Raven makes his way home: Pegram takes helm of girls basketball program

Published 5:05 pm Wednesday, July 24, 2013

It may very well have been the millionth time he’d fired a basketball at one of the rims inside the Auburn Riverside High School gymnasium.

And watched his shot hit nothing but net.

“I’ve lived in this gym since 1995 when I was a ball boy,” Derek Pegram explained.

Pegram, a 2004 ARHS graduate and star player, will be spending a lot more time on that court from now on — as head coach of the vaunted Ravens girls basketball program.

“Getting to take over not only the program at the school that I went to and played for but also the program that has been so successful, I couldn’t ask for a better first varsity head coaching job, because this is the best varsity job in the state,” Pegram said.

Getting back to where he started has been quite the journey for Pegram.

From 2000 to 2004, Pegram played hoops for Tom Adams at ARHS. After graduation he moved on to North Seattle Community College to continue his playing career. But a life on the hardwood as a player wasn’t in the cards for him.

“Since I was a kid, I always wanted to coach. I never had the dream of playing in the NBA,” Pegram said.

After graduating from North Seattle, Pegram returned to ARHS to help Adams with the incoming freshman class.

“He asked if I wanted to stay on and be a varsity assistant that next year,” Pegram said. “Then Doug (Aubert), who was the (junior varsity) coach, got the athletic director job. The chance for me to be the head JV coach at the age of 20 was too much to pass up.”

I 2010, after three years with the Raven boys JV program, Pegram moved on to Franklin Pierce High School to be a varsity assistant with Deon Moyd and Stan Harris. The team made it to the state tournament.

Telling himself that if he really wanted to “get into it”, he had to complete his degree, however, Pegram left one year later for Lewis and Clark State (College) in Idaho, where heenrolled in the school’s kinesthesiology program.

Soon he was invited to help out with the school’s girls basketball program.

“I didn’t realize at first how good they were,” he said. “We were really good, ranked as high as No. 3 in the nation in the NAIA (National Association of Interscholastic Athletics) Division I. We made it to the national tournament and the sweet 16 in Jackson, Tenn.”

Despite his foray into coaching collegiate athletics, Pegram missed coaching at the prep level.

“I feel like you have more impact at the high school leve, not just with their basketball lives but in growing them up,” Pegram said. “To me it’s just more fun. In college you get 12-15 kids; in high school you get a varsity, a JV, a freshman team. So you’re dealing with 30 or 40 kids every single year. To me that’s awesome. That’s what this is all about.”

After a season helping the Lewis and Clark women’s program, Pegram returned to coaching high school ball, taking over the junior varsity program at Lewiston High School. On the verge of graduation from Lewis and Clerk with a bachelor’s degree, he started looking for a high school varsity program in need of a head coach.

“This job came open,” Pegram said of ARHS. “I knew that I wanted a head coaching position, and that I was graduating, so I drove over for interviews. Twice. During finals week. That was stressful. And I had biology finals too. That really sucked.”

Pegram not only got a call back from Aubert but also a job offer.

When he was making up his mind about applying for the ARHS job, Pegram said, the final decision was always going to turn on whether he wanted to live in Auburn again. Fortunately, he said, he’s a big fan not only of the program but of the community, too.

“I’ve lived here most of my life, and I feel now is the time to for me to come back to Auburn in a way that I feel could be successful,” Pegram said.

Pegram was also excited that his mother, Shelly Pegram, stat keeper for the girls varsity program, would get the chance to see him coach every game. As for jumping right into leading a program that has not only been highly successful but also notorious for its corps of vocal and involved parents, Pegram said he welcomes the challenge.

“People have warned me that I’m going to face parent issues. But you’re going to face parent issues wherever you go. I faced them in Idaho. As a first year varsity coach, I’m excited to deal with it, to be honest. Because I’m all about being the best coach I can, and if I have to deal with tough decisions right away, then good, I’ll learn quicker. I want to have a long career coaching, I want to impact kids’ lives for a long time. And I feel like if I can deal with issues that might make some people uncomfortable, that will just make me better,” Pegram said.