By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
Alfred Love Jr. is looking to change the culture of girls’ basketball at Cleveland High School. In his second year as the head coach at Cleveland, Love is focused on rebuilding a program that not so long ago was one of the best in the state. Over the years, the program had its fair share of success by winning Metro League titles and state championships, and now, under his leadership, Love is striving to rebuild the program from the ground up.
Currently, the Lady Eagles are 2-10, but according to Love, his main focus is not on the number of wins or loses but on building a program that transforms young girls into competitive young ladies. When it comes to building a program from the ground up, Love knows that his team will face adversity and lose games, but he also believes that giving the girls the experience of playing basketball and being tested in many ways will help get them where they need to be both on and off the court.
“I am rebuilding the program, which is fun for me, although with developing a team you have to learn that you have to start from the very bottom and work your way to the top over the span of a couple of years,” says Coach Love.
Building a program from the ground up is a literal experience for Love, as it was tough for him to get girls interested in the basketball program. According to Love, the experience that the players endured under the previous coach was one that did not sit well with many potential players, and getting them to return to the program was a struggle.
“I used to walk the hallways trying to get girls to come try out for basketball, but because of the bad experience they had with the coach before me, many of them turned me down,” says Love.
Fast forward to this year, and Love says that his players have recruited other girls to join the team just by telling their friends how different the program already feels. As a result, the Cleveland girls’ basketball program consists of 13 freshmen, with 4 of them on the varsity team, which means that the team has lots of room for growth. However, young teams typically face more challenges compared to teams that have been together for years, which is a challenge that Love is more than willing to embrace.
“When I accepted this job, I knew it was going to be a three-year process,” says Love. “This is my second year here, but as far as the process, this is just the first year because you don’t necessarily include the kids inherited from the previous team.”
Prior to his head coaching position at Cleveland, Love had an extensive coaching record within Seattle’s basketball community. Landing his first coaching job at the age of 14, Love, ironically enough, was a coach everyone loved. Back in 1995, he served as an assistant coach at Chief Sealth for two years before taking on a role as the JV coach at Rainier Beach. But Love credits much of the success of his coaching career to his mentor Steve Greer, who had always admired how Love worked with kids at the community center.
“Steve took me under his wing at such a young age that I was really able to start learning about coaching strategy and scouting early on from him,” said Love. “When Steve moved on to be a high school coach in 1991, that is when he gave me my first opportunity to coach a high school team.”
In 2009, Love created the Seattle Youth Recreation Foundation, a youth basketball program that did not require tryouts and was available to anyone wishing to play basketball. According to Love, many of the players had never played on a travel team before, and SYRF gave them the opportunity to do so while gaining experience as a basketball player.
“It is a great way for girls to learn basketball at different levels and get something out of it regardless of which year you started,” said Love of the SYRF basketball program.
Bringing his extensive coaching background and positive energy to Cleveland, Love has only begun to change the program for the better. With more girls becoming interested in the basketball program, and the word of mouth about Coach Love increasing, Cleveland might see improvement in the program sooner than later.
Junior guard Jadyn Refuerzo is one of the few returning players that went through the hard times associated with the previous coaching staff. Refuerzo says that she is very happy that Love came over to Cleveland and is excited to see him rebuild the program.
“I always thought to myself how am I going to survive the next couple of years, and then that is when Coach Love came, and I have always admired his work,” says Refuerzo. “I wish I had a team like Coach Love has now where he is able to have them grow together, instead of always having to say bye to seniors each year.”
One of the things about rebuilding a program is that it can create opportunities for younger players to develop and succeed. One such player for Cleveland is freshman Jodi Booker. Booker, who is a guard/forward on the varsity team, is excited about the role that she can play in the program in the coming years.
“I like the team and the coaches; I think that it is a good program, but we are just really in a developing state being such a young team,” says Booker.
As a whole, the team seems to be very hopeful for the future of the program and what Coach Love is going to do. Many shared how excited they are for the young team that they have, and they can’t wait until next season to see how much growth they have gone through together.
“I am looking forward to next year because we will have more people coming in that will give us a better opportunity to start getting more wins, and I am excited for the future to learn how to work with the team better as the year goes on,” says Freshmen guard Ashima Robinson.
