A New Era of Ballers: New Men’s Basketball Coach Myron Epps

Last week, Redwood announced that a new head coach, Myron Epps, will be stepping into the big shoes of former coach Jason Black, who has a ton of experience under his belt.

By Fabian Anguiano

*editor’s note. An earlier version of this story wrongly named Epps attended Toyota Union High School. The story has been updated to reflect that Epps attended Tulare Union High School.

Born and raised in Tulare, California, Epps would start playing the game of basketball when he was in middle school, where he started dunking in just the seventh grade.

Once Coach Epps got to Tulare Union High School, he would play on a travel team in Fresno called the Elite Basketball Organization. He played with players who made it big, such as Matt Barnes, who played for the Los Angeles Lakers, and Chris Jeffries, who played for the Chicago Bulls.

At the time, Epps was also playing baseball. He hadn’t fully committed to playing basketball yet until after his sophomore year, when his coach had sent some videos of him to some colleges. A good number responded, with some being from Santa Clara and San Francisco, where he would then start taking basketball much more seriously.

In Epps’ senior year, he and his team would win the section title, make all-state Cal High Sports, all-state revision two, and MVP. He would also compete in the North vs South all-star game for California.

After high school, Coach Epps would commit to San Diego State University to play basketball. During his freshman year, a new coach, Steve Fisher, would enter the picture, who now coaches at New York State. Epps would finish up his degree and decided to come back home, pursuing opportunities instead of playing overseas.

With all this success, Epps still believes he could have done better, saying, “pushing yourself a little bit harder, kind of doing the extreme measurements of just being in the gym and getting reps is something that could have been different if I wanted to be a little bit serious about it.”

Epps’ favorite part about playing basketball was the brotherhood that came with it. “I met a lot of cool people from all over the country. It’s been fun to watch them grow when we were in college, watch them compete for schools, watch them grow as adults, and even watch them go into the NBA.”

Coach Epps believes the difference between the high school and college level is the mindset. Everyone is self-motivated, they are all super competitive, and they are all fighting for minutes.

The person who inspired Epps to coach in the first place was “A guy named Don Chandler. He was the head coach at Tulare Western. I just kind of wanted to give it a try, and when I did, I fell in love with it, drawing up plays and going to practices and watching kids develop and execute the things we worked on. There was just no turning back.”

 Epps’ father was also an inspiration, “He’s coached over CLS girls, he’s coached at Tulare Western, and he’s coached at Tulare Union. So he definitely was an inspiration.”

Epps’ first year of coaching experience would tip off at Tulare Western as an assistant coach. The dynamic for coaching Epps was getting to know the kids and making sure there was a separation between the coach and the player.

The challenges of being a first-year coach were “ learning the kids, learning the area, learning the program, learning works best. So everything we were doing was for the first time, as we were building that program, things that worked for us, things that we tinkered a little bit, we were able to build a solid program on the court and off the court,” says Epps.

Over the years, Coach Epps’ coaching philosophy has stayed the same, as he does not exactly have a certain system that he just sticks to. He adjusts to what is put in front of them and puts them in the best position to be successful.

On how Coach Epps ended up at Redwood, he and Coach Jason Black had been talking over the years about the possibility of Epps taking over. 

So when the position opened, it all worked out.

What Epps wishes to bring to the team is discipline, competitiveness, and high-level basketball. They are going to be a year-round program, with being in the weight room, and making sure the academics are where they need to be. They are turning their athletes into young men.

Epps’ goal for his first year with the team is “to get the program going. The standard, the expectation, and that goes for everyone. That goes for coaches and athletes. We want to make sure everything is structured, organized, and everyone’s communicating. Everyone knows what we’re supposed to be doing when we’re supposed to be doing it,” says Epps.

Coach Epps had more to say, “April 14th is my first day with the boys. We’ll start off in the weight room, because that’s really important. We’ll introduce, and then we’ll get going. We’re bringing in some solid coaches to go with some coaches that are already on campus. So we’re excited to go, really excited for the opportunity.”

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