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Maisel calls it quits as varsity coach

By Brian Gomez

More than two decades after landing his first boys basketball coaching job, Corona del Sol High School’s Joe Maisel has made the ultimate decision.

It was one that left his players scratching their heads, his school’s administrators searching for answers and his family members wondering what the future holds for a selfless individual who admits he hasn’t always been there for the ones he loves.

Maisel resigned as Corona’s boys varsity basketball head coach last week, citing a need to be closer to his wife, his three young children and his ailing parents.

“That was very difficult, but I feel peace in my own heart,” Maisel said.

“I love coaching, I love teaching and I love Corona, but I also love my family. I’m willing to sacrifice something I really, truly love in basketball as a head coach.”

The unforeseeable became official April 25 when Maisel briefly addressed his team for the final time in an emotional meeting, two days after he had informed school officials that he would not be returning as head coach next season.

Nearly everyone who knows Maisel was surprised by the decision, but seem able to understand his reasoning. They just didn’t think he would hang it up only six years after replacing Sammy Duane, who served as head coach from 1977-97 and now has the school’s large gymnasium named after him.

“I wasn’t going to try to talk him out of it because of his reason,” Corona varsity assistant coach Steve Garrison said. “That would be kind of selfish.”

Maisel, 43, had first seriously contemplated retirement in early January, right about when the Aztecs were in the midst of a span in which they lost 13 of 14 games in 42 days. The tide turned in his team’s favor down the stretch, but Corona was eliminated in the opening round of the Central Region Tournament after sustaining a 63-55 overtime loss to Marcos de Niza.

Corona’s poor finish didn’t factor into the final decision for Maisel, whose teams had captured three consecutive region titles before suffering through two straight seasons without making a trip to the state tournament.

“This isn’t about wins and losses,” Maisel said. “This is about following what I deeply believe in my heart via prayer. It’s about regarding my three children above other things, which is not necessarily popular, but I had to do it.”

The single biggest thing Maisel says deterred him from staying as head coach for what he had hoped would be a career similar to his predecessor’s (four state championships) was the heavy time commitment that prevented him from being with his family in the evenings.

Last season, the Aztecs played 27 games, nearly all of which started shortly after his family usually settled down for dinner without him. Maisel had to spend nearly every weeknight away from home from late November until mid-February, not counting the days he held practices on weekends and the time he spent in preseason workouts that commenced during the summer.

And that was just one season. It had been that way for much of 24 years, since Maisel took up coaching as a wide-eyed teenager living in the Midwest.

“I know I could have gone through it and maybe ‘half-hearted’ it next year, but Corona deserves more than half of a heart, and I can’t give half of a heart,” Maisel said. “I never have in anything I’ve done.”

A family man

Knowing that his kids won’t always live at home, Maisel said, he often felt guilty about not being with them this past season due to his duties as Corona’s head coach.

He couldn’t read stories to his 6-year-old daughter, Julia. He didn’t have time to become a Cub Scout pack leader for his 10-year-old son, Jake, who wants to join the Boy Scouts. And he wasn’t there to watch his 12-year-old son, Derek, play the trumpet in school performances, he said.

Maisel says he didn’t want to miss out on an invaluable opportunity to watch his children grow up, especially after he and his wife, Mary, endured a traumatic experience 14 years ago that they still think about today.

Maisel’s wife was due to give berth to quintuplets in mid-July 1989, but she went into labor only 26 weeks into the pregnancy. On April 15, 1989, the newlywed couple’s five boys--Michael, Matthew, Nicholas, Anthony and Gregory--were born more than three months prematurely.

After being baptized and read last rights by a priest on site at the hospital, they all died the same day because their lungs had not yet fully developed.

“The doctor patted the baby and said it was a boy,” Maisel said. “I had the boy in my hands, then I watched the baby gasp for air and my son passed away.”

Although the memories of their deaths aren’t as painful now, Maisel says he still recalls how what should have been a routine Saturday turned into a sorrowful event that forever changed his life.

“They’re part of me every day,” Maisel said. “I think about them just about every day, in a positive way. I probably look at life differently than most people do.”

Maisel’s three children are all healthy, but Maisel knows how one’s life can change in a heartbeat. That understanding made him think about whether he wanted to continue coaching.

So too did the declining health of his parents, both of whom have cancer. Two years ago, his mother underwent quadruple bypass surgery and she now has lymphoma. The cancer is in remission for the time being, but doctors don’t think she’ll live longer than two years.

“My dad’s cancer is treatable, but my mom’s is terminal,” Maisel said. “She’s on the clock of life, like we all are. She won’t physically be able to go another round of chemo and radiation.”

A tough decision

After Corona’s season ended in February, Maisel wrote the reasons he should continue coaching on the right side of a piece of paper and the reasons he should step down on the left.

“The left side of the paper said, ‘family; my three kids,’ ” Maisel said. “The right side of the paper had over 30 reasons why I should stay.”

Figuring that wasn’t the best way to go about deciding his future, Maisel says he turned to prayer. A month later, he was confident that now is the right time to walk away.

“This was the most difficult decision, without a doubt,” said Maisel, a devout Catholic who regularly attends Sunday mass at St. Andrew’s.

“I was a little surprised at the end of those 30 days where my heart was really at because I feel like I’m giving up an awful lot. That hurts me and it’s scary, but I don’t ever doubt my kids.”

Maisel glazed into “stunned” looks upon telling his players that he would not be returning next season. Many of his players have since met with him individually to seek an explanation for his resignation.

“I had no idea because we had a basketball meeting earlier in the year and he didn’t hint anything about it,” said Corona junior center Allen Smith, who figures to come off the bench next year behind a senior-dominated starting lineup that will likely feature guard T.J. Benson, swingman Dan Winterbottom, power forward Craig Borengasser, center Josh Spence and either guard Alex Gordon or guard Steven Ewing.

“I could tell there was some emotion in him, but for us it was so much of a shock that no one really said anything until after we had left the room. Then it was just nothing but surprise.”

What now?

Next year, Maisel will continue teaching psychology at Corona, along with coaching freshman softball. He said he would like to coach freshman boys basketball, but only if the new varsity head coach is comfortable with the situation.

Maisel has expressed interest in taking over as the boys junior varsity soccer team’s head coach under the guidance of his close friend, varsity head coach Fran Bader, if he can’t stay in the boys basketball program.

The opening was created this spring when varsity assistant coach Jim Wallace vacated the position.

“Corona is going to be fine,” Maisel said. “I’m not going to change. My role is just going to change here.”

Search for a successor

Oddly, the same search committee that hired Maisel in 1997 must now look for someone to replace him.

A three-man group consisting of Corona Athletic Director Dan Nero, Corona Principal Jim Denton and Tempe Union Athletic Director Don Wilkinson hopes to have a new coach in place by the end of the school year.

There won’t be a deadline for submitting applications due to restraints over the number of teaching positions Corona has to offer.

“We’ll have to take a look at everything that comes in and see the combinations because we definitely want a teacher on campus,” Nero said.

“If there’s any possible way we can take care of it that way, we’re going to do it. We’re not real big on having an off-campus coach for a head coaching position. It’s such a tough thing, especially in those high-profile sports.”

Maisel has endorsed varsity assistant coach Andy Strom as his hands-down choice to fill the position. Strom would be an ideal candidate to take over, not only because he graduated from Corona, played basketball for Duane and currently teaches math at the school, but also because he has coached within the program for the past seven years.

“My heart is totally praying and hoping that he gets the position,” Maisel said. “He deserves the chance. I don’t care what anyone else says. It’s out of my hands, but he was seven years as an assistant. What hasn’t he done?”

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in mathematical education from Northern Arizona in 1996, Strom started working at Corona as the freshman head coach under the tutelage of Duane and Maisel. He took over as junior varsity head coach in 1998 and has held the position ever since.

Now at 29 years of age, Strom is on the cusp of landing his first head coaching job. He may have a bit of competition, though.

Gary Trousdale has tossed his name in the hat only a year after joining Corona’s coaching staff as a varsity assistant. Although he has coached previously at the University of San Francisco and Tulsa, he likely doesn’t have the teaching qualifications needed to fill the position.

“He would be excellent, too,” Maisel said. “He brings a lot of expertise and a lot of knowledge.”

Two other potential candidates that are currently tied down as head coaches at different schools could also be interested in filling the position. One of those prospects visited campus a mere three days after Maisel announced his resignation. The other has kept his distance, but he may still be eyeing the job.

Looking back

Corona has experienced much success under Maisel, having advanced to the state tournament in four of the past six years.

In Maisel’s first year at the helm, the versatile Duane McClendon helped lead the Aztecs to the Central Region championship game, where they were dealt a 15-point loss against archrival Mountain Pointe. Corona was then blown out by Phoenix Brophy in the opening round of the state playoffs.

One of Maisel’s most memorable seasons came in 1999 when the Aztecs got redemption against the Pride with a 58-52 victory in the region title game. After receiving a bye in the opening round of the state playoffs, they rolled past Phoenix Carl Hayden, setting up a meeting at heavily-favored Tucson Pueblo.

The Warriors led by as many as nine points twice, however, Corona grabbed a five-point advantage with less than a minute left, only to see it flutter away. After being fouled with 5.9 seconds remaining, McClendon made one of two free throws to give the Aztecs a one-point lead, paving the way for a controversial ending that required a police escort back to Interstate 10.

Pueblo’s Hakim Rasul tipped in his own missed jumper as the buzzer sounded, but referees quickly waved off the basket at the scorer’s table. After the game, the official timekeeper admitted that he mistakenly let about two seconds tick off the clock when McClendon was fouled, preventing the Warriors from having enough time to win the game on their final possession.

“Everybody was rooting against us and we were getting buried early, but our kids just refused to lose,” Maisel said.

The Aztecs escaped with a 63-62 victory. They later lost in the semifinals to a Mesa Mountain View team that captured the state championship and produced six Division I products. It marked Maisel’s lone trip to America West Arena in six years as Corona’s head coach.

The Aztecs repeated as Central Region champions in 2000 thanks to the consistent play of blossoming stars like Anthony Hollins, Mike Phillips, Ryan Murdock and Aaron Irving. But they were upset at home in the second round of the state playoffs by a Phoenix Shadow Mountain team anchored by UCLA sophomore guard Ryan Walcott.

Corona had a longer stay in the state tournament the following season, however, the quarterfinals proved to be its final stop. Led by the Fontenet brothers (James and Jason) and Arizona sophomore center Channing Frye, Phoenix St. Mary’s picked apart the Aztecs from the outside and the inside in a decisive victory en route to a state championship.

Maisel’s teams fell well short of their expectations the past two seasons. Corona went 16-10 in 2002 and 11-16 last year, failing to make the state tournament both times.

Reach the reporter at brian.gomez@wranglernews.com.

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