I Am A Athlete Coach Rob Hoyt

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For Columbia Claim Jumpers head basketball coach Rob Hoyt, there is no offseason. Hoyt, a 2003 Sonora High graduate, and a 2008 Fresno State graduate, was given a full-time position at Columbia College this season. When hired in 2013, at 28-years-old, Hoyt was the youngest coach in California. He took over a program that was not competitive and did not have the positive reputation it had when Columbia won a State Championship in 1993.

“When I got the job, I looked at the program as a bus,” said Hoyt. “I am jumping onto the bus. The program and school already exist, and there is a recent history of not having a successful basketball program. How do I change that for the better and make it my own? The first thing is get rid of all the people that you don 't want on the bus, and that is what I did. Then I looked at it as a scorched earth theory, where you burn everything that preexist to the ground. We got new jerseys, new players, and everything else is dead. We brought in new freshman, and those freshman were going to be foundation of what 's going to come down the road.”

It has been a long time since Columbia had a respectable program. However, Hoyt feels he has the program headed in the right direction, and will continue to bring in the players needed to be successful.

“Everybody wants this thing to be successful, and they have just been waiting for something to happen for such a long time,” Hoyt said. “For a long time Columbia basketball was more of an afterthought. Now, it 's more like, I can 't wait for winter we can go watch some games. It 's going to be like that this year with the guys we are bringing in.”

Hoyt spends the majority of his offseason on the phone. He is constantly calling, texting, or looking on the intern...

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...any other way you are doing it wrong.”

Even when a recruit is on the fence about attending Columbia College, Hoyt sticks to his convictions and doesn 't try to sell the school to a player.

“I 'm really not into selling the school,” Hoyt said. “I 'm not going to talk anyone into playing basketball for me. It needs to be a marriage. They need to want me as much as I want them, otherwise it won 't work. I am going to let them know why it 's a great place for them, and why it may, or may not be a good decision for them. But at the end of the day, I want them to make the best decision for themselves, because it 's a huge decision moving forward. I let them know that they are going to be looked after while they are here by not only myself, but the community as well. It will be difficult at times, but they will succeed. This place was designed for them to be successful.”

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