Can't Miss: The Kevin Pangos Story

By Chris Dooley

Kevin Pangos grew up in a family that valued hard work and personal accountability. Kevin Pangos fell in love with all sports but especially basketball. Kevin Pangos went on to become one of the best age-group basketball players in the world before he journeyed to Spokane, Washington to become a fan favorite and one of the best point guards in the history of Gonzaga University.

In Can't Miss, first-time author Chris Dooley captures the essence of the number of people involved in helping in the development of a world-class athlete. In the tradition of Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, Jay Bilas' Toughness and Jim Loehr's The Only Way to Win Dooley shows that the life and development of Kevin Pangos is about the process and the people around him as much as it is about the inherent work ethic so evident in everything Kevin does.

Can't Miss is not just a biography about a young basketball phenom. It's about the family values of the Pangos family. It's about the great coaches and trainers who helped Kevin along the way. It's about the opportunities that Kevin was given and it's about how Kevin took advantage of all those opportunities in pursuit of his basketball dreams. Can't Miss is a story that every parent and every young athlete should read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514426531

Chris Dooley

CHRIS DOOLEY is a retired high school teacher who coached at the high school, university, and provincial level throughout his thirty-year career. He has won provincial and national awards in coaching. In 1986 he coached the Ontario provincial team with Bill Pangos, and they have been coaching colleagues and friends ever since. He has known Kevin Pangos, the subject of his first book, since Kevin was born, and their families have shared a week at Olympia Sports Camp every summer. Chris lives in Burlington, Ontario, with his wife, Joy, and they have two adult children Nicole and Daniel.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Chris Dooley.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2015919888

ISBN:       Hardcover       978-1-5144-2655-5

       Softcover       978-1-5144-2654-8

       eBook       978-1-5144-2653-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

The artwork and design for the cover created and provided by the staff at the Pacific Northwest Inlander, Spokane Washington.

All pictures were donated by the Pangos family or provided by The Athletic Department at Gonzaga University, Spokane Washington, or by Canada Basketball.

Rev. date: 12/02/2015

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CONTENTS

1. Can’t Miss

2. The Pangos Family Story

3. Family History

4. The Camp Olympia Story

5. Extended Family Parallels

6. Coaching Prowess—Brent Evans to Roy Rana

7. Basketball in Canada Then and Now

8. The Path Is the Goal

9. From Canada’s National Team to America’s Team

10. The Zag Years

11. A Legacy That Can’t Miss

12. To Be Continued

Acknowledgments

Author’s Bio

References

CHAPTER 1

Can’t Miss

PICTURE%201.jpg

There is an old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words.

The picture was taken at Camp Olympia in Huntsville, Ontario. It shows four kids having a blast. These four kids are my daughter Nicole, my son Daniel, and Kayla and Kevin Pangos.

This picture carries a lot of meaning for me in that it reflects in a moment of time the theme of family and extended family that underlies the story of Kevin Pangos’s journey from Holland Landing, Ontario, to Spokane, Washington, and beyond.

Can’t Miss. At first glance this is a statement that implies an obstacle-free pathway to success, a vision of achievement that places the emphasis squarely on the outcome.

Kevin Pangos had the Can’t Miss label attached to him relatively early in his basketball career. Being compared to Steve Nash as a teenager and being the youngest player to ever suit up and play for the Canadian National Team brought with it a level of expectation (and inevitably, criticism) that is ultimately unfair and misses the point entirely about the degree to which Kevin is a Can’t Miss player.

Because, of course, as all players do, Kevin has missed. There are missed opportunities along any pathway, whether it be a missed open three-point shot, a missed opportunity to win a high school provincial championship, a journey to the Final Four that fell one game short, or an NBA dream deferred.

Kevin Pangos is a Can’t Miss kid, because for Kevin, his basketball dream has always been about the journey, rather than the destination.

In 2010 Kevin was seventeen years old and suiting up for the Guelph Phoenix, a barnstorming senior men’s team of former Canadian university and NCAA players who played an exhibition schedule against current CIS (Canadian Intercollegiate Sports) teams every September and October. The players on the team were experienced players, but their leader was still in high school. The title Can’t Miss was actually coined by University of Guelph head coach Chris O’Rourke, whose team was getting torched by Kevin, who was only in grade 11 at the time. Kevin was showing he could more than just compete—he could dominate—and after watching Kevin hit shot after shot and showing a calm demeanor far beyond his years, Coach O’Rourke said, That guy can’t f—— miss.

I was sitting right beside Coach O’Rourke as a member of his coaching staff. Although I was striving to win the game, part of me was proudly watching Kevin do so well. I had been friends with the Pangos family for almost thirty years and had watched Kevin grow from a toddler in rubber boots at Camp Olympia in Huntsville, Ontario, to one of the best age-group point guards in the world.

Coach O’Rourke’s comment stayed with me. I had been contemplating retirement from a thirty-year teaching career and always thought that writing might be part of a new path. I had coached high school, university, regional, and provincial basketball, and this eureka moment told me that maybe I could combine my love for basketball and love for writing in one project. I had the title for this book before a word was written or anyone even knew I was thinking about it.

I had coached the Ontario provincial team with Bill Pangos in the ’80s, and we’ve been close friends ever since. Our families sort of grew up together through our yearly one-week connection each summer at Camp Olympia and through our involvement in basketball. I remember Kevin and Daniel running around Olympia as toddlers and Nicole and Kayla rushing into each other’s arms every year the first day and crying as they had to depart on the last day. I remember Patty and my wife, Joy, taking the kids to collect rocks at the quarry or collect sticks for the night’s bonfire. Mostly I remember the feeling that the Pangos family felt like part of my own family. I also remember that Kevin and Kayla were so different yet each so special. Kayla once said to me that she made such a big deal about everything and that was why Kevin seemed to make a big deal of nothing.

Can’t Miss fits this story because Kevin Pangos has always been so focused on a faraway goal that he seemingly didn’t care about any individual outcomes along the way. Highly competitive, he always rose above the crowd, who were hung up on the immediacy of wins and losses. He never let his response to a loss or a win linger; these were always part of the path to the ultimate goal. Enjoying the process would make it more lasting—and the goal more attainable.

This book is more about the factors that led to Kevin’s understanding and achievement of success than it is specifically about Kevin Pangos. So many people—from High School and club coach Brent Evans to Gonzaga coaches Mark Few and Tommy Lloyd, from skill developer Kyle Julius to professional trainer Matt Nichol—have played a role in this young man’s development and helped shape his future path.

Kevin Pangos learned very early from his mom, Patty, and father, Bill, that life was about finding a passion and developing your own self-motivated expectations toward enjoying that passion. Patty and Bill saw so many young people following parent-driven expectations that were not sustainable. Kevin learned that personal accountability in any success or failure made those moments more real—and more personal.

Can’t Miss is also about taking advantage of opportunities, being open to new challenges, and accessing the allies who might help you achieve your quest. So many people that I talked to over the process of writing this book commented on how much a sponge Kevin was and that when he came to work out with them, it made them motivated because he was so motivated.

Is success a result of nature or nurture? This is an age-old question, and most literature on success seems to point to the premise that success can only follow hard work. Kevin surely was blessed with genetics: both of his parents had the physical and mental tools required to achieve as athletes. Kevin was fortunate to have been able to listen and learn at Camp Olympia from so many adults who had walked the path that he wanted to walk. This ethos at Camp Olympia was also present in his high school, where like-minded teachers fed his passion with a passion of their own. His birthdate brought him into this world at a time when the passion for basketball was being reborn as the Toronto Raptors were becoming hometown role models. Steve Nash two-time MVP, another small-town Canadian basketball player, used hard work to become not only an NBA player, not only a first-round draft choice, but a two-two NBA MVP. The possibilities for young Canadian basketball players seemed endless.

Kevin was also surrounded by a family culture, bred through the hardship and travails of immigration, that valued and understood hard work. You want something done? Do it. You want to achieve more than others? Work harder. You don’t have access to weight training facilities? Make you own. This culture of family-first values bred in Kevin a sense that he could achieve.

So opportunity knocked. But it was up to Kevin to answer.

That’s the point of Can’t Miss. First, the process must be fun, because then it will last. It must be goal-oriented. Not a dream. A goal, because then it is something you are truly after. It must come from the heart; it needs to be something that you look forward to each and every day. It must value process over outcomes. Wherever the process takes you is where you are supposed to be. And it must be approached with respect—respect for those who came before you, respect for those who are willing to help you, and most of all a respect for the process itself, because anything in life worth achieving will bring with it challenges, some harder than you think you can handle. But you will.

Always thankful, never satisfied …

The center of the Can’t Miss approach for Kevin Pangos starts, as it does with all of us, with family as a big part of this story; it starts with what we learn before we know we are learning.

As Kevin grew from a toddler who was completely immersed in sports, his mom and dad started soccer and basketball programs where there were none and provided Kevin and his sister, Kayla, a bedrock of fun and fundamentals through the community sport opportunities that they supported. Over the next few years, Kevin became one of the better hockey players in his area, one of the best volleyball players in the province of Ontario, and one of the best basketball players in Canada.

Chronicling Kevin’s journey of course took me on a journey as well. Gonzaga assistant coach Tommy Lloyd one time reflected that he thought it was great that this story was being written as it was happening, but in a Can’t Miss scenario, which was the only way. If Can’t Miss is about process over outcome, then the process had to be lived to be understood.

This journey also taught me that Zag Nation spreads far beyond the borders of Spokane or even the state of Washington. The Kennel (officially called the McCarthey Athletic Center), where the Zags play their home games, is an absolute buzz of enthusiasm, but I have seen the same fervor at games in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and at the WCC tournament in Las Vegas.

Can’t Miss also afforded me the opportunity to learn about the life and legacy of Father Tony Lehmann. I never met Father Lehmann as he passed away in 2002 but learned of him first through discussion with Father Hightower, who was the priest on the Gonzaga bench in Kevin’s freshman year. Father Hightower told me of this great priest who was known as the basketball priest, as he sat on the bench for twenty years and shared of his life and time with everyone he came in contact with. I especially loved when I read BraveHearts by Bud Withers of the Seattle Times, which Father Tony ended every conversation with, whether he be talking to students on campus or on his deathbed meeting visitors, with the term To be continued. This rang a truth within me about life but also a connection to the title of this book. Kevin treats life as a series of challenges and adventures, and each one is meant to be continued.

The book is called Can’t Miss because of the attitude that Kevin Pangos has about life and the process he has embraced in his pursuit of excellence. He is more grounded, though, in values of being an accountable teammate and solid citizen, and the respect he garners, both in Canada Basketball circles and in Zag Nation, is proof of that.

In closing this foreword, and opening the book, I would like to quote Jerid Keefer, a longtime Mark Few staffer who has become a friend and mentor through this process and who captures the essence of Kevin Pangos’s four years at Gonzaga very well.

Everyone in Spokane loves the Zags, and everyone who loves the Zags loves Kevin Pangos!

PICTURE%201-1.jpg

Literally born with a ball in his hands

PICTURE%201-2.jpg

Wants to win….at everything!

PICTURE%201-3.jpg

Canada’s National Sport

PICTURE%201-4.jpg

Kevin’s first attack dribble

PICTURE%201-5.jpg

Kayla caring for Kevin…always

PICTURE%201-6.jpg

Kevin and Patrick on blades

CHAPTER 2

The Pangos Family Story

Picture a park that had several full-size fields that are all divided up into three or four minifields. There must have been one hundred kids all playing various games and about double the number of parents watching from the sideline. Suddenly a helicopter flew over, and everything stopped. Kids stood where they were, looking up into the sky and pointing, including all the players on the team I was coaching, our goalie included. The only exception in the whole park was Kevin, who dribbled the ball through the players like they were frozen pylons and went in and scored before he even realized a helicopter was flying overhead!

—Rich MacPherson

Just give the kid a ball!

Kevin’s love affair with the ball, any ball, began when Kayla was two and Kevin was about six months. Bill went on a recruiting trip to Edmonton for the World Junior Championships and brought home a souvenir ball for Kayla as a gift. Kayla, much more into arts and crafts at the time, acknowledged the gift and moved on to something else. So they gave the ball to baby Kevin, and he loved it!

In discussing their earliest memories of Kevin, both Bill and Patty said that Kevin never wanted to play with trucks, never wanted to do artsy stuff with Kayla (although when Kayla made him, he would comply); he just wanted to play with a ball.

Even as he got older he always was happy when he had a ball in his hands, Patty remembers. If he came home from school and was down about something, all I had to do was take him outside and throw the ball around with him and he’d be fine within minutes. Having a ball in his hands was his happy place. Even today he does that on his own and loves having a ball in his hands.

The hub of sport activity for the Pangos family was the after-dinner triathlons, which were part of the young family’s evening routine. After supper, rather than sit around the TV or video console, which most houses had, the Pangos family would head outside, and they would play a choice of games. They would play soccer, baseball, football, hockey, and basketball. Patty and Bill both came from a high-performance background, and both were educators who saw the bigger, long-term picture in athlete development. They wanted to make sure that their kids loved activity and were well-rounded athletes who had the opportunity to experience a range of activities at a very early age.

Bill was an all-star guard at the University of Toronto after a great high school career at North Toronto Collegiate, where he was coached in basketball and football by Dave Grace. Coach Grace as owner and director of Olympia Sports Camp would later play a huge role in developing Kevin’s love and passion for basketball. After his playing career, Bill turned his attention to coaching. He coached for two years at Humber College in Toronto before moving on to the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario where he coached while completing his Master’s degree. He then moved on to York University in Toronto, where he would lead the team for the next 29 plus years before retiring in 2015. Bill got involved in regional, provincial, and national coaching opportunities in the summer months and became a highly respected clinician across the country. Bill is known for a willingness to try anything to help his players develop their talents and develop as people. He is a real process person in a results-oriented profession. His skill development efforts with his university players mirror his belief that the fundamentals are key to success and worthy of daily focus.

Patty was also an all-star during her basketball career at McMaster University in Hamilton and was inducted into the McMaster’s Sports Hall of Fame. After university, Patty turned her attention to teaching high school students, first in North Bay, Ontario, before settling into a career at Dr. Denison Secondary School in Newmarket. At Denison, Patty would have the opportunity to tap into her love for the outdoors through volunteering on outdoor education trips. She found that she enjoyed working with the troubled kids, who were in danger of slipping through the cracks of the education system. Her style of tough love and personal accountability, which she lived through her own childhood, struck a chord with these students, and she had a huge impact on their lives. Patty believes that there are many ways to learn and that the hands-on approach works with many students who are not well served by traditional forms of education. She talks with pride of her younger brother Jim as an example of someone who struggled throughout high school because his ADD (attention deficit disorder) made it difficult to master reading and writing achieved much more as an adult than the educators thought possible.

Patty’s impact extended beyond the students she worked with to the larger Denison community. She describes herself as a sort of mother hen for many of the younger staff. She actively helped the Denison staff become stronger through the casual recruitment of people she thought would be great additions to the staff, a number of whom came from Patty’s connections to the Olympia Sports Camp community. An example of this is the hiring of Brent Evans, who would become very close to the family through his outdoor education expertise and his love of basketball.

Aside from her love and passion for education, Patty loved the outdoors. Whether it was mountain biking, canoeing, hiking, or simply having a family event around a campfire, active time outside was a guaranteed way of finding her happiest place. That love of outdoor activity would play a huge role in what her kids would love and her city-raised husband would come to enjoy.

Patty and Bill met at Camp Olympia in 1987, where they both worked as camp coaches. Other coaches used to tease Bill that he was using Olympia as a recruiting tool to find players for his York teams, but there is little doubt that his best recruit was Patty Koudys, whom he lovingly refers to as PK. Bill and Patty were married in 1989; Kayla came along in 1991, and Kevin was born in 1993.

Did we feel Kevin was special from an early age? Bill responded when asked. Don’t all parents think that about their kids? Bill remembers most that Kevin was passionate about doing things over and over and over again and would never get bored.

Whether it was shooting a puck, shooting baskets, or soccer juggling and/or making moves, he always loved the challenge, Bill added. And it wasn’t necessarily just to get better at things. It was just his happy place.

When Kevin reflects on this stage of his life, he concurs with his dad. I remember the triathlons, and enjoyed playing with Mom and Dad and Kayla, but I also liked playing sports by myself.

Patty recalls that when Kevin was outside playing in the yard, or downstairs dunking on the plastic basket he had far outgrown, he seemed to have a special friend that he was playing and talking with. Sometimes he’d even do the play-by-play.

There is a funny family video (Bill always had the video camera at the ready) of Kevin playing baseball outside. He would throw the ball up, hit it, and then run the bases, wildly cheering for himself.

In those games outside and hours working on various skills in various sports, Kevin is very clear about which sport he loved the most. Soccer was always my favorite. When asked why soccer was so much fun, he made two points that seem almost prophetic when watching his subsequent growth as a basketball player: There was so much I could work on to do with the ball, whether it be juggling or making moves and visualizing dekeing out the goalie and scoring. And I could do it on my own or with the family. Dad brought home some old nets from York, and I would play for hours, either by myself or with friends, playing and running through the sprinkler on hot days at the same time.

Bill remembers one aspect of Kevin’s early experiences with soccer. Kevin wanted to learn to head the ball at a very early age because he had seen it on TV. Most kids are afraid of the ball, but he always wanted to be able to play it like the big guys did.

Patty shares another anecdote from those days: On hot days we would put the sprinkler on, and Kevin would play soccer and run through the sprinkler. He took it as a fun challenge to try to time the sprinkler rotation and avoid it to go in and score on the imaginary goalie. And of course cheer for himself!

Kevin loved all sports and was very good at most, but what he loved most was the ability to express his creative nature through sports. He loved the innate competition with his mom, dad, and older sister, but he seemed to love more the hours he would play soccer and later basketball outside and had no need to force others to play with him. When he was on his own, he could work on his soccer footwork and dribbling skills. This foreshadowed his work ethic once he got to the highest levels in basketball; he would love to work out with the team but would also love to work on his own skills hour after hour long after his teammates were gone. As Patty says, that was his happy place.

Kayla obviously played a huge role as Kevin’s role model (and sometimes foil) as they played sports or played around the house. Kayla grew up to be a talented athlete in her own right. She went through the basketball player development program in Ontario and eventually made the provincial B team in 2008. She also was heavily involved in ultimate Frisbee, playing on the provincial team for two years and making the under-21 national team that competed for the World Championships in Germany in 2010. In the early years, however, Kayla was not as preoccupied with sports as her younger brother, but her high energy level demanded activity of some sort to fill her days. Her creativity was more in the area of arts and crafts or playing house. She quite often would use her younger brother as a surrogate doll, and she even named him Junie.

Kayla said, I don’t remember it being superorganized, but my mom always had to find things for me to do because I really couldn’t sit still. Kevin wasn’t really into arts and crafts, but he would do it as he always seemed to just go with the flow, and since I loved it, he had no choice. Even when I painted my nails, he would want his done, or he’d let me put his hair in pigtails.

Kevin’s big sister was an influence in many ways. When playing sports against Kevin, she would always win because she was stronger and very aggressive, and Kevin had to