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His family matters, so Tate made a change Prep Notebook By GREG STILES Robbie Tate had a good thing going. His Hidden Valley boys basketball teams more often than not contended for the Skyline Conference playoffs. He even thought they had a fair shot at winning a league championship this winter. Despite the positive outlook, he knew that it was likely someone else would coach the boys this season. Two of Tate's three daughters play basketball and he dearly wanted to watch them. Coaching boys in the Skyline Conference, however, meant he would always be somewhere else. If Hidden Valley's boys were playing at Lakeview, the girls game would be at Murphy. "I thought I might get to see them play three preseason games and never see them in league," Tate says. His decision was simple. "Family comes first for me," Tate says. "The options were simple: either I quit altogether or switch over." So when Randy Geltner stepped down as girls coach, Tate took over the girls program, meaning he would get to coach freshman daughter Amanda and, eventually, eighth-grader Lu Emma. (Junior Meghan doesn't play basketball.) "It was very difficult to let go of the boys, knowing the time and effort I had put in," Tate says. Even more difficult was the prospect of turning a girls program around that had been bumping along the bottom of the Skyline standings in recent years. Although he coached girls in Twenty-nine Palms, Calif., early in his career, the 38-old Tate still went through transitional shock. "When I used terms like going to the elbow and short corner, they looked at me like I was from a different planet," Tate says. As a result, the Mustangs spent extra time in class during November, learning 50 basketball terms their coach uses in practice and games. "At least they would know what I was talking about," Tate says. "They've become pretty good students of the game, bringing their notebooks with them and taking notes." Not only were the players deciphering new concepts, but they were also tackling new drills. Only one or two players could do the spider drill -- in a squatting position, maneuvering the ball between their legs -- when he introduced it in November. "All 25 girls in the program can do it for a minute without messing up now," Tate says. The Mustangs were 2-20 last season, going winless against Skyline opponents. Hidden Valley was neither tall, nor experienced, but the Mustangs had a fair amount of quickness and Tate has capitalized on it. "Kirk Kolb, my JV coach, and I decided that we couldn't play a whole lot of half-court offense and defense." So the Mustangs have run the floor and pressed. The goal at the beginning of the season was to win three games. It didn't take long to achieve that one. After losing its first two contests, Hidden Valley won three straight. "Now, every month we sit down and re-evaluate our goals," Tate says. Presently, the Mustangs are gunning for a .500 campaign. They're 6-7 overall. They began conference play with wins over Lakeview and Rogue River before stumbling last Friday against Phoenix. "I didn't think it would come this fast," says Tate, whose team plays North Valley tonight. "I thought we'd start winning more games toward the middle of league. The girls hadn't beat Lakeview or Rogue River for four years and we beat them both. I think there is still more to come." One of the things Tate has tried to do is videotape player's shots every two weeks so they can work on the mechanical bugs. "They're not like my boys teams in the past where they went to individual or team camps," Tate says. "Of course, when you do that, it's going to change your future." That might also change Hidden Valley's future in the next couple of seasons, taking the Mustangs back to the state tournament for the first time since the early 1990s. "I wanted the girls to have a good program to go through," Tate says. "It had been in disarray for a while. It was kind of sad to leave the boys. But it's been nice to build the girls program up." (eg Stiles is a Mail Tribune sports writer. Reach him at 776-4483 or [email protected] ) Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, OR U.S.A.