Lyle-Pacelli head boys basketball coach Dean DeBoer has plenty of experience watching head coaches do their work, and this season he’s about to start head coaching himself.

DeBoer was a radio and TV sports reporter before he began as an assistant boys basketball coach at LP two years ago. Over the summer he was hired as LP’s head coach and now that he’s on the bench instead of in the radio booth, DeBoer has a new perspective on what it’s like to coach.

“There’s a lot of things that the media doesn’t notice about coaches. It’s the day to day operation that I never had to think about before. It’s every day and it’s something that’s always on your mind,” DeBoer said. “When I was critical of a coach I take that back, because it’s not as easy as we think it is.”

DeBoer is a graduate of Lyle High School and he always wanted to become a head basketball coach. As it turned out, he ended up with the LP job and it has been a smooth transition as DeBoer is familiar with plenty of his players.

LP junior guard Jordan Hart remembered seeing DeBoer as a radio announcer for KAUS, but he got to know him a lot better over the past couple of years when DeBoer started coaching.

“We connect with him. He’s a great coach and he’s teaching us a lot,” Hart said. “We work on shooting every day and we’re already becoming better shooters.”

DeBoer is taking over a team that has just two seniors and three juniors, but he likes the talent the team has coming up in the sophomore and freshman classes.

DeBoer hopes that he can build a program that will be competitive on a year-to-year basis.

“The trick for us making sure kids have a good experience (at a young age) and you want to keep them out at least until they’re sophomores. Then they can make a decision on if they’ll keep playing or not,” DeBoer said. “We’re here to compete and win, but you have to have fun on the way.”

DeBoer would like to have at team that presses the entire game and cranks up the pace, but he realizes that may not be easy to do, depending on the numbers LP has.

“I think you have to adapt to the team that you have,” DeBoer said. “If you’re athletic and deep you can play up tempo and fast and you can try to press and trap. If you’re not athletic, you have to be willing to slow it down and be patient.”