New DeSoto High Basketball Coach Finally Gets A Chance To Meet His Players

DALLAS COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) - DeSoto High School hired Richard Bacon as the new head basketball coach in the middle of May, but the coach had to wait until the middle of June to finally meet his players.

"I was so excited, because you only get to meet him for the first time once and I wanted it to come off as a hit and I think it did," Bacon told CBS 11 Sports after meeting the players in his program for the first time at a meeting on Monday, June 8. That was the first day the University Interscholastic League (UIL) allowed high school athletic programs to allow student-athletes on campus for strength and conditioning drills.

Instead of hitting the weights, Coach Bacon used his first day of strength and conditioning to meet his players, and set the tone for program. He received as assist from his longtime friend, and former Mavericks great, Rolando Blackman.

"It's a prove-it-to-me kind of generation, so I brought some proof by having Rolando to say some of the things that they will hear me say," Coach Bacon explained.

DeSoto ISD Atheltic Director Larry Davis thinks his newest hire will be exactly what the Eagles Basketball program needs to remain a basketball powerhouse in North Texas.

Davis said, "He has a level of excitement, and commitment, and dedication that's going to spill right over to our kids. It will keep our Basketball tradition here at DeSoto at the high level that it already is."