Orem basketball: Kevin Nixon's memories

In mid-April, I interviewed Orem (Utah) assistant boys basketball coach Kevin Nixon and he told me about his best memories of the team's championship season. Here is a copy of the article that will appear in the Orem basketball yearbook.

Kevin
Nixon:

His relationship with his son, Dalton,
made huge strides with Orem’s success

By Bruce Smith
Matchup

Kevin Nixon has had a lot of memorable moments in his basketball career. The half-court shot he made in BYU’s 73-72 win over Texas El-Paso in 1992 is probably the most famous.

However, the 2011-12 Orem High School basketball season created several more – mostly because of how it resulted in an increased bond between him and his 15 year-old son, Dalton.

“It was a special time for he and I to spend together every single day,” Nixon said. “Not too many parents have that opportunity. I could watch him grow as a person and a player. That was rewarding for me and something I’ll never forget.”

Dalton may not understand that value until he has children of his own. He is the oldest child of Kevin and Stephanie and there are two more athletic girls – Bailey (13) and Sadie (11) – behind him.

Kevin admitted he didn’t have much interest in coaching at first, but became an assistant at Orem two years ago. Shortly after he met Golden Holt for the first time at a basketball workout for Holt’s son, Cooper, and Dalton, a job change moved him to Utah County and Holt asked to be part of his plan to resurrect the boys basketball program.

It worked out well that Dalton was blossoming as a basketball player, much like his 6-foot-9 father did in high school at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and later at BYU.

Those memories are still alive for Kevin, but are not nearly as vivid as what happened this year.

“The first most-memorable moment this year had to be the Lone Peak win, just because it was one of those games you want to play, but deep down you weren’t sure you could win” Nixon said. “The guys learned how to win a big game with a huge crowd.

“The next-best memory was just winning every single game in region. “I knew it would be really hard to go 14-0 in a very good region. Obviously, the Mountain View game was huge. We didn’t play well, but found a way to win. It was a special night because it was for breast cancer awareness.”

Those events have helped the Nixon’s relationship, but pale in comparison to what happened at the end and father and son were able to join the hordes of Orem fans, administration, coaches and players in the on-court celebration after the Tigers defeated Olympus 58-50 for the state title.

“I was definitely out on the court celebrating,” Nixon recalled. “ It was great that I was able to hug my son. It’s something we had talked about since he was a little boy. To be able to embrace after a state championship is a special thing.”

The Nixon’s story attracted local media attention this year, and it likely will only get better as the two try to keep Orem’s success going. The only question might be where it will ever supercede Nixon’s game-winning shot against UTEP.