RICHMOND, Va. -- Longtime Richmond-area AAU basketball coach Tony Squire will receive the Community Champion Award at the RVA Sports Awards on Saturday night.
A lot has changed in the world since Squire started Squires Basketball back in the late 1980s.
There was no social media for young basketball players to get noticed by college coaches. The main way high school athletes made an impression on college coaches was by playing in front of them in person.
Squire saw this as an opportunity.
"He gave us an opportunity to play basketball and compete on a much higher level than where we were competing," former player and current Furman Paladins Offensive Line Coach Kevin Lewis said. "That was very important for me. I think it helped me with my next career which was, of course, football."
Vern Hamilton, an assistant basketball coach at McNeese State, said Squire focused on getting his players national exposure.
"Any opportunity he had whether it was to call Sonny Vaccaro or to host a tournament in Richmond and have every division one coach in the Siegel Center that one time, Tony was the first to do that," Hamilton said.
Vacarro, the legendary marketing agent who signed Michael Jordan to Nike, was also the first person to recognize Squire's ability to not just notice talent but to develop it.
Squire did that by making his players go up against the best competition he could find.
Those experiences stick with his players to this day even if they change sports.
"We're going to scrimmage against Virginia Union. I'm looking at Ben Wallace, that dude was muscled up, tall, with long arms I'm like man, who's gonna check that guy?" Lewis said. "He looked at me and said hey Kevin, you got Ben. I'm like OK, I got him. Learning how to use your skill set and still compete on a high level vs. high-level guys."
More than just developing their abilities, Squire taught his players responsibility and accountability. David Boyden, an assistant coach with the Richmond Spiders, remembers Squire setting a tone at a tournament in Las Vegas.
"A couple of our guys were late past curfew. We had a huge game the next day and those guys didn't play, even though it was a huge game and important for him and his program," Boyden said. "These are the rules. This is what has to happen not only for our program but for you to be successful in life."
Squire's interest and influence have extended beyond the basketball court and well past the end of any basketball game.
If you played for him, you mean something to him.
"He keeps in touch with everybody!" Hamilton said. "It's not just me or one of his favorite players from the past. He'll bring up somebody from our 13 and under team and tell me he talked to them. I'm like, 'Tony, I haven't talked to him since I was 13!'"
Motlow Community College President Michael Torrence called his former coach a different kind of person.
"He's done it through his spirit if that makes sense. What I mean by that is he's done it as a volunteer. He's done it out of the kindness of his heart and his soul," TORRENCE said. "Those are the things that I carry with me in terms of being of service to other people"
"From picking kids up, bringing them to practice. Some kids didn't have the money, the fee to play," LEWIS said. "Tony went and raised money so those kids didn't have to pay. I don't know what would have happened with some of those guys if they didn't have that opportunity."
Boyden called the coach a father figure.
"He's helped me with things outside of basketball," Boyden said. "There was a point in my life when I was out of coaching and went back to get my Master's degree. He's been there since I was 15 years old."
"He taught me to make sure that you pour everything you can into the people closest to you and you will receive the benefits of that on the back end," Hamilton said. "He's very selfless. It's never about him. It's always, 'How can I help the next person get further?'"
You can watch the RVA Sports Awards on Saturday, February 3 at 7:30 p.m. on CBS 6 or stream it here.
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