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After being out of coaching for three years, Lloyd Batts has returned to the profession he loves most of all. Batts, 59, has been named the head coach at South Shore High School in Chicago. He succeeds Lamont Bryant, who left to become the coach at Hyde Park.
I remember the first time I saw Batts. It was the opening night of the 1968-69 high school basketball season and Thornton, a perennial state power, was playing at Riverside-Brookfield, which at the time was being coached by my good friend Ron Nikcevich.
Before the game, I asked Thornton coach Bob Anderson about his team. "Watch Lloyd Batts," he said. "He is only a junior and this is his first game on the varsity. But I think he is going to be something special."
Anderson was right. Batts scored 28 points in his debut. Afterward, Nikcevich summed up Batts' performance: "Before the game, we didn't know who he was. But when the game was over, he was an All-Stater."
Batts went on to become a two-time All-Stater, one of the best players I saw in more than 40 years of covering and observing high school basketball in Illinois, one of the first 6-5 players who could play inside or outside, handle the ball like a point guard and shoot from three-point range.
Until I saw Kevin Garnett, Batts was the best pure player I had seen. Quinn Buckner always has been my favorite, the consummate leader and team player. But Batts, Buckner's boyhood idol, was the best player.
Later, Batts went on to play at Cincinnati. He became the second leading scorer in school history, behind Oscar Robertson. Then he played professionally for two years with the Virginia Squires of the ABA and eight years in Europe.
He returned to coach at Gage Park, South Suburban College, Eastern Illinois, back to South Suburban College, Waukegan, South Shore and Bowen. He also was a volunteer scout for Wayne State College in Nebraska. For the last six years, he has served as dean of students at South Shore. When the basketball position opened up, he leaped at another opportunity to get back into coaching.
Batts had applied at Brooks and Hyde Park. But alumni coordinator Shelly Stark and other colleagues encouraged him to apply for the South Shore job. He was chosen over former Thornton and Crete-Monee coach Rocky Hill, the only other applicant.
"I never had a bad experience with kids. They were always supportive and had a positive work ethic," Batts said. "My issues have always been with the administration. I didn't quit previously (at Waukegan and South Shore). I was taken out because they said I had coached long enough. They were saying I couldn't coach anymore. They wanted a younger coach.
"But I feel I can still coach. I have a passion for the game. I work out daily. I still play twice a week in Charlie Brown's 50-and-over league at Washington Park. We won the league title this year. It's an honor to be recognized by the school that let you go and then brought you back. One of the things I hope to do is bring prestige back to the school."
South Shore hasn't been a factor in the Public League playoff since 1990, when coach Don Pittman guided the Tars to the semifinals. In 2004, Batts' team advanced to the Final Four in the less prestigious Blue Division. He concedes that South Shore loses a lot of prospective players to Simeon, Hyde Park and Harlan.
"I want to reinstitute a new attitude, that winning isn't as important as academics, that a proven coach can build success with marginal players on and off the floor," Batts said. "Our goal is to get back to the Red Division. But I'm in education and working with kids on the disciplinary level. I'm developing them to be model citizens and productive student-athletes. I want to be sure that academics are their No. 1 priority."
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Well I went to Waukegan in Batts' 2 years at our school First year Waukegan made the Regional Finals against Warren but lost. I think that team was sub .500. The next year Waukegan won a regional title and went to the sectional final against Zion Benton. We lost but I believe that was the greatest highschool game I had seen ( of course until Waukegan Young 1&2 this past 2 years in the state finals).
I interviewed Batts for hour school news paper. At the time I had no clue that he was an Illinois Highschool legend to be honest. It wasnt until later that I researched his career at Cincinnati, and even Thornton. Batts seemed to be a coach looking for a type of player. He prefered "hard" players with street cred. I guess thats because of his South Suburbs upbringing.
While that is his preference I think that at a school like Waukegan it just wouldnt mix. you have kids from all backgrounds so Batts couldnt go into a season saying "im looking for the most hardest basketball players in Waukegan" He should have been looking for "basketball players" period.
Overall I think he did a good job at Waukegan. The record in 98 was over 500. However players such as Dominuque Jones, Kendon Edwards and Jermaine Lewis should have been D1 or at least low to mid major or maybe even high Juco players. Kendong went to Wayne St. Jermaine played football at Western Michigan. But Dominuque Jones was a disappointment. D Jones was Waukegans savior before Jereme Richmond.
Good luck to Batts again at South Shore. At a school like that in the city Im sure hell have his fair share of "hard" players to pick from.
I am an alumnus of South Shore, and I wish Coach Batts well in his instituting a mandate for an education comes first approach. As well as, his willingness to work with the students already at his school, this was Legendary former Marshall Coach Luther Bedford's approach... and, it work just fine for him.
Best wishes to Coach Batts and the Tars Family,
Curtis K. Jackson Sr.
If Coach Batts doesn't do some kind of outreach to his feeder schools, he will stay in the Blue Division, and I don't have to tell him this, he already knows this info!
Also it would help if he has other coaches with his philosophy, that helps a whole lot, because if he has to reteach everything when they get to the varsity level, it is like trying to reinvent the wheel, good luck Coach Batts and welcome back to the coaching ranks!
I hope Rocky gets a coaching job very soon!
Great to see Batts back in the game. I can't think of a CPS coach who was a better player than him. He will take some lumps when he plays the red teams, but with some influx of 8th grade talent who knows what he can do in a couple of years. SouthShore is a challenging situation as it has become a co-op program with multiple small schools in one building combining to form each sports team.
Good luck LB!
Hey Sammy:
I heard Morgan Park coach Nick Irvin averaged 28ppg, and lost to Kevin Garnett's team in the city championship. Might he have been a better player than Batts? The word is he was a deep shooter who played college for Tark the shark at Fresno. I didn't see him or Batts play, but who was better?
Batts was better. Nick Irvin was a different type of player. He was good though.
Good question. I forgot about Nick irvin. Both he and Batts were great scorers. Nick played when threes were counted. Batts didn't have a 3 point line. Batts played in a different era. Nick played against tough competition in the Public League, but Batts was more athletic. Nick could play the one and the two, and Batts could play the one, two, three and the four spot. As a Public League person it is tough but I guess I'd give the best player title between these two to Batts because he could do more things on the court and he achieved more beyond high school.
I saw Loyd Batts score 50 in 3 quarters in a Regional game his Senior year in high school. He was, and still is the best HS player I have ever seen. I also saw Quinn Buckner about 25 times. Great BB player,phenominal athlete, but even better leader.... Batts, though was the Best BB player overall....