate level because sometimes in high school, you can get away with saying, ‘Okay, I can take a breather here.’ In college, you can’t.”
Always one of his passions, baseball fit in the mix as well with Richey’s talents as a left-handed pitcher. In fact, he primarily played football and baseball over his final two years at Wayland, before deciding to give basketball another shot thanks to an opportunity from Carroll.
“I knew I would regret it if I didn’t play basketball, because that was one of my first loves,” he recalls. “Coach Carroll had recruited me at Sul Ross, but my oldest sister had gone there, and gotten hurt, and said it was lonely out there. I did the football thing mostly for my grandpa–he passed away my senior year–and knew if I went to a smaller school I’d be able to play multiple sports.”
He earned that opportunity at Wayland, but in a desire to play basketball once again and with his undergrad studies wrapping up, he gave Carroll a call. At that point, he had no idea Carroll was soon set to move to UMHB.
“When I told Coach Carroll I wasn’t going to go to [Sul Ross], he said if I ever had an itch to scratch, give him a call. So I did, and God opened that door. It was a blessing in disguise since I had no idea he was going to be changing schools, but it worked out.”
As he progressed through his college career, he became more and more drawn to a career in coaching after initially starting as a criminal justice major. Coaching gave him the chance to impact the lives of his players in the same way that his coaches had done for him, and looking back, Richey notes that some of his most significant mentors were—and still are—his coaches.
“To me, a big part of the success I’ve had and that my family has had is all due to The Man Upstairs and I wanted to give back to kids,” Richey said. “All of my greatest mentors in life have been coaches. I wanted to impact young men’s lives in a different way, and not necessarily the sports aspect, but that’s what allows you to grow close. When you’re going through the struggle and the wins and losses, that’s what creates these bonds that you’ll have for a lifetime, which is an amazing thing about sports.”
He has taken over a team at Cross Plains that is both experienced and currently in-line for a playoff spot, sitting third in District 13-1A at 12-14 overall, and 4-4 in district play. The 35-31 win at Baird on Jan. 12 remains one of the high points of Richey’s first season.
“There’s been a lot of ups and downs, just trying to figure out who I am as a head coach,” Richey said. “The former head coach is superintendent [of the district] and he knew they were going to be solid, and didn’t want to leave the next guy with a rough group. So with that potential, it put a little bit of pressure on early, but he’s been mentoring me and it’s been neat getting to learn what works, and what doesn’t.”
As he continues to make strides as a head coach, and guides his team into the final week of its regular season, Richey remains thoroughly supported by a team back in Belton. And by a head coach who believed in him as a player, and now supports him as he has taken the reins of a program of his own.
“When you come to play at Mary Hardin-Baylor, you don’t just come to play basketball,” Carroll noted. “You come to be part of a family. When you play for us, you play for us for life.”
