'It's a dream come true': Lakeland alum Tyrel Derrick takes over as Hawks girls basketball coach

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

Tyrel Derrick said he would not have wanted to be a basketball coach if not for his father, Trent.

Trent Derrick was the boys basketball coach at Lakeland for 15 seasons (from 1996-2011), before moving into administration.

“There wasn’t anything cooler to me, than being a little kid and dad coming home,” said Tyrel, who was recently named girls basketball coach at his alma mater, Lakeland High, replacing longtime coach Steve Seymour. “I have vivid memories of him coming home and me asking him, ‘Who played well? Cam Kiefer? Ryan Gallia? I knew every single person on the team. Every year. I just remember I wouldn’t go to sleep until he came home from games or practice, because I wanted to talk to him about basketball.

“And that didn’t really ever stop, when I was playing and he was the athletic director, and then principal, and when I was in college. Our relationship is so much more than basketball, but it was the thing I always knew I could go to him for advice.”

“And seeing him coach — my dad’s my hero,” Tyrel continued. “I respect him more than any other person, for his faith, for his integrity, for the way he holds himself in the community, and watching him coach, I was always pretty mesmerized by … just the influence he had on his players.”

Tyrel Derrick, 25, graduated in 2015 from Lakeland, where he was a four-year varsity basketball player under coach Dave Stockwell. He played three years at NCAA Division III Wheaton (Ill.) College, before finishing up his schooling at Lewis-Clark State College, where he got his business degree and economics degree.

He was an assistant coach under Stockwell for two one-year stints, including the 2020-21 season which produced one of Lakeland’s best teams ever.

“He pretty much was in charge of the defense that last time,” Stockwell said. “He’s got a lot of head coaching ability … I think he should do real well.”

“I never expected to be on the girls side, and I’m so glad it worked out that way, actually,” Derrick said. “Things have been coming into fruition with who I get to surround myself with on my staff. The girls are just high-character girls. Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun. I keep telling people, it’s a dream come true to be coaching high school, and especially at Lakeland, where I grew up and spent so many years, and the people are just so kind to me. It’s just been a really neat blessing.”

Derrick wasn’t even born when Seymour began his 27-year run as Lakeland girls coach in 1995.

Seymour resigned shortly after the season, and the job was open for more than a month before Derrick decided to apply. He refused to seek the job without the blessing of his wife, Jaclyn, a full-time nurse. Plus, he’s just 15 months into his career as a real estate agent.

“It took so long because of those real meaningful conversations with, really, the one whose opinion matters the most,” Derrick said. “I said from Day 1, I refuse to do this without you, and when she finally said ‘Yeah, let’s go after it,’ that’s when I applied.”

For the past year, Derrick was in charge of Lakeland Elite, an AAU boys and girls basketball program for kids in the Lakeland School District, with 11 teams and around 100 players.

He coached a sixth-grade boys team and a fifth-grade girls team this past year, the first year of the program.

“Probably the best thing for me from a coaching standpoint — how do I go back and teach the fundamentals to kids who have never touched a basketball before?” Derrick said. “And it forced me to grow.”

In the interim between coaches, Lakeland Elite handled the workouts for the high school girls at Lakeland, so Derrick was able to work with his future players before he was named their head coach.

“And I’ll be honest — I’m not saying I’ll never coach boys again, but it’ll be a tough call, because the girls have already shown me that they’re a little more fun to coach,” Derrick said.

Why?

“I’ve found with boys, you’re constantly trying to convince them why you’re the expert in basketball,” he said. “It’s almost an Alpha mentality … I’m trying to convince you that I know more than you. And with the girls, there’s a hunger and a fire to learn. And if you come in and are ready to coach, and ready to put in the effort … they just need to be pointed in the right direction. There’s not as much of the initial convincing that needs to happen (with boys) … some of them (girls) haven’t been as exposed to basketball as much.

“In some ways, it’s more of a teaching and coaching role than the boys side, because you’re really teaching them basketball from an exposure standpoint. With the boys, they watch and consume basketball quite a bit, and they think they know more than they do, most of the time — including myself when I was playing. I probably was one of those guys that drove my coaches nuts."

Now that he is Lakeland’s girls coach, he is no longer director of Lakeland Elite — though Derrick said he and Hawks boys coach Tony Hanna will put on clinics for the players and coaches in the club program.

Derrick said it helped to work with the high school girls at Lakeland before deciding to apply for the job.

“I kinda knew what I was getting into,” he said. “Walking into the program, there is a lot of thirst and hunger for on the court success.

“Steve and (assistant) Deana (Lange), the previous coaches, they have really had some incredible character of girls in their program, and I don’t think that’s by accident. I think they really stressed having the right kind of kids, and rewarding that behavior.

“And walking into the gym with these girls has been so refreshing, because you don’t find a group of 20 girls that all get along, and this group does. I wasn’t around the girls program much, I watched from the outside growing up … but, whatever success I have is going to be the byproduct of the kind of girls Steve and Deana helped bring up in this program. It’s pretty phenomenal walking into a gym, and seeing these girls being humans to each other.”

Derrick said his dad, Stockwell and even his college coach, Mike Schauer, all were positive influences on him as a coach — even though he played sparingly at Wheaton.

“Going to college, I was able to see it from a different perspective as someone who never plays, who has to sacrifice for the good of the team, without ever seeing the court,” Derrick said. “I think about those two things a lot when I’m coaching — how to see not only the kids who are your best players, but also the kids who sometimes have the highest character, but they’re the ones who never touch the court. And you need to reward them as well. It was a good teaching three years for me.”

Lakeland finished 8-11 last season, and have played for the 4A Region 1 title each of the last four years. The Hawks last went to state in 2019.

“I just think this group of girls is pretty special,” Derrick said. “The kind of girls I’m being asked to lead is pretty fun. I enjoy walking into the gym every day, because it’s not hard to coach them.”