De La Salle’s Basketball Culture, Creating the Coaches of Tomorrow

On any given afternoon in the De La Salle gym, echoes of bouncing basketballs mix with something quieter – something foundational. It’s the sound of a program built not just on wins, but on service, humility, and leadership. For decades, De La Salle basketball has produced elite players and champions who have gone on to play at the next level in college and the NBA. But the foundation of servant leadership and a strong work ethic are two characteristics that drive the basketball program. The players embody team over individual, but the student managers do as well. 

That belief – that team comes before self – has guided countless Spartans long after graduation to become elite-level coaches.

Beau Levesque, a former Spartan (class of 2009) who is now coaching in the NBA for the Los Angeles Lakers, leans on his De La Salle experience to shape his purpose in coaching. “It’s difficult to fully express how much De La Salle has influenced my coaching and life journeys. Everything comes back to the saying, ‘Enter to Learn, Leave to Serve.’ Coaching, at its core, is a service industry,” Levesque said. “Every day, I strive to positively impact others and leave my environment better than I found it.”

The environment in the De La Salle Basketball program is and has been demanding, pushing young men to be their very best on and off the court. DLS practices were legendary for how intense they were. The work ethic instilled in each athlete allowed Spartans to achieve individual and team goals that no one thought were possible. More importantly, it equipped Spartan graduates with tools for life that are now being used in the coaching profession. 

Justin Joyner, now an assistant coach at the University of Michigan, credits De La Salle with forming the backbone of his character. “My experience at De La Salle as a student and as a player was the most important experience in my life,” Joyner said. “The environment at DLS pushed me to achieve at a high level; high achievement within the framework of a team was 100 percent the expectation.”

But the legacy of service and hard work isn’t limited to players.

For years, student managers – often unseen, often unsung – have been the backbone of the program’s culture. They attend every practice, haul equipment, track stats, and bring relentless energy and humility. Their service mirrors the heart of the program. Holden Wright, a former student manager turned college coach, still remembers the moment he realized how deeply the program had changed him. “Being a manager at De La Salle was one of the best decisions I ever made,” he reflected. “It taught me the importance of servant leadership. It taught me that the program is bigger than me.”

Head Coach Marcus Schroeder calls them indispensable. “Our student managers are incredibly important to the success of our program. These young men sacrifice each day to make our team better… They are as consistent as anyone in our program,” Schroeder said.

The Wright brothers, Holden, Ethan, and Dylan, are part of that lineage, along with several others who went on to serve as managers at the collegiate level, including at Saint Mary’s College. Those include Jake Bequette ‘15, who went on to be a student manager at Wake Forest University, Sean O’Donnell ‘17 at UC Irvine, Logan Breen ‘11 at Santa Clara University, Ryan Schlaich ‘09 at UC Berkeley, and Kevin Marchetti ‘95 at Duke University. 

And while the program’s rich history includes legends like the Barry brothers (Scooter, Jon, Brent, and Drew), Joe McClean, Theo Robertson, Sean Farnham, Jordan Ratinho, and Alec Blair, its coaching tree is equally impressive. Today, seven Spartans are coaching at the college level:

• Holden Wright ’17 – Assistant Coach, Saint Mary’s College
• Justin Joyner ’06 – Assistant Coach, University of Michigan
• Justin Argenal ’04 – Head Coach, Dominican University
• Gus Argenal ’98 – Head Coach, UC Riverside
• Sean O’Donnell ‘17 – Assistant Coach, University of Redlands
• Zach Payne ’09 – Assistant Coach, Montana State University
• Nick Sullivan ’11 – Assistant Coach, Whitworth University

Two more are coaching in the NBA:

• Greg St. Jean ’08 – Assistant Coach, Los Angeles Lakers
• Beau Levesque ’09 – Assistant Coach, Los Angeles Lakers

These men carry with them the same mission stitched into the walls of De La Salle: Enter to learn, leave to serve.