Marwan Elrakabawy is set to start his first season as head coach of the Trinity men’s basketball team this year. Elrakabawy is from Houston, Texas, and has moved around the state to coach at the high school and collegiate level throughout his career. This season, Coach Elrakabawy wants to lead the men’s basketball team to success.
While he may be new to Trinity, Elrakabawy, or “Coach Rock,” is not new to coaching. Elrakabawy was most recently head coach at Schreiner University for six seasons and assistant coach for two. During his time at Schreiner, he finished with the school record in wins and win percentage. Elrakabawy shared what he learned from his former boss that helped him – a philosophy that can be applied to any team he coaches.
“You’ve got to figure out which type of players work best at that school. Who are the guys you need to recruit? What’s the best fit for your school?” Elrakabawy said. “When the opportunity came available here, I was immediately interested because I’d seen the quality of the facilities here, the quality of the coaches here, the quality the education that this place can provide.”
Through getting to know the team at their preseason practices, the coaching staff set specific goals for the Tigers. Elrakabawy said that they aim to win the rim by scoring more points than the other team near that section on the basket. He aims for a strong rebounding team that is able to box out the opponent. He said that the coaching staff wants the team to take good shots and passes and keep shooting percentages high.
“I think coaching ultimately comes down to who is your team’s accountability officer in chief. You’ve got to figure out as a coaching staff, what are the things that impact winning, what are the things that impact losing,” Elrakabawy said. “And then you’ve got to be consistent and hold your team accountable to those things every single day at practice.”
To accomplish these goals, the assistant coaches record statistics during the previous day’s practice. To hold players accountable for the goals they set, the team reviews statistics and film to evaluate their performance. Players are able to see exactly how they performed, looking at their shooting percentage as well as how many times they boxed out and crashed.
“It’s a tremendous amount of work because we don’t have a large staff,” Elrakabawy said. “Sterling Holmes and Mark Jablonski, who are our two assistant coaches, are my favorite people in the world, because they work incredibly hard to get that information for us every night.”
Jablonski is also new to the team this year. He worked with Elrakabawy over four years together at Schreiner.
“I had worked with Coach Rock for four years at Schreiner, and I just have a tremendous respect for him as a coach and as a person. It was a great opportunity to continue coaching with him and come to a program that has more of a national footprint,” Jablonski said.
Besides improving the team’s physical performance, Coach Elrakabawy shared ways the coaching staff improves the team’s bonding off the court as well.
“One thing we do after every practice is we link arms, and we talk about something that we’re grateful for that day,” Elrakabawy said. “Some days I’ll prompt them. I’ll ask them to recognize a teammate or something, but a lot of times people are sharing things that are going on in their lives.”
Junior guard Carter Ruck said that the team has adapted to the new leadership while keeping the same identity. Ruck commented that the new huddles have contributed to the team dynamic.
“It’s a really cool thing. I think it’s a part of our culture that Coach Rock has implemented,” Ruck said. “It’s a good way to stay grounded and remember what we’re grateful for even through the ups and downs of the season and school. [The huddles are] a really nice culture builder he implemented that I like, and I think a lot of the teammates like as well.”
Another project Elrakabawy is carrying over from his time at Schreiner is a biography project. Each player will be paired with another player not in their grade and will present new information on them to the team.
“They’re going to interview them, and I will give them some suggested questions, and they’ll come back to their group and basically have a report on their teammate,” Elrakabawy said. “And then that teammate will be in the hot seat, and everybody can ask them questions.”
Coach Elrakabawy has lived in most of the major cities in Texas. He shared which team he rooted for the most.
“I used to live and die by the way certain teams played, and now that I coach for a living, the only energy I can really have to care at a high level is about Trinity, and the rest is just entertainment.”
