Newton County boys basketball coach Steve Harber has seen plenty of change in his years of coaching.
Harber recently completed his 45th year in coaching and was recognized by the Mississippi Association of Coaches at their annual Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in Jackson. Harber was recognized along with Alcorn Central’s Bobby Purvis.
“I didn’t anticipate doing this for 45 years,” Harber said. “It just worked out that way. I still enjoy it. When I get to the point to where I don’t have the energy or dread getting up and coaching, I will decide to stop. I’ve had a lot of good players over the years. I kind of sit back and look at some of the guys I coached are now retiring like Jeff Breland. I’ve been fortunate to have some good players and my wife has been supportive of me, most of the time.”
Not only did Harber coach his own children in basketball, he’s hung around to coach his grandchildren as well. But Harber says he probably won’t get to coach all of them.
“I’ve coached Peyton and his younger brother and that has been special,” Harber said. “A lot of guys don’t get to coach their grandchildren. There are 17 of them so I don’t think I will get through all of them.”
Despite his years of service, Harber has only coached at six schools, including Decatur, Sturgis, Union, Lamar, Forest and Newton County.
“I’d like to stay until I get 800 boys wins,” Harber said. “I’m at 772 wins right now. I’d at least like to hang around long enough to get to 800.”
Harber said it’s the coaching that keeps him coming back every day.
“I still like working with the kids to hopefully try to teach them something about basketball,” Harber said. “We try to keep good kids in our program. The bunch I had this year was extremely young and struggled on the court, but they were really good students. I think 11 of the 14 on the team were on the honor roll and that’s something to be proud of. We want them to be good citizens and good students because I don’t think any of them are going to the NBA. But they can all be good citizens.”
Harber said basketball has become a year-around sport.
“We have been playing all summer,” Harber said. “I was counting it up and we have played 17 or 18 games since school was out. That’s probably the biggest change I’ve seen. You used to be so restricted on what you could do with them in the summer. But now, as soon as school is out, you start playing summer games. It’s a never-ending thing and you have to do it to be competitive.”
Since starting in 1974, Harber has seen plenty of changes. He coached the first game in Mississippi that used the three-point line and was also in Decatur when female teams started playing five-on-five full-court basketball.
“That was a big change in girls basketball,” Harber said. “People didn’t think that the girls could play full court. I remember the first five-on-five game we played at Decatur. People were really worried that something was going to happen to the girls. They even had an ambulance outside in case something happened. Now they go from line to line from start to finish.”
