BY KATRINA SAMUELS, Junior
BLYTHEWOOD- Steve Inabinet (his students and team call his Coach Nabb) is a Personal Health teacher and girls basketball coach at Blythewood High School where he had been since the school opened in 2005.
In college he majored in Health and Physical Education (Biology was his minor) and taught as soon as he could in Richland School District One.
Inabinet was first introduced to teaching basketball when he was teaching physical education which was one of his first jobs out of college.
“I never really thought about it at the time but I figured since they were offering, why not give it a shot,” Inabinet said.
While in district one, he was used to coaching middle school volleyball and track but he knew that basketball would be a good experience.
Especially since he already liked the sport.
He ended up coaching three and a half years of girl’s middle school basketball, then left to coach boy’s basketball on a high school level.
Inabinet coached a boy’s high school basketball team for about nine years but then one of his friends that was new at coaching asked if he would rather coach girl’s basketball.
He said yes because he was looking for a change in his coaching career.
“Coaching girls basketball has been and is very rewarding. I have achieved many career goals while coaching these girls. Several of them are now in the coaching profession,” Inabinet said.
“I love him as a coach. He not only coaches us but he has a lot of fun with us too.
He’s not a super intense coach but he really knows what he’s doing and what it takes to make us better and I really like being on his team,” said Varsity player, Kayla Charles.
He has enjoyed every moment and learned a lot from teaching girls basketball at Blythewood High School.
“I feel like without Coach Nabb, I wouldn’t have even had a fair opportunity to make the team. He brought out the best in me and is doing nothing but helping me improve my skills,” said junior varsity player Zaylee Butler.
None of his players ever talked down about him.
They say, not only is he a great coach and teacher, but he is also a good mentor and motivator.
He would still make sure that the student finished their work by a certain time, but he would always do whatever it was that he could do to help.
Sometimes, for him, it can get a little rough trying to manage time between teaching his personal health classes and his basketball schedule.
“But that ends up being how well you learn time management. That is the key,” Inabinet said. “I make me a plan or schedule and stick to it.”
Not only does Nab coach girls basketball, but he also coaches track during the spring.
Often he has tries to recruit student to run track and play basketball.
This shows that he does not give up and truly perseveres. Though students have told him my schedule is really busy and it would be hard for them to balance school work plus other sports, Inabinet is willing to do anything it takes for them to join track or basketball.
During track season, he coaches for the long jump and triple jump.
He says that with coaching all these different sports, comes a big variety of personalities and attitudes.
Especially coaching girls.
Though he really likes coaching, he hopes that a few years from now he can just be an assistant coach for both track and girl’s basketball.
“This way I might be able to balance my schedule a little more but still do what I love to do as well as take care of my responsibilities”.
“Being a coach, you must get all you athletes on the same page. Let them know what they are here for and that what’s going on outside the court of field should not affect your game mentality,” Inabinet said.
