Ralphs joins Eastern as assistant BB coach

“I believe relationships are the most important part of being a coach,” said coach Easton Ralphs, one of two new assistant coaches at USUE. It is his first year being an official coach and is excited and up for the challenge. With a lot of the same coaching beliefs and tactics as head coach Bill Evans, Ralphs is a great fit with the coaching staff.

Ralphs was a student manager for two seasons with coach Evans. Also, he was a graduate assistant for one season. “Super blessed when Evans got the job, he gave me and call, and I loved working with Coach Evans so I jumped on the opportunity to coach with him,” Ralphs said. It is nice that coach Evans and Ralphs believe that relationships are important. “Coach Evans is my mentor, so I’ve learned a lot from him,” he said. There is a  good group of players and coaches to represent USU Eastern in the conference.

Having good relationships with your players is something that is needed for teams to have that trust for them to be successful. “If you wanna be successful, you have to have relationships with your players,” Ralphs said. With that relationship, you develop trust for the players on and off the court, so you can trust them that they will do their job in any situation.

With having little experience, coach Ralphs is excited for this experience and learn more about coaching. “It’s exciting to be around the guys,” he said. They are fun to be around, and there is this family-type team. “They’re all great kids, and having that family feel on the basketball team is really awesome.” With that family-type feeling, there is going to be trust and with trust comes success.

It is going to be tough with COVID, and it has already given the team a challenge. The basketball team was quarantined in September, so they had to stop practices a couple weeks after starting practice when classes began. 

“Everyone is going through it everywhere,” he said. Even though they were just in quarantine, they still have a long way to go before the season starts. The season is set to start Jan 22, hopefully playing 22 games plus the conference tournament. 

Ralphs is gaining a lot of experience coaching and excited to see the USUE basketball team play. “I think we have talent and hard workers so it’s just a matter of putting that all together. This year’s basketball team has the right guys to be successful and competitive. They should be fun to watch.