Adolfo Coronado works to teach life lessons to his basketball team

OTHELLO — Adolfo Coronado said he tries to apply some of the lessons from his day job to his coaching job.

“I try to instill some of the things we do here at the sheriff’s office with the girls. The sense of teamwork and camaraderie. One of the things I preach to the girls is, a sign that you’re a good teammate is when you learn to be happy for your teammate’s success,” he said. “Because when it comes down to it, it’s a success for the team.”

Coronado is the head coach for the Othello High School girls basketball team, which he did well enough to be named 2021-22 Coach of the Year for the Central Washington Athletic Conference. His day job is serving the community as undersheriff for the Adams County Sheriff’s Office.

The 2021-22 season was Coronado’s second as OHS head coach. He’s been with the sheriff’s office 16 years, he said.

His law enforcement career began with some conversations with Dale Wagner, now the Adams County Sheriff but at the time a detective with the sheriff’s office.

Coronado and Wagner were volunteer coaches for their sons’ youth football teams, Coronado said.

“He asked me, why don’t I apply? And I gave him a rundown of what I thought, and he said, ‘The worst thing that can happen is they say, ‘No.’ And so I thought, ‘Yeah, you’re right. That’s the worst that can happen,’” Coronado said. “Little by little, I took the first step, got through that, went on to the next steps,” he said.

Former sheriff Doug Barger offered him a job, he said, and he accepted.

“When I was able to get in (to the ACSO), it was like, ‘Okay, now I’ve found a home,’” he said.

Coronado described the undersheriff as the second in command of the department. He’s been the undersheriff for more than five years, he said.

“We’ve got a really good group (of deputies) right now, young and hungry,” he said. “A really good group.”

He’s in charge when the sheriff is out of the county, and he helps run the department when Wagner is here, he said. He’s also is the lead coordinator for much of the department’s training, he said.

“I don’t have a patrol shift,” he said. “When there is a single deputy working or a single sergeant covering, the sheriff and I won’t hesitate to respond. When we hear something crazy going off, we know, ‘You know what? We’ve got to get there.’”

His children were the reason he got into coaching, he said. He was a volunteer coach for his son Noah in grade school, but he really got involved when his daughters started playing basketball.

His daughter Alexis’s team needed a coach and Coronado volunteered, he said. It was a pretty good team, and his fellow coach Josh Tovar - now Desert Oasis High School principal - suggested the girls might benefit from playing some summer basketball. So they started an Amateur Athletic Union team.

Tovar was the team’s coach, he said, although Coronado helped out when he could. The time came, when the girls were in high school, that OHS needed a girls head coach.

“(Tovar) applied for it, and he got it,” Coronado said. “I asked him if I could be his assistant.”

High school coaches are salaried, but Coronado said the salary was a bonus. He coaches because he loves basketball.

“I’ll take a dollar for it, I really don’t care. I just want to be part of this, I really wanted to help,” he said.

That first year, Tovar’s first as head coach and Coronado’s as assistant coach, was pretty bumpy.

“They struggled. We struggled early. It’s been a while since Othello has been a big girls basketball program, or even boys basketball program,” he said. “Not really a big basketball town. But we were hoping to start changing that a little bit.”

By Tovar’s third season the Huskies made the district tournament, the first time in a long time. Othello lost in the first round.

“But it was a fun experience because it was something we hadn’t done in the high school for a long time,” he said.

After a few years Tovar decided to give up the job.

“I put my name in,” Coronado said. “And sure enough, they gave (the head coach job) to me.”

His first season was 2021. Games were played in the spring and the season was shortened due to the coronavirus pandemic. But it was valuable nevertheless - his players learned that their hard work did pay off with wins over teams they weren’t expected to beat.

“The girls started tasting success,” he said. “I don’t remember if we ended at .500 or not, but if we weren’t we were pretty close to .500, and that sparked a little something.”

That momentum carried over to the 2021-22 season, where the Huskies finished third in the CWAC and won their first district playoff game.

Coronado said he expects his players to commit to the team and to work hard, and wants them to know they will get out of basketball what they put into it. Those are life lessons that will last beyond basketball, he said. This year’s team responded.

“This group took what I was trying to implement and ran with it. They picked it up quick,” he said. “They showed no quit. Once they realized, ‘Hey, this winning stuff’s kind of fun,’ they - man, they surprised us. They surprised me.”

His daughter Annalee will graduate in 2023, and will be going to college and possibly play basketball. He’s not sure if he wants to keep coaching while Annalee is still playing, he said, since he wants to follow her games. But it’s a tough decision.

“I didn’t think coaching was going to make it this hard of a decision. Because - man, I really love coaching. I really like seeing that group of girls, their confidence, their abilities, everything continuing to grow.”