Triad High School boys basketball coach Jason Malone talks to his team in a timeout during a game from the 2021-2022 season. Malone has stepped down as the Cardinals’ coach. (Journal-Tribune photo by Aleksei Pavloff)
For the past six years, Jason Malone has juggled the titles of coach and daddy.
He’s now dropped the first one in order to concentrate more of his time on the latter.
Malone stepped down as the Triad High School boys basketball boss earlier this week.
He cited family reasons for his decision.
“I’ve got three young children ages 8, 6 and 4,” Malone said during a telephone interview with the Journal-Tribune. “They will be starting to get into their own activities in the future and I want to be involved with that going forward.”
Malone, a 1993 graduate of Triad, said it hasn’t been easy coaching and being a parent.
“Coaching basketball is a seven-day-a-week job, between practices, games, scouting and breaking down film,” he said. “It’s always been a challenge.”
Still, he’s found time to also be a father.
“If I’m not at school (where he is a Triad High School social studies teacher) or practice, I’m at home,” he said.
Malone feels he worked hard as the Cardinals’ coach, but said the program should be handled by someone who has even more time to devote to it.
“If my children were older and more out on their own or if I was single, it would work better,” he said.
The 2021-2022 Cardinals made a huge climb up the ladder this past season, finishing with a 9-15 record.
That’s a major jump from the 2020-21 campaign in which Triad won only one game.
The Cardinals won only twice over the course of two other campaigns.
“We felt going into this past season we’d be better,” said Malone. “We had some guys coming back who had talent.”
The Cardinals were led by seniors Ayden Spriggs, Ayden Sanford and Carson Manley.
Malone feels there will be talent returning next year for the incoming coach.
“I think the interest is there and all the guys from this year’s juniors on down have a lot of potential,” he said.
Next year’s nucleus should revolve around junior Tyler Perry, sophomores Cameron Thomas and Kane Bailey and freshman Caleb Thomas.
“It’s not like I’m leaving the cupboard bare,” said Malone.
The former head coach knows what the new person in charge needs to do.
“I think there needs to be connectivity built between the high school program and our junior high and youth teams if Triad wants to become a consistent program,” he said. “I’ve seen some varsity head coaches who also coach fourth-grade teams and I just don’t have the time for that.
“The new coach needs to be someone who can devote time to help develop those younger teams.”
Malone said he will not have a say into who is his successor.
“I’m not going to be a part of that process,” he said. “I’ve told our athletic director (Logan Dunn) that I feel there will be somewhere between five and 10 applicants.
“I will support the new coach in whatever way I can.”
Malone, who also served 10 years as the Triad girls varsity coach, said he’s not done with his days on the bench.
“At some point, I will get back into coaching,” he said.