Sports Odds and Ends
It’s not unusual to hear a hoopster, whether male or female, put at the top of their list of future goals to someday play pro ball. But on the flip side, hearing a youngster say he or she one day wants to be a coach or a game official is rare indeed.
“I would say I think I knew I wanted to be a coach pretty early on,” admitted Bridgeport Tusler, now in his second season at the helm of the Crown College women’s basketball program. He was hired in 2022.
Tusler was the starting point guard, a training ground for future coaches at Osseo, where his team won the 2012 Class 4A state championship. Before he graduated in 2013, he also was the 2012 AP Player of the Year, Metro Player of the Year, and Mr. Football.
A 2018 Bethel graduate, Tusler first spent his freshman year in college at South Dakota State and played football there before transferring to Bethel, where he was a two-sport athlete at the MIAC school (football and basketball). In basketball, Tusler won All-Rookie and All-Defensive honors, was a three-time all-league selection, and helped the Royals win the 2016-17 MIAC title as a four-year starter on the basketball team.
Tusler coached boys’ basketball at Monticello High School for two seasons. He knew he could coach, even at the collegiate level, and felt he was ready to move on.
“I applied to probably 30 or 40 different [schools]. I wanted to get my foot in the door some way, somehow,” Tusler told the MSR. “I thought I might have been good enough to get those jobs.”
He kept pursuing his dream while working as an Amazon delivery man and working part-time as an assistant coach at Macalester College.
“It allowed me to watch him,” recalled Tusler of Scots Coach Abe Woldeslassie and his one season at the St. Paul school where the Scots made a historic run and finished as MIAC runners-up.
Then Crown College came calling.
Founded in 1916, the private Christian college is located 40 minutes west of the Twin Cities in Saint Bonifacius. It is a Division III school with 16 sports, including WBB.
“I think my style [of play] is a little bit more guard [oriented]. That’s three or four guards on the floor at all times,” explained Tusler. His overall recruiting strategy is focused on finding players to fit that style. “Our system allows for almost anything as long as you’re coachable,” he added.
In Tusler’s first season, the Polars went .500 in conference play (7-7), 14-11 overall.
Tusler is among the modest but growing list of Black college head coaches at Minnesota schools. “I try not to think that people simply aren’t getting hired because they are a certain color,” said Tusler. “At the end of the day, I’m gonna be the man of integrity and character… I think that would also inspire more young Black athletes to get into coaching.
“From an execution standpoint,” the coach pointed out, “I know my stuff.” On watching Woldeslassie work, “He’s kind of a father [to me]. We still communicate about hoops.”
He also learned from his college coach Doug Novak: “He really poured a lot of how to be a good coach into me,” said Tusler.
“I feel I’ve been really blessed and lucky to be around such great coaches who had an incredible impact on my life in the past 10 years,” said Tesler, including Woldeslassie, Novak and his high school coaches.
“I’m still learning the ropes. I’m learning every day, but I also thought it’d be nothing better in the world than to be doing basketball.”
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