It’s 7:25 a.m. Basketball Coach Gregory Gober stands in the hallway greeting his students as they enter his classroom. The barren brick walls are livened by inspirational posters dotted throughout the room. He walks to his standing desk in front of the apathetic class and begins explaining the daily assignments. More students trickle into his classroom. He starts teaching.
Mr. Gober graduated from Stephen F. Austin University in 1987 with a Bachelor of Business Administration. However, he moved into athletics and coached basketball for nearby high schools and minor league teams for the past 34 years. Mr. Gober coached at Waxahachie High School last year and came to Legacy through a prior friendship with Men’s Head Basketball Coach Cornelius Mitchell. This is his first time teaching in a classroom in 12 years. His tumultuous journey to Legacy started when he got a business degree he wasn’t too proud of.
“Unfortunately, I was just one of the kids that listened to what other people say versus what I really believed in, they said: ‘Major in Business.’ You gotta do this, you gotta do that; when I got out with my degree, it really wasn’t what I wanted it to be,” Mr. Gober said.
After working in the business for a few years, he wasn’t happy with some of the jobs he got in the industry, and he wanted to be back in athletics. His high school basketball coach convinced him to begin coaching basketball and football. Since then, he has coached the Waxahachie High School’s basketball team.
“Coach G is widely respected across the coaching circles and has been a mentor to several coaches including myself for years. Our first official meeting was as district rivals where he was Head Coach at Colleyville Heritage, and I was at Haltom City High School,” Coach Mitchell said.
His coaching career and prior business experience inspired him to open a business: The Coach’s Seat. They sell seating, uniforms, and other equipment for area schools and colleges, and Mr. Gober runs the business side of things.
“You have to have something you believe in, and so the products that we do — there’s a need, and it’s not something [where] you have to really just go out and hustle, hustle constantly,” Mr. Gober said.
After a 12-year hiatus, Mr. Gober teaches Global Business, Virtual Business and Banking and Financial Services. After a full career of coaching and teaching, he has some advice for students in the upcoming school year:
“Don’t be afraid to try. Too many kids are scared to death to try; they’re afraid they’re gonna fail, but that’s really where you learn. Your biggest growth is when you do fail. You learn from your mistakes and you move on to get better,” Mr. Gober said.
