Dunphy does not roam sidelines alone

Jerome Allen deftly steals the ball from the opposing guard, and the Palestra crowd rises to its feet in anticipation of a thunderous dunk. Gil Jackson, Fran O'Hanlon and Steve Donahue hear the cheers, but nobody knows their names. Jackson and O'Hanlon are Fran Dunphy's full-time assistant coaches, while Donahue is a volunteer assistant who holds down a full-time job. Last year they helped the Quakers get the opportunity to face the Minutemen in the NCAA tournament, while getting the notoriety of Paul Revere's horse. And that is they way they like it for now. "Our job is to be in the background and be loyal to the [head coach]," Jackson said. "There are people that could have problems with that, but it is something you have to deal with before you decide to be an assistant. It is a very delicate balance because you do want to be a head coach at some time. You don't want to get in the niche of being an assistant all the time." If history serves as an indicator, Jackson and O'Hanlon will get their shots at head coaching positions. Rollie Massimino served as a Penn assistant. So did Dunphy. So did the coach his predecessor, Tom Schneider. "In all honesty they are quite capable of being head coaches," Dunphy said. "Both of them have great knowledge of the game and they both teach the game extremely well." · As an all-state basketball player and a star high school quarterback from New Jersey, Jackson was not used to being told he was not a good enough athlete to play. When Jackson approached Villanova about playing college basketball for the Wildcats, however, they told him they were more interested in a point guard who was a year his junior. That guard's name – O'Hanlon. So Jackson took his talents to the small college level at Elizabethtown, starting all four years and making that school's Hall of Fame. Meanwhile, O'Hanlon started two and a half years at Villanova competing against La Salle's Fran Dunphy. "I used to watch those guys play on television," Jackson said. "On Saturday they showed the Big 5 games. I would watch Franny play before I played that night." O'Hanlon was drafted by the 76ers, but ended up playing one year for the ABA's Miami Floridians. The next year the Floridians changed coaches and O'Hanlon decided to bolt for an American All-Star team that toured Europe and Asia. His coaching resume includes stints at a recreation center, some youth teams, a Division III team in Sweden, and a year as an assistant coach for Temple's women's basketball team. Jackson also coached women's basketball, but he got his start at a Wilmington, Del., Boys Club. Jackson intended to go to law school after college, but began coaching at the Boys Club and fell in love with coaching. He would go to clinics given by basketball coaches such as Bob Knight as well as football coaches to pick up coaching pointers. "They would ask everyone what you did," Jackson said. "I would say I coach at a Boys Club and they would just look at me." Soon, however, people would be looking at him for his coaching ability. He led the Sanford school, a prep school, to seven consecutive conference championships and a Delaware state championship. He turned down assistant coaching offers from Brown, Towson State and Delaware State believing that he could get a college head-coaching job without serving as an assistant. He applied to be Penn's head women's basketball coach and did not get interviewed. He then applied for an assistant coaching position under former Penn coach Tom Schneider, but the job was given to Dunphy. When Dunphy was promoted to head coach in 1989, Jackson called to congratulate him. "I asked him if his staff was complete and he said, 'do you know someone who might be interested?'," Jackson said. "I said 'yeah I might be interested'." Jackson worked as a volunteer assistant during Dunphy's first campaign, before being hired full time for the next season. · Currently Steve Donahue serves as a volunteer assistant while working full time for MAB paints. Donahue also coaches the Quakers' junior varsity squad, developing the younger talent. "He just sort of helps with anything he can," junior guard Scott Kegler said. "He helped me with my shot last year. He helped me with my defense. He has that full-time job and he is hustling back and forth all the time." O'Hanlon has served as Dunphy's full time assistant from the time Dunphy ascended to the head-coaching position. "I have known [Dunphy] since high school," O'Hanlon said. "When he got the job I gave him a call – we go way back." O'Hanlon designed the Quakers' motion offense. He teaches players how to get their shots off more quickly, move without the ball, and other intricacies of the offensive game. According to junior forward Shawn Trice, O'Hanlon is an offensive guru. "Coach 'O' knows everything about offense that the game has ever encountered," Trice said. "I am sure of that." Trice, however, may not have even been at Penn if not for Jackson's work. Jackson called Trice four or five times a week while Penn was recruiting the Detroit area native. The assistants do a lot of the legwork in the recruiting process such as scouting prospects and talking to high school coaches, guidance counselors, parents and the players themselves. Recruiting is made even more difficult by the constraints of the Ivy League. Because of the constraints, Ivy League players are usually less polished, leaving more opportunities for assistant coaches to get involved in teaching basketball skills. Jackson works with the post players and designs many of the Quakers' defensive schemes. "Coach Jackson is the one on the sidelines yelling at you to stay on the ball, to talk to each other and to stay loose," Kegler said. "He is the guy who makes our defense click." All three assistant coaches also scout future opponents, as O'Hanlon did earlier this year before Penn travelled to USC and Ohio State and Donahue did last week for St. Joseph's. All three see themselves first as teachers. They work with players individually before or after practice. They rarely resort to screaming to get a point across. As a high school coach, Jackson would often conduct practice without a whistle. "Hollering and screaming distracts from what you are trying to get across," Jackson said. "For the most part I don't think that is effective." Instead they let the fans do the hollering.