Interview w/ Coach Burnett
Feb. 23, 2000
Casie - First of all, how does it feel to be in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame? Cheryl Burnett - It's a tremendous honor. Actually, when you're currently coaching and not 60 or over, I think it's even more of an honor. And I just have attributed it to, of course, our team success, but also to our fans, our administration, and of course, to all the past players that have worked so hard. I simply got to be the one to stand up there and receive the award. A tremendous compliment. C - What's the most important component of a great player: talent or attitude? C.B. - Absolutely and definitely what we call their champion . . . their skills of over achievement, which would include work ethic, competitiveness, and just the drive to succeed. Those are the most important parts, especially for our program. C - You're hard working, successful, and very respected. I, along with many other people, really admire you. Do you think you are a role model? C.B. - Absolutely. And, in fact, thank you for those compliments. The reason I got into coaching was because I had a high school coach by the name of Jim Enlow that I felt was a tremendous role model for me, and everyone else at Centralia High School. (Centralia, Missouri) And that's why I got into coaching. I wanted to try to impact somebody's life the way he impacted mine. So, you gave me the ultimate compliment. Thank you. C - I went to a game where there were over 9,100 people. Does it ever overwhelm you to see that many people? C.B. - Every single time. I'll never forget the first time this building was full, and the emotions I had. Really, I felt the emotions as a player would because, when I was playing, I always dreamed in my mind of playing in front of a packed house with all that energy, and then saw it come to pass as a coach. But every single time this place is full, I almost cry. I always well up and feel that emotion inside of me. C - I've noticed that you're a very animated and energetic coach. Do you do what you do to motivate the team, or to get the crowd worked up? C.B. - It's just the way I feel. I've always felt like coaching is my passion . . . I really feel I was born to coach. And it's just very natural. It's nothing that's not spontaneous. Now, every once in a while, I try to help get the crowd more into the game, and I do that on purpose, but all the rest is just the natural intensity of coaching. C - How do you recruit people, for example, are there certain qualities you look for? C.B. - We always look for over achievement. And we think we're unusual because we recruit not only the athlete, but the student and the person. We always talk about four areas of life: social, spiritual, academic, and athletic, and we recruit all of those. We feel like, once players come into our program, they are also being role models for young people, and it's extremely important what they do off the court, in the classroom, and certainly as basketball players. C - In your opinion, what makes a fundamentally sound team? C.B. - Unselfishness, and the discipline of fundamentals. And you probably heard us talking about some of those today. Blocking out, screening. We want the ultimate team that is unstoppable in every single area, and that is how we coach. I'm not saying that we get there, but we want five people working in total unity with the four other people on the basketball court. C - What are your goals for the future? C.B. - I assume this is as a coach? C - Just in general. C.B. - General? I'm a very spiritual person, so I'm always thinking of what my spiritual goals are, first and foremost. As a basketball team, ultimately, I would like to be in a situation where we're buying for a National Championship, wherever that is. And that's my ultimate goal. One of my goals that never ever leaves me is what happens to basketball players after they leave our program. The success of each individual person is also one of my goals. C - Do you have any discipline problems with the team, and if so, what do you do about it? C.B. - There's always something that coaches have to discipline. But again, I feel very lucky because within our program we don't have a lot of discipline problems, and the reason being is we recruit very special people coming into our program. In terms of discipline on the basketball court, we're looking more at the discipline of trying to get someone to work harder, than problem discipline things you read so much about in the newspaper. We have certain team rules that our players actually establish more than the coaching staff does. Our players have higher expectations of each other, I think, than the coaches do. That makes our job much easier. C - Are the Lady Bears what you expected them to be this far in the season? C.B. - I think so. We always look back and see games that we wish we would have won. At the same time, I think we've had some parts of our success that we didn't expect. So, it's kind of a combination of both. C - Do you have any advise for future Lady Bear hopefuls? C.B. - Work hard. That's the number one thing. The number of hours. I mean, you see right there that Jackie (Stiles) is the first to get here and the last to leave. The offensive part of the game is a repetition skill. So, if someone wants to be a scorer, they're going to be in the gym shooting thousands, and thousands, and thousands of shots. So the time you put in. I've also heard a very wise man told me one time, and also said this to our team. When one of our players said, "Well Sir, how did you become so successful?" He said, "It's easy. All you have to do with whatever you want to accomplish is spend two more hours at it every day than everyone else." Pretty simple. C - That's good advice. I read in the newspaper that you said there is a difference between speed and quickness on the court. Can you explain that please? C.B. - Speed is more up and down. Quickness is being very laterally quick on your feet. And in terms of basketball, certainly being able to defend laterally is a quickness issue. Speed is if you can beat somebody running down the court. When you have somebody with both, then that's a very special talent. C - How important is a person's academic record when recruiting? C.B. - Very important to us. And it's not that we recruit all "A" students, but yet we have a lot of "A" students on our team. It's the importance that the individual puts upon their academics. Our players are expected to go to class every single day. Our players are expected to be in a learning environment if their grade point average isn't high enough. But if we have a young lady that is very responsible in the classroom, she might not be an "A" student, but she will have our respect for doing everything within, what we feel is her potential, academically. C - When there is a time out during a basketball game, you and the assistant coaches go out on the court. What do you talk about? C.B. - Boy, you watch pretty closely, don't you? C - Yeah. C.B. - (Laughs) You're pretty sharp. Each assistant coach has responsibilities. As an example, we're going in to play Bradley, so Coach (Karen) Rapier watched all the Bradley tapes to give that scouting report. So, when it's game time, one of the assistant coaches, like it will be her at Bradley, that is giving me input about what Bradley does. She'll be saying, here's what they're doing offensively, here's what they're doing defensively, really, really, quickly. The other assistant coach will be assigned our team, and they will be saying, Coach, the post player is open; we need to be making post passes more; we're not executing this right, or that right. And then the third assistant is just giving general thoughts as I am walking into the huddle. We're very, very organized about responsibilities. C - Apparently. How much longer do you plan on coaching? C.B. - I can coach a long time. This is what I love to do, and I came from being an assistant coach, and not making very much money, to being pretty well funded with salary now. But I'd probably be doing it if I didn't make anything. Don't tell my administration that! (Laughs) C - (Laughs) Ok. What is the Lady Bears strongest point, in your opinion? C.B. - One has to be the offensive capabilities that's built around Jackie. And then the rest is the desire to play hard enough to make us a pretty good defensive team. C - What's something they need to improve on? C.B. - A lot of things. Defensively, our post defense has to get better, our parameter pressure has to get better. I could probably give you a million things. Our help side defense has to get better. And then offensively, we've got to develop better scoring threats, and we need to screen better as a team. I could tell you a million things. That's a couple of them. C - I have one left. Is there anything interesting about you you'd like to tell me? C.B. - Oh, gosh! I'm the most boring person in the world! (Laughs) Somebody interviewed me a couple of years ago, and they said, well Coach, what do you do in your spare time? I said, well, I either play basketball, or I watch basketball. He said, ok, well what do you do on your off day? Well, I either coach basketball, or I play basketball, or I watch it. I'm not saying I'm one dimensional, but when you want to be successful at something, as I guess, I desire to do, then you're always active in what that is. The only other interesting thing's, I guess, I think my whole life is built around, again, spiritual aspects. I never lose sight of what is the most important thing to me in this world. And the last is when you're in a business that is as intense as this one, it's very important to, what I call, find a little miracle every single day. Whether it's the smile of a child, or a flower over there, that's really what I go into every day trying to do. That's why I love Oprah Winfrey. She's always sharing something that's just a very special, small thing. I don't really think I'm that interesting of an individual. But, I guess, that's as much as I can share about that.
