A humble start

Steve Kayson, Tokay High's new varsity basketball coach, works on drills with freshman players during a practice at the school Friday. Kayson ran Tokay's freshman team last season after a 15-year absence from coaching, during which time he's battled lymphatic cancer. The coach, who was first diagnosed with the disease in 1987, is still fighting the illness but intends to lead the Tigers program for the long haul. (Dan Evans/News-Sentinel)

A humble start

Having battled cancer for more than two decades, new Tokay coach Steve Kayson finds purpose on basketball court

By Ted Mero
News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Saturday, June 14, 2008 5:56 AM PDT

Comments (No comments posted.)

Steve Kayson, the new coach of Tokay High's boys basketball team, doesn't care for the spotlight, and he certainly doesn't want anyone's sympathy. He's much more comfortable in the background, preferring to let his players get all the attention.

Despite his attempts to remain out of the public eye, his story is one that cries out to be told, if only to understand the man himself. In 1987, on Kayson's 30th birthday, he was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. He's been battling the disease ever since.

He knows the illness won't go away, treatable only with occasional chemotherapy. And he's aware that the chemo treatments, which he's chosen not to receive in the past six months, will more likely decide his fate than the cancer itself.

But to speak to him, Kayson hardly sounds like a man concerned with death. And the 51-year-old coach, who ended a 15-year absence from coaching when he ran Tokay's freshman program last season, seems reinvigorated by the fact that he is once again a teacher of young men.

"I intend to be here for two or three years and kind of go from there," Kayson said. "I really want to lay a foundation. I see myself as a teacher-coach, really. We want these kids to go beyond basketball, to teach them how to be leaders, and to take care of their own lives. It's all about personal responsibility and accountability."

That philosophical mindset, coupled with his extensive basketball experience — albeit years ago — is one of the primary reasons Tokay Athletic Director Jeff Johnston chose to hire Kayson as the school's fourth coach in as many years.

"Steve has some qualities that we really admire," Johnston said. "He's very patient, very knowledgeable of the game and very oriented in not only teaching the game, but approaching it from a philosophical point of view. He's building scholar athletes from a whole perspective, making sure the kids have a variety of experiences. Basketball is a focus, but it's not the only focus.

"He's looking to make a commitment to the program and rebuild from the ground up, to really reinvent Tokay basketball."

Kayson's basketball background extends back to his playing days at Sacramento State, where he was an all-defensive point guard and team captain for the Hornets in the late 1970s. He ultimately graduated from San Jose State — though he was no longer playing hoops competitively — and began coaching soon after, spending three years as the frosh-soph coach for Mountain View High and another season running the varsity program. He followed with a five-year stint as an assistant at De Anza Junior College in Cupertino, working for father Tony Nunes, who coached the team from 1967-92. In the five years he spent coaching with his father, the program averaged 22 wins per season.

For the past eight years, Kayson has ran On Sports Inc. in Stockton, a small manufacturing company that makes custom uniforms. The business' claim to fame is that it made the uniforms for LeBron James and his high school teammates at St. Mary's-St. Vincent High School in Akron, Ohio.

Through his job, Kayson befriended Dave Zeyen, who coached the Tokay hoops program this past season and helped convince Kayson to return to coaching.

"We've talked X's and O's over the course of many moons," Kayson said. "I was hoping that he would come back (to Tokay) and that we could start building the program. I thought we got some rudimentary things done, and I think he saw all that. But he has his family and was really interested in being on-campus."

Kayson, on the other hand, has never worked as an on-campus coach, and he's perfectly comfortable running the program that way. And any uncertainties he had about taking over the varsity program quickly dissolved, as several people encouraged him to apply.

"I was asked by a number of people to go ahead and throw my name in the hat," he said.

Kayson realizes that in the coming seasons he could easily be replaced by an on-campus teacher, but just as in life, he isn't taking a fatalistic approach. He also understands that because of Tokay's changing school boundaries, the program isn't likely to enjoy the depth in talent it once had.

"Some people are system coaches, and some people, in essence, are not," Kayson explained. "John Wooden and Dean Smith found bodies that would work in their system. We adapt to what our talent level is. I love to play pressing, all-out, high-tempo basketball, but you don't always have the horses to do that."

But Kayson is quick to remind that the focus should be on the kids, not him. And that building a successful high school sports program is more about human development than wins and losses.

That thinking has certainly seemed to work for Kayson in his own life, even if he's too modest to admit it.

Reader Feedback

Comments on this story are now closed.

Archives

Story Tools

Indexes

A humble start

Having battled cancer for more than two decades, new Tokay coach Steve Kayson finds purpose on basketball court

Reader Feedback

Special Sections

Photo Reprints

Find Ads

Weather

Services

Contact Us

Office

Newsroom

Subscriptions

Advertising

Classifieds