Brandon Crites just started as the Centralia boys basketball head coach but knows a lot already about the program and community.

Crites played and coached for arch rival Hallsville prior to being hired as the Centralia boys basketball head coach last month. He coached at Hallsville 11 years, including five seasons as the varsity boys head coach, and led the Indians to an 83-49 record and three district championship games.

Because of summer scrimmages and practices, Crites has had chances to work with his new team and the Panthers have won about 60 percent of their games. He has had chances beyond this year, however, to interact with the Centralia community as his family has attended church in town for at least 10 years.

“It became open this year, and the timing felt right,” Crites said. “We made the move and moved our full family here. We’re excited for our kids to be part of the community. We’ve always liked this community just in passing.”

Crites said his wife and four children (with the oldest entering eighth grade) like what Centralia offers, whether it is the “family feel” of the community or the recreation center. He said the “respectful” nature of the community was apparent during his playing and coaching days.

“To me, it’s always been a friendly rivalry,” Crites said. “I always had a lot of respect for the Centralia community and the way their fans behave. Fans on both sides (of a rivalry) can get nasty at times, but that never happened when we came to Centralia.”

During his junior year, Crites remembers playing against a Panthers team that won the 2004 Class 3 state championship, and some of those kids were also part of the 2003 Class 2 football state championship. Adam Hinspeter and former head coach Chad Thall were all-state basketball players that season. He said Hinspeter was a great athlete who could take over a basketball game and played quarterback — eventually becoming Missouri Southern University’s all-time leader in passing yards, completions and total yardage — and played travel basketball with Crites.

The kids have obviously changed in Centralia, but the athleticism, work ethic and good temperament hasn’t changed. Crites notices the same qualities from Centralia kids and can’t wait to coach them.

“The kids always play hard,” Crites said. “The first several times we played against them, coach (Scott) Humphrey was there and then last year was coach Thall. There was respect among the coaches for the way their players behaved whenever they took the floor to compete.”

Crites developed into the coach he is today after listening to several different voices during his playing career. He said he had a different head coach for every year of high school and then played for Hall of Fame coaches in college, including Randy Albrecht at St. Louis Community College and Bob Burchard at Columbia College.

“I got to see a lot of different coaching styles and find what fits my personality,” Crites said. “I was able to find the things I didn’t really like and see that coaches do it a lot of different ways.”

Crites said it was a “blessing” to learn from many coaches especially since he had coaching in his future. Over time, he found a philosophy that matches his personality and expectations he has for his teams. 

From what he has noticed, Crites said Centralia should have no problem adopting a fast-paced style of play to catch the defense off guard. He said there are many different approaches and philosophies to coaching but gravitated toward his because he likes having that pace during practice and is a fun brand of basketball for the players and fans. 

“The way I know how to teach it is more fast-paced, man-to-man defense and it’s five guys playing together as one defensively,” Crites said. “Defensively, we want to apply pressure for 32 minutes and make the other team uncomfortable. If you can get a bunch of tough kids together all playing together as one, playing this way gives you a chance.”

Crites can’t wait to spend more time coaching his new players but acknowledges it might take time to have everybody together. As was the case in Hallsville, many basketball players also play football in the fall. The more success the Panthers have on the field means the longer they’re delayed from appearing on the court in the winter.

Centralia hasn’t had a losing football season since 2014 and has advanced past the first week of districts in six straight years. Crites said he would love to see his football players play as long as possible to spend more time in a winning culture that can hopefully be translated to the court. That would be beneficial because Crites said he wants Panthers basketball to be at a Final Four level.

“Success breeds success,” Crites said. “My vision for the program would be to take one big step forward this year towards becoming the kind of team that can compete for Final Fours.”