Coach
brings winning past to 49ers’ future
By Karl Peterson
On-line Forty-Niner
 The
Long Beach State men’s basketball head coach
Larry Reynolds told his athletic director
at Cal State San Bernardino that it would
take a special opportunity to tear him away
from the successful program he helped build
at San Bernardino.
Opportunity knocked.
Growing up in Southern California Reynolds
said that there were only three schools
talked about when the subject was Division
I college basketball: UCLA, USC, and Long
Beach State.
“Having known the tradition of outstanding
teams and the coaches that have coached
here, Long Beach was one of those special
situations,” Reynolds said. “It took me
two seconds when the job was offered to
me to accept it.”
After playing three years at UC Riverside,
Reynolds has been coaching basketball for
23 years — experience that has formed an
invaluable resource of coaching knowledge.
Reynolds spent 16 years as an assistant
to head coach John Masi at UC Riverside,
and he then moved to an assistant coaching
position at the University of San Francisco,
before being hired at CSU San Bernardino
as head coach in 1997.
“I think the steps along my career each
one has benefited me, Reynolds said. “I
can’t think of one more than another because
I think they all combined to put me in the
position that I am [in] now.”
One of the things that Reynolds learned
was the difference between being an assistant
coach and a head coach.
“[The difference between being a head coach
instead of an assistant coach is] when you
go home after practice or games you can
go to sleep,” Reynolds said. “There’s just
a lot more on your mind. There is a lot
more demands made on your time.”
Reynolds is not the only new face on the
49ers coaching staff; all but one of the
coaching staff is new to The Beach.
One of those new faces is assistant coach
Reggie Howard, who has known Reynolds for
17 years, since he played for the coach
at UCR. Howard said he was excited at the
opportunity to work with Reynolds at LBSU.
“He [Reynolds] tries to incorporate, from
a staff perspective, everybody’s opinion,”
Howard said. “He will listen to anybody
that he feels can offer something, I think
it his probably his best asset.”
The players were uncertain at first about
their new coach, but they are growing to
like him.
“I didn’t know what to think at first because
I didn’t know coach’s background,” senior
forward Kevin Roberts said. “Then I heard
from other people that he was really good.”
In addition, Reynolds is realistic about
success in his first year as coach as at
a new program.
He understands that the team will have some
growing pains while learning new offensive
and defensive schemes, saying that he expects
improvement from the team more than victories
early in the season.
“I want to ultimately bring an exciting
brand and winning brand of basketball to
the campus and the community and try to
regain some of the fine tradition that has
been built here,” Reynolds said.
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