Lee Sartor began coaching club basketball at a young age, and has been coaching at Erskine College for four years now. Lee was able to coach some phenomenal players in South Carolina, including Zion Williamson. So, we had to ask: what was it like coaching Zion Williamson in high school? Coach Sartor's interview covers Zion Williamson, basketball recruitment, and thoughts on Micheal Jordan's Last Dance documentary, and more. You don't want to miss this interview!

Coach

Lee Sartor: Head Men's Basketball Coach at Erskine College (NCAA Division II).

Topic 1: Coaching Zion Williamson 

Coach Lee was Zion Williamson’s high school coach and coached him for all four of Zion’s high school years. Coach Lee’s favorite memory of Zion was at the end of his freshman season, when they lost in the championship, Zion stood up in front of the rest of the team and stated that they would never lose a championship again. They went on to win the South Carolina State Championship for the next three seasons.

Topic 2: Transition from High School to College

Coach Lee talks about how the level and pace of the game is much different in college than in high school, but the intangible factors such as a work ethic, drive, and confidence can transcend through both levels. He mentions that college players are typically stronger, faster, and bigger due to age, but they are still developing into the best athlete/person they can be. He tells college players to never take anything for granted in college, and to continue to learn and grow with any given opportunity. As a college coach, coaches can continue to better themselves by always studying the game, reading, and watching game videos.

Topic 3: Recruiting Do’s & Don’ts

One specific thing that Coach Lee looks for in a potential player, is the athlete knowing they’re being watched by a coach. He wants players to understand they are always being evaluated/watched, because if a reff's call does not go your way, a bad attitude will stick out to coaches in a negative way. Coaches look for small components of their character, such as how they react to adverse situations, etc. He also looks at parent behaviors and how they interact with their child, it can tell a lot about the family dynamic.

Topic 4: Coaching Confidence

Coach Lee believes that players must always be pushing themselves to be the best they can be in order to achieve confidence. Meaning, athletes need to hold themselves accountable when it comes to critiquing their skillset, and wanting to be a better player each day. He touches upon how big of a role preparation has, if an athlete is not prepared for success and failure, it doesn't matter how badly they want it. Preparation is key to success. He also believes that mentality and approach to the game is the key difference maker.

Topic 5: 2020-2021 Outlook

Coach Lee believes that potential collegiate student-athletes need to remain open to playing college basketball at any level, and not become dead set on one specific level or division. He tells young people to be realistic, and that it’s all about relationships when it comes to who fits within a team culture the best. He says at Erskine, if they don’t have a good attitude, their talent does not matter. He also encourages these athletes to recruit the school how you want the school or coach to recruit you. 

Topic 6: Favorite City to Eat In 

When we asked what is the best road food Coach Lee has had, he says he likes to stay close to restaurants he is familiar with. Chick-Fil-A and McDonalds were the first two fast food restaurants that came to his mind. He also mentions, he always likes to find a good place to eat seafood. Anything with catfish, shrimp, or a seafood platter - you can count Coach Lee in.

Topic 7: Last Dance Thoughts

Coach Lee believes that Michael Jordan is the best player of all time, but believes Zion could be the next if he continues to work hard. He mentions how amazing Micheal Jordan's preparation and determination for the game was, he wanted to win so badly every time he stepped foot on the court - always finding a way to pull out the win. Having athletes like Micheal Jordan, that not only hold themselves accountable, but their teammates as well, will bring a ton of success to the team. He describes Jordan’s approach to the game and believes it was unmatched. 

Having the opportunity to coach an athlete like Zion Williamson, is an amazing one. From Lee Sartor's tips for athletes, all the way to his views on basketball, it is insightful and inspiring to read. 

Full Transcript: 

CHRIS GORDON  

Hello everyone and welcome back to exact Coach's Corner. Today in the special edition we are talking to coach Elise ardour, the head men's basketball coach of the earth skin college fighting fleet men's basketball team. And this interview we touched on his transition from coaching High School, to college basketball and some of the differences that you've seen. He talked about a couple do's and don'ts of the recruiting process. We talked about building confidence and how it is important to his coaching style. And he shared some stories from his time coaching NBA superstar Zion Williamson, and there's three state championships together. You can check out this entire conversation at our blog, exact sports comm slash blog or some clips on our social platforms, Instagram or Twitter with the tag at exact sports and the Facebook page exact basketball. I'm excited to share with you guys and I hope you enjoy it. All right, coach. Well, thanks for hopping on and chatting with us a little bit about your your background and giving us some advice. Let's get into this by by talking a little bit more about your coaching journey. You know, obviously he had a great High School coaching career won three straight nationals three state championships and now you're on the college side. So talk about you know, what, what led you to that, that role? And I guess, before that, how you got into coaching?

LEE SARTOR  

Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you for having me. I think that sports for certainly taking the time to do something like this with recruiting that I think is very important, but particularly for young people in today's uncertain times. You know, sometimes they say coaches are on a bond and even when they play basketball, on whatever sport they decide to play, they play in in such a way that you can tell that they, you know, got some leadership qualities and pretty much coaches coaches on the floor. And I think for me, that's that's was the case. You know, even when I was in middle school and high school, I made sure that I knew all the plays not just what I was supposed to do, and but what my teammates were supposed to do. And I played the game in such a way that, you know, I tried to make my teammates better. And that's, I think one of the central fashion factors of being a coach, you want to make the playoffs that that play for you better. And so I had the opportunity, of course, to start coaching in 1999. And I just started like most people, do you volunteer And you coach because you love it and you love making an impact with young people. And so I started with the AAU circuit and the first team I coach actually was system nation and I had off that team, all my players went to college. And I had trouble book on that player on that team that actually just retired from the NBA. And I had another kid to play professional, professional football DJ more. It's kind of funny, I saw DJ more running this morning and he's still in really, really great shape. So that got me started with coaching and then of course, I had an opportunity to coach at slumber day school. And I did that started in iTunes, 2003 and coax all the way up until Around 2010 and then I left for a little while and then I came back and I'm very, very fortunate that I did come back when I did because I was able to land. One of the best players, you know, definitely to ever play as Barbara de I think, probably one of the best players to ever come out of South Carolina, Zion wimps and and so I had the opportunity to coaching him for four years. And and then once Zion graduated, I felt like you know, it was a good opportunity for me to try to move to the next level. So I was very, very fortunate. fortunate to have the opportunity to coach here at our skin college, and I'm fast approaching my third year here in our skin college.

CHRIS GORDON  

Awesome. Well, yeah, it's quite the journey and Obviously, you've seen some great players and you didn't like you said, I mean, they don't get much better than Zion at the high school level. And, you know, he's been a, he was able to make that transition into college and now on the pro side, and that gets me into my next question, you know, obviously, the skill is a big differentiator when you go from high school to college, and then even on the pro side, but I'm sure there's some other factors that that level into the difference making, when you do go on to play at higher level. So can you talk about some of the things you've seen when you as you've gotten now from high school coach to college? What are some of the difference makers that you've seen other than skill in the players?

LEE SARTOR  

Well, well, obviously, you know, one good thing about coaching in college is that you have college players. It would be really unfair for for me to make the transition from high school to college, and you got a high school player. So you know, obviously the players are a bigger, stronger, faster, more skilled. But But at the end of the day, it's still coaching young people, and is still developing young people to be the best that they can can be. And it's putting them in situations where they can be successful. And I think in college, one thing that you got to be careful at is, is making sure that, you know, you just don't take for granted that just because a kid is in college that, that they are the best that they can be yet because that's because that's never the case. I think, you know, as a coach, you got to always make sure that your players are getting better. And as a coach, you got to always continue to study and read and watch video and watch games and so you could get better as a coach.

CHRIS GORDON  

Yeah, I totally agree. I think You know, obviously when you get onto higher skill levels, you're gonna you're gonna be intermixed with players that are of higher caliber. But I think it's one of the things that we talked about exact is the confidence and, and really just believing in your ability that that got you to where you're at and, you know, being able to overcome failure. And I think that kind of gets me into my next question for you. Um, you know, the the I'm fourth thing, the skill level that's, that's teachable, you're able to control that on the court. But confidence is very hard to teach that and really instill that in within your players. You can tell Zion has confidence when he has the ball when he's on the court. Even at the pro level, he's among men and he still he still dominates the game and it's great. It's crazy to see that it is his age, but confidence in terms of coaching, what have you been able to teach your players with within confidence and how they can really believe in themselves?

LEE SARTOR  

Well, you No, confidence is one of those things that that comes with unseen hours, hours of just really critiquing your skill set. And, and in order to do that you play a scout to always make sure that they are pushing themselves to be the best player that they can be. And, and a lot of times we're confident it's all about preparation. If you're not prepared to be successful, then you're not going to be successful. It doesn't matter how much you want it. And I think you'll mentality and your approach to the game is very, very important. A lot of times you may have you may have a ninth grader that is physically ready to play varsity basketball in high school, or a freshman that's physically ready to play college basketball as a freshman. But but the mentality is not good. So I think it's important to make sure that your mindset is good and, and, you know that that that starts with your preparation and kind of looks like confidence and you know, you know one thing about basketball, any sport you decide to play, you got to believe in yourself. And I think a lot of players don't have the confidence or they don't believe in themselves. So now they make a mistake. And when they make a mistake, they know that done and, and instead of, particularly in basketball, basketball is so fast. You know, you can't, you can't set and say, Well, I made a mistake because if you do that, you probably missed a nice three or four plays. And you can't do that. I say you got to have a short term memory and basketball and you make a mistake, you know, you go on to the next play. and kind of make up for it. And again, confidence and your ability will help you be able to do that.

CHRIS GORDON  

Absolutely. It's it's like we said earlier, it's something you can't really coach you got a player's got to really kind of find that within his own game and like you said, preparation and I think passion is something that really will help you get that confidence that you need to be a better player and I think confidence and success they correlate. So the more you believe in yourself, I feel like the better you're going to become on the court and I feel like that's that's what's going to help your team become better overall. When you have that. So, you know, obviously this year is a little different when when we're talking about the recruiting process, obviously we're, you know, this is this is the time now when we're getting our camps are going playing an AAU tournaments. This is when our coaches are seeing players The most throughout the year, obviously, this year is a little bit different. So I guess you know it from your perspective. What advice would you give a player right now if you know to still maintain connections with coaches to still get them their name out there? How would you do that? If I'm, you know, 2022 or 2021?

LEE SARTOR  

Well, certainly with this COVID-19 we're dealing with unprecedented times. And, you know, as a college coach, it's kind of been Canavan. It's been really different. In terms of our recruiting, and we've had we've had to be innovated in our recruiting. We do a lot of FaceTime. virtual tours here on campuses, we couldn't actually have kids on campus. Of course, we waste a lot of film on kids highlights and game fans on kiss and how to evaluate kids that way. Bye. You know, my my advice to to any kid who want to be recruited is to again make sure first of all that you're you know you're ready for that level because college is it's a different level you got to make sure you prepare for it and you got to be realistic with yourself and your ability and what level you you can possibly play play and of course, most people want to play D one but that's that's some good opportunities at the D two level or the d3 level or you know even in AI and i think i think playoffs gotta make sure that window looking for opportunity that they just don't get buried to the possibility of playing D one and then Miss great opportunities at the D two level on d3. Ultimately I think every player should be willing I understand that, you know, you want to be a student athlete, you want to go to college so that you can get a college degree and hopefully make yourself better in terms of an adult and being successful in life. But, you know, I tell young people all the time, again, be realistic with me, and most college coaches is all about relationships. And yes, we want we want the best players possible to come join our team, but we want the best people as well. And, and so you know, you don't you don't want a kid that's really really good, but they have a horrible attitude, or hardball disposition. The last thing I want to do as a college coach is spend four years with someone who's who just harm a person. So I think Your attitude and your approach is very, very important and I you know, as college coaches were recruiting kids, but kids got to make sure they recruit colleges and and have relationship with college, you know, know what type of college you're going to play at and you know what your degree will be and, and what kind of system the college runs and and then you got to even look farther than that and say, Okay, I'm a point guard how many point guards in the system I have many shooting guards in the system and really do your homework that way. I know for me as a coach, I'm recruiting a kid to be with us for four years and work towards getting their degree and hopefully graduate with a college degree but not only that, I'm recruiting that the mom and That dad and assisting that brother because, you know, it's a family that that will make all of this work. And so I think players just got to be very careful to just not want to play in college but but but wanna join a family and join join a culture where they can reach their full potential.

CHRIS GORDON  

Yeah, that's a lot of great stuff there. And you know, it kind of goes back to what we said at the beginning you need student athlete and there's a reason why student comes before athletes you're going to college get an education to, to further your life after college. And I think a coach is not doing a player justice, justice, they're not looking out for their best interest for their life after college. And, you know, like you said, you're recruiting them to represent not only yourself, your team, but overall the university and the institution and if they're not that right person, even if they might be a good fit on the court, it's it's overall just it's not gonna work out. So, yeah, a lot of great advice there. He touched on things we can do in a positive way throughout the recruiting process, but I'm sure and I know you've only been in it a few years now on the college side and I'm sure you've seen some things that stand out on a negative. So I guess if you could give one piece of advice on what not to do, as a recruit, what would that be?

LEE SARTOR  

Well, I think plants gotta understand, particularly if they want to play in college that they are always being evaluated. I know these are uncertain times and normally we would be out actually evaluating kids and seeing them play and and seeing them interact with with the teammates and interact with coaches and all that good stuff, but players got to understand that they are always been watch. A call doesn't go your way in the game and You know, you want to get on the referee and start getting you know, letting into the referee and, and saying some profanity and you know showing a bad attitude and disposition you know that goes along way with you know with would probably not giving you opportunity to play at the next level. So I think players again they got to know that that being wise and then I think it's important that parents parents understand because I touched on this before when I recruit a kid I'm recruiting that family and just like you don't want a player you know, a bad apple in terms of a player in your program for four years. You don't want a family in your in your program for four years. And what I mean by that is, you know, sometimes parents can be unrealistic in terms of where they work. A son a daughter he is in terms of that skill set and and I've seen it where play often have opportunities because of a dad that's in the stand coaching from the stand or mom in the stand giving the coach a hard time like well, you don't know what you're doing and stuff like that and, and at the end of the day, it could be something that hurt hurt a player with this opportunity to play at the next level.

CHRIS GORDON  

Yeah, we don't we don't want too many lavar balls out there. It doesn't help the situation much so, yeah, like you touched on you're you're recruiting a family and I feel like you know the person when it's they're off the court actions that that speak just as much as their encored actions. I remember a coach once told me he was He likes to stand right next to the lunch line when he's at his camps and watch how he players interact with those that are serving food. Because, you know, if they're not being polite and thankful for what they're getting, then that's that's just going to be how they carry themselves on and off the court. So it goes a long way. So it's it's, I'm sure it's it's interesting to see it from a coach perspective on how

LEE SARTOR  

it goes a very long way. And then I think it's also important that young people understand that it doesn't matter how good you are. If we can get you in college, because of your academics. It's not gonna work out, you know, that I don't know how many times and it really hurts my heart. When when you you have a good plan now a good person, but then you pull that transcript And you find out that they, they don't have all their core courses, maybe they miss an English or math or maybe maybe they just the GPA is too low or the test scores are too low. Because, you know, and I think it's very, very important that young people realize that. Yeah, your skills on the basketball court or whatever sport you decide to play. That's important. But But how do you prepare yourself to be successful on the court, you also got to prepare yourself to be successful in the classroom. And you know, do your work, do your homework, and I know this is kind of different right now because a lot of kids had to finish the year online. But But again, it's very, very important to make sure you're doing what you need to do academically, so that if you do have the opportunity to play In college, that you don't get that opportunity because your grades won't allow you to move to the next level.

CHRIS GORDON  

Absolutely, yeah, it's it goes both ways. You got to work hard on and off. The court says we always try to tell players at Camp regardless if they they don't want to hit or not so well, this is some great advice. Coach and you know, I I appreciate you coming on and helping us out. I'll end with some fun questions. Get to know you a little bit better. My first one I would be, you know, not even if I didn't ask for you to tell us maybe one guy on story, a fun story from maybe that we didn't see in the state championships, anything like that stood out to you over the four years that you've coached him other than winning.

LEE SARTOR  

Well, look, let me talk about one about Zion's approach to to winning Of course Zion started with me when he was in the ninth grade and as a coach, particularly a varsity high school coach, you probably very fortunate if you can have a good plan for two years, maybe that junior year, in senior year. But for me, I had an opportunity to have john Zion when he was a ninth grader, and we had a had a good year. Dion's ninth grade year, we were able to make it all the way to the state championship game. And I remember we were playing with Zion band, a knife grader and a lot of other younger kids like him. And we, we lost to a very veteran team that that was pretty good. And, you know, and I was just telling the kids after the game, how proud I was of them, and You know, how important it was for them to start preparing for next season? Right now, you know, with that mindset, and then tomorrow and then on the next day, maybe take some time off, but make sure that that they're working hard to prepare during the summer. So, you know, the feeling of being upset that you didn't have that you won't have it next year, and Zion stood up a ninth grader with seniors on our team. He stood up with tears net, and his chin and said, you know, we will never lose another state championship again. And we never did, we won the next three. So that's just Yeah, and I have worked really, really hard to put himself in the position to make certain that we didn't lose another state championship. So you know, I think I think when When you try and to be the best person you could be, it says a lot when you you willing to make yourself so good that you can say something like that, and then back it up, because of all of the time that you put into gym, you know, preparing for that situation. But that that says something about Zion's approach to being successful.

LEE SARTOR  

You know, one final thing, I think, look, it's good. One thing I can say when you coach someone like Zion, is that all your plays normally work? Um, you know, doesn't matter what you kind of run, you get the ball design, and it kind of worked, but I remember, we were down in the game and I called timeout. And set up a press. And we're gonna make it tough for the team to bring the ball up the court. Well, one of the players on the other team tried to throw the ball over Zions head, and Zion jumped up and got the ball. I mean, he jumped so high that I heard people in the crowd go, whoo. So he the way he gets the ball, he jumps up gets about now, he has to go around two or three people to get to the basket. And he does that. And then he gets to the basket and it's a monster dump. And, and we ended up winning the game. And then I heard somebody in the crowd say, That's great coaching coach, and I said, Yes, that's just the way I drew it up.

CHRIS GORDON  

Yeah, I mean, seeing some of the videos from his high school games just seemed unfair. The things he was able to do and even even at the college level, we would do and you know, I'm not just saying this kind of Duke fan, but it was nice to root for a guy like him. And, you know, I wish him the best success of that at the pro level. And I think he can turn that team around in New Orleans. And it's, I mean, it's great to hear these stories from him because it seems like he's a humble guy that just wants to get better and help his teammates. So appreciate you sharing that non basketball question this this, obviously you've coached in South Carolina for a long time, but I'm sure you've done some road travel with coaching Are you outside coaching? And we've been asking your coaches that their favorite city to eat in so what would you say is the best road food you'd have? If you were to pick one?

LEE SARTOR  

You know, I'm you know, when I travel a lot of times, I try to stay close to things I'm familiar with like, you know, McDonald's and, you know restaurants that I'm familiar with, but I always try to find a good place to eat seafood.

And that's, that's always good when you can find a good seafood restaurant where you can eat some goods. I love cat fish, eat some good cat fish or good shrimp or, you know, seafood plant or something like that. That's always good. You know, but honestly, I love I love my wife cooking. I just, you know, I love for her to cook in it. And even when we own the role, a lot of times she could, you know, she can find we try to stay in places where there that's a little small kitchen and see can put together something good to eat always I love I love my wife cooking.

CHRIS GORDON  

I'm sure she'll appreciate you saying that was to share this with her and get some score some points for you. Yeah. All right, my last question has to do with the last dance I'm sure you've probably watched a little bit of it on ESPN. I'm a Chicago guy. So I have to throw that plug in there. You know, I was a bulls fan growing up and I was a little young to remember the first three championships but I you know, the last three comments to a distant memory so I guess I just wanted to get your take on it. What was your you know, what was your take on the night? You know, the bulls dynasty Jordans mentality anything that stood out to you with that documentary?

LEE SARTOR  

Well, obviously I think Michael Jordan is probably the best player of all time. I joke about I would not jokingly I really think if Zion continued to, to work hard that one day we could possibly say, you know, he's in that in that Shaco, too. But the thing I like about Jordan, is that even though athletically, he was so good, his approach in preparation to the game was matched by by no one else. And, you know, when when you want to win, like he wants to win, you know, it's just, it's, it's good. It's good to know that there's, there's people out there like Jordan, that that that won't win to the point where, you know, he's gonna work so hard himself and also hold his teammates accountable so that they could get to that level then He's at and, you know, the thing that I found that was that was great to know. And it's been my philosophy all along, but it was good to hear him say it is that when when you understand how to win games, um, you let other people play it, and then you just do what you need to do at the end to win. And that's, you know, Jordan always found a way to win it at the end.

CHRIS GORDON  

He shared that and yet obviously capped off at the bulls era with with the the final shot and he not even the final shot the steel at the end and pretty much you know, the last minute he controlled it and, you know, it was obviously really cool to hear him talk about a lot of those experiences that time and I think the one thing That that stood out to me the big quote was, I think it was at the end of episode eight was some people call me and people call me a tyrant and you know too controlling but sick. Well then if you think that you've never wanted to thank because I'll do whatever it takes to win. And I think that just kind of sums it all up on what he who he was and you know what his goals were.

LEE SARTOR  

The thing with Jordan is like this with every good player and I coach my, my kiss with with the same mentality is don't ask me and then as a play, I never did this. But don't ask me to do something that you're not doing. And Jordan only asked his teammates to do stuff that he was already doing. And you know, if that ball was on the floor, flopping around on the floor, you know, Jordan would dive down there to get it and If if he made them do it, then he's gonna say why didn't you get that ball? And his teammates got to know where Jordan john does stuff like that. So you know, the thing I think that's that that most players hate and most people hate? Is you asking me to do something that you're not willing to do yourself? And, and Jordan never did that. And that was one of the reason I think, Chicago, Chicago was so successful. And it didn't matter who the players were, you know, they were all as long as they all bought into that philosophy that you do your job and you do your job well, to a level of excellence, then then we got a chance to win another championship.

CHRIS GORDON  

Yeah, everyone really kind of knew their role and they were able to execute it to near perfection. Obviously, six and eight years, however you want to look at it. I don't know if that's ever gonna happen again. And least this this type of era, so it was cool to relive those memories and seems like, you know, is a nice outlet for us. Obviously one more night watching live sports. So yeah. Well, coaches has been great. I appreciate you sharing some great stories and advice. You know, hopefully you'll be back on the court with your players soon. And training for another successful season. And hopefully, we'll see down the road again.

LEE SARTOR  

Yeah. Well, thank you so much. And I think that sports for all you guys do to help young people prepare for college and beyond?

CHRIS GORDON  

Absolutely. All right. Well, coach, take care. Thanks again.

CHRIS GORDON  

That's all for today's conversation with Coach Lee Sarkar. keep it hidden coming on sharing some great stories and advice. Coming up on exact Coach's Corner you'll be hearing from more college coaches and if you'd like a question answer, please don't hesitate to give us a shout on our social media pages. Again, those are exact sports for Instagram or Twitter, and then exact basketball for Facebook. To see this interview in its entirety, please go to our blog, exact sports comm slash blog. There you'll find more interviews from college coaches, and all of our sports, soccer, baseball, basketball and volleyball. We will catch you all again next time on exact Coach's Corner.

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