In 2016, the men’s basketball head coach abruptly stepped down due to personal matters, leaving Citrus with a crucial coaching vacancy to fill.
Without adequate time to make a decision, the athletic department had no choice but to hire an interim head coach.
Brett Lauer was that choice.
Since Citrus isn’t a major four-year school, all of the team’s success isn’t riding on the back of one or two freshmen prodigies likely looking to enter into the NBA as soon as possible. Junior college athletics are centered around securing scholarships for athletes looking to continue their basketball career at a bigger program.
Junior college athletes have one to two years to prove they have what it takes to play at the next level of basketball at Citrus, it’s Lauer’s job to make that happen.
Fortunately for the men’s basketball team, Lauer was familiar with having to earn his spot and didn’t stress about how he would do it.
“I got hired as the interim coach, which was a blessing. Obviously you’d love to be their [head] coach, but I took it and I trusted in this program and trusted in what we can get done here,” Lauer said. “There was never a doubt we could put forth something that the school could be proud of.”
The school didn’t have to wait long. Lauer helped coach the Owls to a conference title in his first year as head coach in 2017 and went on to win the Western State Conference East title every year since.
Lauer explained that choosing the right type of player that represents Citrus’ basketball culture well during the recruitment process is very important to being successful – a culture he said is unlike most.
“We don’t try to be like anyone else, we try to have our own culture,” Lauer said. “We have a great culture here because of the guys we recruit, and if you’re not about the right thing then you usually don’t make it in our program.”
Khalil Williams, a former player in 2017, talked about the depth of Lauer’s coaching lessons and how his “fire” for the game and competitive nature helped him grow on and off the court. Williams is one of the 15 student-athletes to receive a scholarship under Lauer since 2017. He will complete his final season at California State University Los Angeles this year.
“When he was coaching, he was not just coaching basketball, he was coaching life – he gave you lessons as a man, as a husband and a father because he was all three of those,” Williams said. “He has this unwavering fire in him that is ridiculous and he competes in everything, because he wants the best situations for everybody.”
Lauer doesn’t carry the coaching mantle alone. He mentioned the selection process for coaches is equally important as players, because they play an influential role on the young men on the team, but for his three sons as well.
“I tell every assistant we ever hire ‘first and foremost we are role models for the young people in our program’ and that’s what I try and do, be a great role model,” he said. “The most important job that everyone in our program will have one day is that they’re going to have to be a father, so I like to be an example of that when my kids are around.”
Assistant coach, Casey Norris, was once a guard at Loyola Marymount and California Baptist University. His experience playing collegiate basketball a few years ago is important to the development of the players.
“We’ve been blessed to have really good assistant coaches and Casey is the right type of guy. He’s a really hard worker and when you talk about the growth of the players he’s a big part of it,” Lauer said.
Norris spends more time developing physical strength and polishing skillwork, but he said the players see growth on more than just the court because of Lauer who “actually cares about the maturation of them on and off the basketball court,” Norris said.“It’s not all about basketball — it’s about developing young men.”
Williams reflected on how that off-court growth manifested itself among the players.
“When it came to Citrus, it was almost like it was a family. Just the camaraderie of the team as a whole was there,” Williams said.
“Everybody I played with… I consider them like brothers and we still talk to each other at least once a month,” Williams said. “He turned it into a real family oriented culture that made me want to come back and see him prosper.”
Lauer tells his players that they help each other obtain scholarships by putting in the right work during their time at Citrus, and playing like they care about their friends next to them, something he says a lot of teams verbalize, but don’t actually show or demonstrate outside of words.
“I think in sports in general everyone acts like they’re a family and they might break their huddles with family or brotherhood, but I think it’s just turned into something people say; we actually live it,” Lauer said. “The way you can see that is every year we’ve had five or six guys get scholarships.”
This season the men’s basketball team made it to the state tournament for the first time since 2011, losing 82-76 to San Francisco City College in the state semifinals, finishing a perfect 10-0 in conference.
Although the team was sent home in postseason play, one thing that cannot be ignored is the fact that the Owls have annually recorded a better conference record, only losing three games combined since the 2016-2017 season.
