Hoops creates a bond for Harmatuk family
By Michael Sudhalter
Updated: 02.22.09
It was the biggest game of Scott Harmatuk’s young head coaching career.The 31-year-old Klein Collins boys basketball coach, in his first season as a head coach, found his team competing in a play-in game last Friday at The Woodlands College Park High gym.Both Klein Collins and Spring brought their fan bases northward – hoping to encourage their respective teams to a victory and a spot in the UIL Class 5A Playoffs. Harmatuk, who’s team won 86-70 to advance, had a little something extra – most of his relatives and some friends sat and cheered in one corner of the gym Friday night. “It’s great,” Harmatuk said. “My family has always been awesome. They always like to come to all of the games and that’s wonderful. Our family is close and we all love basketball, so it’s almost killing two birds with one stone -- being able to watch basketball and being a close family.”Having a good portion of your family at the game may not seem like a big deal, but it is to Harmatuk.
By Michael Sudhalter
Updated: 02.22.09
It was the biggest game of Scott Harmatuk’s young head coaching career.The 31-year-old Klein Collins boys basketball coach, in his first season as a head coach, found his team competing in a play-in game last Friday at The Woodlands College Park High gym.Both Klein Collins and Spring brought their fan bases northward – hoping to encourage their respective teams to a victory and a spot in the UIL Class 5A Playoffs. Harmatuk, who’s team won 86-70 to advance, had a little something extra – most of his relatives and some friends sat and cheered in one corner of the gym Friday night. “It’s great,” Harmatuk said. “My family has always been awesome. They always like to come to all of the games and that’s wonderful. Our family is close and we all love basketball, so it’s almost killing two birds with one stone -- being able to watch basketball and being a close family.”Having a good portion of your family at the game may not seem like a big deal, but it is to Harmatuk.
His older brother, John, 36, has been the head coach at Cy Springs High for the past seven years.“(He helps with) little things of being a head coach, nuances of the game,” Scott said. “We talk back and forth about offensive and defensive things.”Scott and John are close off the court, attending the UIL State Tournament together in Austin every March. Both coaches overcame challenges this season. Scott took over a young Tigers squad that had graduated many of its key players. John’s Panthers returned just one starter – Marquette-bound senior forward Erik Williams – and overcame a slow start to tie Cy Falls for third place in District 15.Since their teams play on Tuesdays and Fridays, their father, John Sr., attends one game on Tuesday, and their mother, Margaret, attends the other’s game.On Friday, they switch.
Last Friday was a rare situation in which John’s Panthers didn’t have a game because the regular season was over.Both Harmatuks qualified for the postseason – the Tigers host College Park, and the Panthers travel to Round Rock McNeil, both on Tuesday.“We spent our whole lives around the game of basketball,” John said. “I’m really proud of Scotty. He’s done a great job. We compete in everything we do. It wouldn’t be any different than playing in the driveway.”The Harmatuks – and their three younger brothers – Chris, Matt and Brian (none of whom are currently involved in coaching) – are all Klein High graduates.John and Scott both played for Bearkats coach Glenn Arnold, with John playing college basketball at Division III Austin College in Sherman. Scott played at Division I Fordham in New York City before playing professionally for the United States Basketball League’s Brooklyn Kings and for a team in Mexico.Scott said it was special to face his alma mater this season; they defeated the Bearkats twice this season.“I told my guys at the beginning of the year, that I better get two wins,” Scott joked.
Both Harmatuks had a common mentor in Aldine Nimitz coach Randy Gilmer.John was Gilmer’s assistant at Cy Springs, and Scott served under him at Nimitz.“They’re my neighbors so I watched them growing up, they’re good coaches and come from a great basketball family,” said Gilmer, who attended the play-in game last Friday.The family moved to Texas from the basketball hotbed of Syracuse, N.Y. just before John was born.“It’s been a lot of fun,” John Sr. said. “The whole family loves basketball. It’s been a big part of our lives for a lot of years.”
The burning question is when will the two Harmatuks face each other in a game? They met in a scrimmage, but that doesn’t really count. And the brackets didn’t unfold for a Collins-Springs matchup in the Kingwood Tournament earlier this season. They’re not on the same side of the playoff bracket this season, so a postseason meeting is probably out of the question. Scott said he’d like to play against his brother’s team, saying, “the edge would have to go to me. I think (Collins is) better.” Said John, “I’m a better coach, and he’s a better player.”J ohn said it would be tough to schedule the Tigers with District 15 expanding to 10 teams with the addition of the Cy Lakes and Cy Ranch varsity teams. Scott is trying to get the Tigers into next season’s Cy-Fair ISD Tournament, where a potential matchup with the Panthers is possible. If it ever happens, there would be at least one person happy with the outcome of a Cy Springs-Klein Collins matchup.“(I’d root) every second for both teams, and I’d win regardless,” Margaret said.
