Former Huskies and Trail Blazers star Brandon Roy, who in one freaky season at Nathan Hale High School was named national coach of the year, will take his coaching talents to the south end of Seattle and his alma mater, Garfield High. On its sports Twitter account, the school confirmed Thursday earlier media reports.
It’s official!! Brandon Roy is the new Garfield basketball head coach. #legacy
— Garfield High Sports (@garfield_sports) May 25, 2017
Roy went from Garfield to Washington, where he starred for four years before becoming a 2006 first-round pick, sixth overall, of Minnesota, which traded him to Portland. Roy had five productive years, with a career-high 22.6 ppg in 2008-09, before chronic knee problems ended his career in 2011.
Roy, 32, took his first head coaching job at Nathan Hale, which loaded up on transfer talent directed to the school by Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar. A year after a 3-18 season, Hale, behind Michael Porter Jr., won the state 3A championship over Garfield and was named a national champion by a recruiting service.
But after Romar was fired after 13 consecutive losses ended his 15th season at Washington, Porter and other members of a strong recruiting class de-committed to UW, and Roy apparently found himself a free agent coach.
Roy was involved in a bizarre episode last month when he was reported by police to have been shot in the leg during a visit with relatives in Compton, CA. Roy was said to have attempted to protect small children from gunfire from two men on the street. Neither Roy nor those close to him would confirm anything other than he was OK.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="2233113 https://sportspressnw.wpengine.com/?p=2233113">8 Comments
When did Garfield move from central Seattle to the south end? Rainier Beach and Chief Sealth are south-end schools; Franklin, Cleveland, and Garfield are not, any more than Roosevelt and Ballard are north-end. Hale and Ingraham are north-end.
My two schools, Queen Anne and Lincoln, weren’t ‘north end’ or ‘south end’ either.
Great point Pixdawg13!!!! Keep up the good work!
NO doubt Roy knows his basketball but there are many coaches in Washington State that could have taken that Nathan Hale team to the State Championship! Roy happened to be the benefactor of a disguised recruiting system(transfer talent) led by Romar to help acquire talent for the UW. I would really like to see what Roy can do with lesser basketball talent which is not directed by a major college coach.
That’s the genius of Roy (and Phil Jackson), don’t take jobs where the probability of failure are high.
Garfield in south Seattle? It’s more like the central district, or west side of Capitol Hill.