Houston is a hotbed for basketball talent at the high school level and that includes the coaches.
This past season was the final one for a man who has done and seen it all.
Ronnie Courtney, best known for back-to-back state titles at Willowridge and coaching Texas Southern, is retiring – hard to believe, even for those close to him.
For 37 years, Courtney has grown accustomed to the sounds of the hardwood as a coach. But the atmosphere of exciting high school basketball will soon be a thing of the past.
Still, it’s a coaching career that’s hard to forget.
“It’s been a rewarding career, one that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world,” Courtney says.
“I just can’t think of anything else at this level that I can do that says, ‘come back and keep doing it.’”
He finishes with 545 career wins. Courtney was the 2001 National Coach of the Year.
When he was at TSU, he was named SWAC Coach of the Year. Courtney was named to the Prairie View Interscholastic League Coaches Association Hall of Fame, class of 2015.
In addition to the back-to-back titles at Willowridge, which starred TJ Ford and Daniel Ewing, Courtney won a state championship with Fort Bend Bush in 2010, when he coached his son.
Courtney’s also had four players drafted into the NBA.