Former SU star Preston Shumpert returns to coach Liverpool JV boys’ basketball

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Preston Shumpert and his grade school friends didn’t need to go to a local park or YMCA to play pickup basketball.

Instead, they could spend their weekends at Hurlburt Field Air base in Okaloosa County, Florida, and play against Air Force Airmen stationed there. From 8 a.m. until nearly 3 p.m. every Saturday morning, Shumpert played game after game against men twice his age, starting when he was 12 years old.

“Getting beaten up helps a little bit. It’s not always going to be easy,” Shumpert said.

But it’s how Shumpert, the junior varsity head coach at Liverpool High School, learned to play — with physical and mental strength — and it carried seamlessly over to high school at Fort Walton Beach where he was coached by Joe Pons. Soon, Shumpert wasn’t getting beaten out by his Air Force counterparts. The seven-hour weekends at the base quickly became sun-up to sun-down affairs, with the men getting too tired to continue playing.

Shumpert translated that upbringing and never-quit mentality to Syracuse, where he averaged 14.2 points and 4.4 rebounds per game from 1998-2002 as a prolific scorer. He’s now applying what he learned while coaching Liverpool in his first season.

After playing professionally overseas for 11 seasons, Shumpert trained high school players in Syracuse before getting a call from former teammate Ryan Blackwell. Blackwell hoped to get Shumpert involved with Liverpool’s basketball program.

When Liverpool’s previous JV coach left the program, the option was clear for who athletic director Ari Liberman wanted as the replacement. Shumpert’s knowledge of the game, his IQ and his ability to connect with underclassmen showed Liberman and Blackwell that he was perfect for the job. Seven years prior, Blackwell had reached out to Shumpert and coordinated his hire as a teaching assistant in hopes of Shumpert one day coaching alongside him.

“At some point, you should help me out at the varsity level,” Blackwell told Shumpert. “If we have an opening some day, you should try to coach.”

At the time, Shumpert’s kids were in high school at Jamesville-DeWitt, so Shumpert didn’t have the time to coach. But they’ve all since graduated and are in college. “What else am I gonna do?” Shumpert said.

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From the time he started playing basketball until 2013, after his final year with Aliağa Petkim, a Turkish professional team, Shumpert’s only goal was to be a basketball player, not coach. For him, continuing to play was an extension of the mentality he was conditioned to growing up — no one was going to tell Shumpert he should be anything other than a professional basketball player.

After his playing career, Shumpert started training players and formed an AAU basketball team through Bellucci Basketball Academy, a basketball training program with a branch in Syracuse that his son played on. It was his first foray into coaching.

“I’ve always been a kid person,” Shumpert said. “I was there one time … growing up and having a dream that I could be something.”

Blackwell always knew Shumpert was going to make a great coach. After Syracuse’s No. 1 offensive option, Etan Thomas, graduated in 2000, Blackwell sat down with head coach Jim Boeheim and discussed who could take over Thomas’s role. They all agreed on Shumpert. No one else was as knowledgeable or skilled. Shumpert went on to average 19.5 points per game his junior year and 20.7 points per game his senior year, leading Syracuse to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and the National Invitation Tournament semifinals, respectively.

Blackwell and Shumpert talked every day as Shumpert traversed his professional career that spanned from France, to Italy and to Turkey. His time overseas provided him with new techniques and philosophies from international coaches. In return, he delivered the mental toughness that he’d developed since high school into the European game. Now, at Liverpool, he brings a healthy combination of the two as the JV coach.

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“Even in his daily job as a TA, the kids respect him and they gravitate toward him. He’s got a youthful spirit,” Blackwell said.

When he was hired, the kids called him “a bucket.” Shumpert related individually to each player, while being open about the skill it takes to become a successful basketball player at the next level. “We’re like the little SU over here,” Liberman said.

Although Liberman knew who he wanted for the job, he still had to post the job opening and field applications for the position. But his credentials, the continuity and Shumpert’s ability to galvanize a winning freshman team were more than enough for the hire. The transition to JV, Liberman said, has been seamless. He added that Shumpert has been “steady all the way.”

“He’s done an outstanding job. He’s patient. He’s in his element 100% when he’s coaching kids,” Liberman said.

Shumpert’s days of catalyzing Syracuse’s offense are now more than two decades past, and the memories of him playing on the Air Force base are fading. But Shumpert can still connect with his players. He has to, he said, in the changed era of “Steph Curry and stepback 3s.” He realized from the moment he started training players through BBA that kids only wanted to shoot 3-pointers, mimicking NBA players today. But Shumpert instills the idea that fundamentals come first in his players.

For Shumpert, basketball was a lifestyle. Training to get better doesn’t simply end when practice is over, Shumpert tells his team. Go home and watch basketball. Watch the passing, dribbling and rebounding. Watch how players move cohesively on the court. Then, go to the gym and shoot around with other people. Return home and shoot some more in the driveway.

At practice, Shumpert preaches working as a team on the court. He’s installed the famous 2-3 zone and harps on pass, run and shoot drills, forcing multiple players to communicate before scoring.

“Everybody has to be on a screen, everybody has to be attached and moving at the same time, activity,” Shumpert said. “If you’re not connected, nothing is going to work.”

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He says he’s down to earth with his players, honest. They can read into it, he said, and realize if a coach is being genuine or not. Blackwell said Shumpert’s personality, his ability to be a commanding coach while providing understanding and an open dialogue with them, is rare among high school coaches today — he isn’t old school, nor is he stuck in his ways.

Shumpert said winning is always a goal, but if he can honestly prepare each of his players to succeed at the next level — varsity, then college — he’s done his job. With the same energy as he maintained about becoming a professional basketball player, Shumpert said he concentrates on each active season and nothing further. If a local team, a Division-II college program or even Syracuse came calling, Shumpert said he could entertain it, but for now, his mindset is simple: I am the JV basketball coach, he said.

“You have to establish a relationship first. Keep it 100% honest about how much time it takes, how much effort it takes to be successful,” Shumpert said.