Natural born leader

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The first day of eighth grade basketball practice at Strickland Middle School didn’t exactly go so well for Michael Eddy and his Viking teammates.

Michael Eddy, former Denton High School basketball player who played professionally overseas, is set to begin his first head coaching job as girls head coach at Carrollton Christian Academy.

But Eddy and close friend Judd Holt were determined to make sure day two would not be a repeat performance. The duo called their teammates for an impromptu evening practice at Avondale Park to work on the offense just hours after that forgettable first workout.

And while his game was initially less than dazzling to then-head coach Reggi Sain, Eddy’s mettle was clearly anything but lacking.

"He [Eddy] was a leader back then — a very quiet leader who led by example," said Sain, who is now head coach of the Argyle boys basketball team. "He was so smart academically I thought he’d be a doctor or a professor, like his father. I’ve never steered any of my players to come back and become poor and be a coach. It’s not a high-paying job monetarily, but you get rewarded in so many other ways."

Now, after an incredible basketball journey that has included playing for three colleges and professionally in both Iceland and Australia, Eddy, 31, is set to begin his first job as a head coach this fall for the embattled girls program at Carrollton Christian.

"It was a great experience, just getting to see the world," Eddy said of playing internationally. "I ended up getting married, and my wife didn’t want to go to Germany. I could have gone and played [pro ball] in Germany, so instead I got into teaching and coaching."

After showing fierce dedication and work ethic at Strickland, Eddy moved on to become a standout player in high school, graduating in 1993 from Denton High School-Ryan campus. He started for two seasons on the varsity and was honorable mention all-district as a junior and first-team all-district as a senior, when he averaged 19 points and 6.5 rebounds. Eddy also scored the first two points in a game ever at Billy Ryan Gymnasium.

"Back in middle school, you couldn’t get two words out of him," Sain said. "He was quiet and shy. When he got to high school, he was the guy at the football game with the big ’fro wig clowning around. He had a big personality change in high school."

Even though he became more outgoing in high school, Eddy, who was born in Chicago and moved to Denton when he was 5, was still very serious about the game of basketball. He was recruited by Denny Price, former NBA player Mark Price’s father, and landed a scholarship at Phillips University in Enid, Okla.

After being asked to redshirt after his freshman year, Eddy transferred to LeTourneau University in Longview. He was immediately named a captain for the YellowJackets and helped them come within one win of making the NAIA Division II national tournament in 1994-95. He still ranks second on LeTourneau’s all-time single season offensive rebounding list with 89, sixth on the all-time single season defensive rebounding list with 107, and seventh in single-season free-throw percentage list at 82.8.

However, Eddy wanted more academically than LeTourneau could offer, so he transferred once again to Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., where he was reunited with former teammate Holt.

"He kind of recruited me to Hendrix," Eddy said of Holt. "We grew up together, went to Woodrow Wilson [Elementary] together, went to Strickland together and went to Denton together."

While also attending the University of North Texas in the summer, Eddy helped Hendrix to the NCAA Division III national tournament, where the Warriors won their first national tourney game in school history his junior season. Eddy was an all-conference second-team selection his senior year. And via a Hendrix teammate whose brother played in Iceland, Eddy decided to do the same in 1997.

"I went over there [to Iceland] and inherited a whole basketball career," Eddy said. "I was the head coach, I was a player/coach. It was like when Avery Johnson first came to the Mavericks. The year before I came, they won two games. They brought me over there to kind of start their high school program, so I coached the high school boys team, and I coached the men’s team I played for."

Both years he was there, Eddy’s team went to the national championship, winning it the second time around. In between seasons, he played in Australia, first with Athletes in Action, and then in Western Australia.

"It was [a culture shock]," Eddy said. "They speak mainly Icelandic and also English. They’re trilingual, really. The team I played for was sponsored by this grocery story chain and this fish factory. Everybody that played for me basically had a full-time job. And even the guys in the top league, Iceland’s NBA, they just do it for fun."

Since getting into teaching and coaching, Eddy, who got his bachelor’s degree in religion from Hendrix and his master’s degree from UNT in education, has taught at a middle school in Dallas and coached at Ursuline Academy, Grapevine Faith and then Carrollton Christian, where he has been for the last three years. He took over as interim coach last season after head coach Bill Franey was accused of violating TAPPS rules by arranging to have tuition paid for four players.

After legal action was taken, the playoff were actually suspended for two weeks until a restraining order that would have allowed the Saints players to compete in the playoffs was dismissed. The team was stripped of its 24 wins, the four players in question were not allowed to play in the postseason, and Franey was suspended and then eventually resigned. The program is on probation through 2009.

"I ended up having to take over the last month of the season," said Eddy, who officially became head coach earlier this month. "We were 7-2 and won a bi-district championship. We would have won district, but we had to forfeit some of those games. I felt bad for the kids, especially the seniors."

Eddy, who also coaches track and field and cross country, is looking forward to facing the challenge of being a head coach, but also of taking over a program that is trying to get back on its feet.

"It was a great experience for me, because I feel like everything I’ve done for the past few years has prepared me for a head-coaching job," Eddy said. "I was fortunate enough to interview for three jobs and I ended up staying at Carrollton Christian, where I’ve been for three years. Being a head coach has always been a goal. Basketball has been good to me. It has opened up a lot of opportunities for me."