December 2024
By Victoria Damian, Assistant Editor
Cardinal coach Detosha Hurst is known to the KAC student body as a funny and understanding person. Students say you can always count on her to be there for you, and that if you need any advice or help, she’ll give it to you. She also might put you in your place, but it’ll help you understand better. Hurst has coached and taught at KAC since 2018. During the 2024-2025 school year, she is the head coach of the girls’ volleyball team and also helps coach the girls’ basketball team, the boys’ basketball team, and the boys’ volleyball team. The Cardinal Post talked to Coach Hurst about her experience as a Cardinal, her motivation, and the life lessons she hopes to give the school’s student athletes. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
The Cardinal Post: What motivates you to be a coach at KAC?
Detosha Hurst: “Before I came to KAC, I actually was a coach of my own AAU girls’ basketball team for like five years. I always wanted to be a coach, I think it started in high school. When people ask you, What do you want to be when you grow up? I’ve always said I wanted to be a PE teacher or be a coach. So it’s always something I’ve wanted to do.”
How did the whole coaching of 4 teams occur? Do you enjoy it ?
“When I first got here, I begged to be the basketball coach. Then I met [head girls’ basketball] Coach Carrizales. Of course he’s the head coach, so I could never take his space. He awesomely added me as his assistant coach. Me becoming the volleyball coach was because Coach McNeil–who was here before–she left and Carrizales asked me, ‘Do you want to do it?’ And, at first, I was like, ‘I don’t even know nothing about it!’ Then he was like, ‘Well let’s just try it coach. If you don’t like it then we can always switch.” I tried it. I actually was interested in it, so now I’ve been doing it for the last 3 years.
Do you enjoy coaching volleyball or basketball more? Why ?
“That’s a hard question for me right now, because basketball is way easy. Like it’s natural. It’s something that I can do without effort. Volleyball takes a little bit more effort for myself because I don’t know a lot of things like the hits and tricks that come with the games. So I don’t really have a preference right now, I love them both but my name is attached more to volleyball than it is basketball right now.”
Are you ready for the upcoming basketball season?
“I’m always ready for basketball. It’s my first love–it’s like your first girlfriend. It’s the thing that no matter what, if I can’t go do anything, I can always go to basketball. So, yeah, I’m always ready for basketball.”
How would you as a coach help your team prepare for the games?
“Basketball is mental. Any sport is mental. Carrizales introduced to us at the beginning of the season a book called The Coffee Bean. I pretty much try to implement at least something of value from that book every day to my students and it’s basically like charging their mentality, because the game is so mental. Both volleyball and basketball are very mental games. You just basically have to speak positive to the team about things that they know that they are not great at and then highlight moments when they’re being way better than they possibly could ever be.”
What’s your favorite memory as a coach?
“I have a lot of them. For this year it would be starting our own tournament and being able to win the entire tournament volleyball-wise. Them showing up as a team and them being able to come together to beat their common goal. The common goal was to win and they actually achieved that.”
Finally, do you have any advice for upcoming athletes?
“Know your mental, understand your own mental capacity. What it takes to be able to deal with certain things. Being an athlete is very daunting, which means it requires you to sacrifice a lot of your own personal life. Not only does it require you to sacrifice your personal life it also requires you to have a very organized and structured way of living. So knowing a routine, being okay with a routine and being okay with sacrificing personal time. Because in order to be great you have to give up personal time.”
The Cardinal Post 