Very rarely do I get a chance to get to know local coaches. Yes, they know who I am but we really never get a chance to sit down and chat with coaches on a lengthy, non work issue.

You see, with our schedule, we're always on the run. Always it's get the interviews, and hurry to the next story or to the next game. It's just the way things work in a two man department. What makes the airwaves on KSFY for sports, comes from two people, Thor or myself, so we're constantly running around.

But when the Coyotes made their magical run to the women's Elite Eight basketball tournament this year, I really got a chance to get to know Chad Lavin. I covered every game from the start of the post season to the D-II title game, so Chad unfortunately got more than what he wanted from me. Coach Lavin never sugar-coats the issue. He's honest, never lying to you or saying the company line. He's told me things that I was rather surprised to hear him say, but that's what I like about the man. I truly could sit down at a bar and talk for hours with the man. He simply tells it how it is.

After USD announced Lavin's replacement, I interviewed Chad real fast and then talked more off-camera. I asked him if it has hit him that he was done coaching. I'll never forget his answer. He was totally honest with me. To make a long answer short, he said this. "I love coaching basketball. I hate recruiting, hate traveling, and other behind the scenes stuff." Lavin had a passion to be out there, he had a passion to teach, but he struggled with traveling. With USD making the move to D-I, the time was right for him to step down and what a magical ride his girls gave him. Lavin was truly a great coach, and this reporter will certainly miss his kind remarks when the tape isn't rolling.

There are other coaches out there that I enjoy talking to once the tape is done rolling, but Lavin will go down as one of my favorites and more people in the world could learn something from the man always wearing a sweat-shirt and sweat-pants.

Until we chat again.