Boston Celtics coach proves a good sport talking to Parkersburg High School students
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PARKERSBURG -- Parkersburg High School students got a visit from Joe Mazzulla, head coach for the Boston Celtics and former WVU basketball player, Wednesday as he participated in a Zoom interview for the "Sports in American Culture" class offered at the school.
"It's so cool to see someone who made it from here, and (for him) to talk to someone like me who wants to make it out of here," PHS junior Nate Rodriguez said. "This is a cool experience."
Mazzulla was named a captain and helped WVU reach the Final Four in 2010. He graduated in 2011 and took an assistant coaching position at Glenville State University and then later, in 2017, he became the head coach at Fairmont State University. In 2019 he took a position with the Boston Celtics as an assistant coach and was later named the interim head coach in 2022 after Ime Udoka was suspended. He was named the permanent head coach shortly after the season ended.
Mazzulla said the people of West Virginia play an important part of his life. He said he moved to the state when he was 17 years old.
"I was there for about 15 years," Mazzulla said. "I just really grew as a person there."
He said he met his wife in West Virginia and that his son was born in the state. He said he had some impactful years as not only a player but also a coach.
"Any chance I can give back to West Virginia, I think that's important," Mazzulla said.
Mazzulla fielded questions from students about what it is like to coach in the NBA, what music he likes to listen to before a game and even what his relationship was like with former WVU basketball coach Bob Huggins.
"He's always been great to me," Mazzulla said. "He taught me how to build relationships with players. You can be as competitive and fiery as you want on the sidelines, but when you step off the sideline, you have to treat them as people. I think that's important."
Mazzulla talked about keeping himself humble and grounded with the attention his position as an NBA head coach brings.
"That's what I do, that's not who I am," Mazzulla said. "I'm not any more important than anyone else. It's just for right now, and hopefully for a long time, I have the responsibility of this identity, and this opportunity, to make an impact on people."
Mazzulla said if there was something people should know about him it's that he is devout in his faith and devoted to his family.
"My faith is the most important thing and my family is the second most important thing," Mazzulla said. "Anything other than that, that's their opinion."
He said the advice he'd give to the students is there is nothing more important than having the courage to be themselves.
"You gotta just have the courage to be who you are and do what you want. And have this approach that everything I'm learning now, is going to help me when I become a father, mother, CEO or leader," Mazzulla said. "You don't realize the foundation we can set for ourselves by taking high school serious."
Rodriguez said the biggest takeaway he had from talking to Mazzulla was the idea of being himself.
"I think that's a very important part of life, and I feel like you can't let your ego get the best of you," Rodriguez said. "That was very motivational and kind of gave me a reality check. Makes me want to be a more down-to-earth and better person."
Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com