SANBORN — When Sanquin Starks and Wayne Ollison first started 716 United nine years ago, it was not the right time for Starks to be a college coach.
He still had too much to do and keep track of as he tried to get kids in Niagara Falls to a better place. He wanted to send kids from the community to college and help them succeed once they get there.
Now that 716 United is sending kids to college, he is ready to take the next step in his coaching journey to help kids more. He is ready to move up to the college ranks and help himself grow as a coach to get a better grasp of how to help his kids at both the Boys and Girls Club and 716 United get to and have success in college.
He is doing that by joining SUNY Niagara head coach Bill Beilein’s staff as a volunteer assistant coach. He is learning what a successful program looks like so he can take those notes back to his kids at 716 United and the Niagara Falls Boys and Girls Club, where he is the director of athletics and community relationships.
The move means that Starks is leaving his previous role as an assistant coach for the Niagara Falls High School boys basketball team, while he balances coaching at the SUNY Niagara, 716 United and his full-time job at the Boys and Girls Club.
“When he (Beilein) allowed me to come on, it was a no-brainer for me,” Starks said. “It was a good time, especially with starting to send kids to college. I need to learn this landscape more. I’ve always wanted to be a college coach and to be able to advise young student athletes on what they need to do to get to this level.”
Starks, who has also coached at Niagara Catholic and Cardinal O’Hara, is joining Belien’s staff as the third assistant coach alongside Kareem Brown and Nick Sepe. Beilein is adding Starks and pushing his staff to three people for the first time in two years because Starks told Beilein in May he was interested in a volunteer job.
Since he first started in early July, Starks has been helping at the school’s basketball camps and team practices. He has been spending a lot of time learning Beilein’s terminology and the way he coaches.
He is also studying Beilein, how he interacts with players, coaches and people in the school. And is looking at everything Beilein has to do as a college head coach.
“I want to know everything so I’m not slow when he’s telling us to do things,” said Starks, who was a three-year starting point guard for D’Youville from 2002-2005. “… So taking what I see him do with the older players — even in the few weeks that I’ve been here — I’ve been putting that into my practices when I go back to the Boys and Girls Club. So I’ll continue to do that all year.”
One of the things that helps Starks adjust to the position is the familiarity that he has with Beilein, Beilein’s family and his fellow assistant coaches Brown and Sepe. He has spent time coaching alongside Brown with 716 United and he reached out to his two fellow assistants asking them about the program when he was considering the job.
This year’s Thunderwolves roster is scheduled to include two 716 United alums, Niagara Falls native Jivion Westbrook and Grand Island native Jayce Wylke. But those two are not the only players that Starks already knew when he took the job, which is what could help make Starks an asset to the staff.
“You’re in the community, you’re on the circuits, you’re in the gyms, people recognize you and you have built relationships,” Beilein said. “… You’re constantly building and networking and that’s something that San wants to be able to do building in the future and that should help our recruiting as he starts figuring out what type of kids we’re going after and what each roster’s going to be because it’s going to be different every single year.”