X's and O's: Local coach takes unusual path to collegiate ranks

Robert Beckmann, like most who start in the profession, thought coaching basketball would be easy.

The 32-year-old Sarasota resident got his start at 17 while living in Memphis, Tenn., coaching second- and third-graders. Of course, it wasn’t as easy as “I’m a pretty good player, I know schemes, I can tell kids what to do.” He doesn’t remember the team’s exact record, but he concedes the first season was “terrible.” The second went slightly better. Then he stopped coaching for a while, attending the University of Arkansas in pursuit of a career in sports journalism.

In August, Beckmann accepted an assistant head coaching position at the State College of Florida, working with first-year coach Tom Parks to rebuild the Manatees men’s team into an NJCAA title contender. Parks has experience doing this, coming from top-10 junior college Eastern Florida State College (which finished third in the NJCAA National Tournament). Beckmann, also a teacher at Manatee School for the Arts (MSA), helps Parks with on-court coaching, but also off-court things, such as social media, and even doing players’ laundry. He’s woken at 7 a.m. on a Sunday to hold individual training sessions with players, no matter how tired he might be. What was once something Beckmann tried on a lark is now his number one passion.

“I love everything about coaching,” Beckmann said. “But it’s the little things that mean the most.”

During one of those early-morning individual sessions, Beckmann was working with Corey Davis, a Southeast High grad. Davis has a goal of hitting 85% of his free throws this season, Beckmann said, so Beckmann wouldn’t let the session end until Davis hit 17/20 consecutive free throws. When Davis did, both he and Beckmann celebrated like the free throws were to win the NBA Finals. When Beckmann sees players having a great time playing the game, Beckmann has a great time, he said.

Beckmann’s path to SCF wasn’t exactly auspicious. Like I said, he stopped coaching for a long time, only restarting because five years ago, the coach of his brothers’ Sarasota Youth Sports basketball team no-showed on the first day, and someone asked him to take the position. They ended up winning the league championship. That winter, Beckmann’s sister, Katie Beckmann, was playing her eighth-grade season at St. Martha Catholic. The previous coach has unexpectedly quit before the season, so Beckmann once again stepped in to help. St. Martha obliterated its competition on the way to an undefeated season and a league championship, winning the final game over Incarnation Catholic 32-15. That was a lot closer than the first time the two teams played, when St. Martha won 41-7.

In 2014, Beckmann was hired as the girls coach at Sarasota Military Academy. The Eagles had never won a playoff game prior to his arrival. On Jan. 31, 2017, they got their first, a 65-44 win against Clearwater Central Catholic. He left SMA for MSA later in 2017, but continued coaching his girls AAU team, BAE Sports, through his hiring at SCF. It’s unclear whether Beckmann will be legally allowed to continue the team while at SCF, but Beckmann said he’d like to if allowed.

That’s an unusual path to the college ranks if I’ve ever seen one. Beckmann is just thankful things have fallen into place. It took over a year of applications for him to land something at that level. It’s always been his goal to get there, and at SCF, he feels he can take the next step in his coaching development. Finally, the drives to Texas A&M University (which took 17 hours, and he did in one day) and his alma mater to help run camps and hopefully learn a thing or two have paid off.

Has the transition from high school to college been as difficult as most say it is?

“It’s been surprisingly similar on the court,” Beckmann said. “It’s still humans trying to learn this game.”

He’s also trying to raise awareness of SCF as an option for local players. As it stands, only two players on the Manatees roster are from Sarasota: sophomore Shelby Rhodes, who Beckmann knows from SMA, and freshman Jaylen Jones, a Booker High grad. Three more, including Davis, are from Bradenton. The rest are from outside the area. One of the first things Beckmann did, taking a page from college football coaching legend Nick Saban, is visit all the high schools in the area, and tell coaches they are always welcome to attend a practice or check out the campus. It’s a way of initiating contact and hopefully starting a relationship where college-level players thinking of taking the JuCo route think of SCF first.

The Manatees’ first home game is Nov. 6, against Indian River State College. The program is also holding a free-to-attend “Haunted House of Hoops” Night on Oct. 26, featuring a dunk contest, three-point contest and scrimmage.

Both events are worth checking out. Beckmann and SCF are trying to change not just the culture of that program, but the area basketball scene at large. I look at his rapid rise in the profession, and I’m convinced he can pull it off.