Bill Pope grew up in Northern Virginia and played at Mount Vernon with future Giants' pitcher Atlee Hammaker and for legendary Coach Don McCool, an assistant for the Majors.

Coach Pope attended Bridgewater College before settling in Roanoke to teach history and to Coach basketball at Northside High School.

Pope, who is at 596 victories and led the Vikings to a VHSL Class 3 State Championship in 2019 has Northside at 5-0 overall entering their annual Northside Invitational Tournament to close out the calendar year.

We discuss Coach's basketball journey in this fascinating chat about Virginia basketball.

Contents:

00:00 Introduction; Coach's background; Coaches that stay in the game; How the role of coach has changed; How players have changed; How basketball has evolved; Tactics then and now; Has recruiting changed? Is six classifications too many?

25:05 The Northside Invitational Tournament ("NIT"), Coach Pope and Northside's annual holiday tournament

26:30 Mt Vernon HS days; Playing with Atlee Hammaker; Learning from coaches Hill and McCool; NOVA rivalries

32:15 Choosing Bridgewater for college; College days; Playing D3 basketball

38:50 Taking over at Northside; Turning the program around; Great Patrick Henry teams; Playing Salem and present JMU Head Coach Mark Byington

51:05 Winning the State Championship in 2019

57:25 The 2022-23 Northside team; Prospects for the NIT and the rest of the season; Conclusion

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