When the full-throttle offense and pressure defense of the Cave Spring High School basketball team goes into motion, it’s a six-man energized rotation that makes you realize you better not blink.
Six? Yep, there’s the five players on the court, and another along the sideline.
Welcome, Cave Spring first-year head coach Jacob Gruse.
“The day I’m not energetic on the sideline will be the day I step down,” Gruse noted during a recent interview of his animated coaching style. “i work just as hard on the sidelines as the kids work on the court.”
Gruse’s longtime signature style not only took him to basketball, but moved him away from his primary sport of choice during college.
He grew up in St. Albans, West Virginia, a suburb of Charleston, where he was a two-sport athlete in baseball and basketball at St. Albans High School.
After graduating from St. Albans, Gruse attended Concord University in Athens, WV where he played baseball as a second baseman for the Mountain Lions. But, he knew that his future in coaching would lie in basketball rather than managing the boys of the diamond.
“I was too high-strung, too animated and had too much intensity to coach baseball,” Gruse says with a chuckle . “i knew coaching basketball would be in my best interest.”
In December, 2001 Gruse received his first coaching offer while holding a teaching position at Southwestern Randolph High School in Asheboro, North Carolina.
“They offered me an assistant’s position on the junior varsity team with no pay,” Gruse says. “That was the start.”
Gruse got his first varsity position in 2004, being named head coach at South Davidson High School in North Carolina where his first team went 4-16.
“It was the best coaching I’ve done in my life,” Gruse says of that initial head coaching job.
One year later, Gruse got a call from his college roommate about an opening at Dan River High School in Ringgold, VA, an opportunity that included a nice pay raise from the larger salaries offered in the State of Virginia. Gruse made the move and stayed 7 years at Dan River where his name became more recognizable after he turned the Dan River program around and moved it to the upper echelon of the Dogwood District and top power among Group A, Division 2 basketball. In 2009, Dan River advanced to the Group A, Division 2 final before falling to Radford. Gruse was 3-time Dogwood coach of the year.
“We struggled the first three years I was at Dan River, but were 82-19 in the last four years,” Gruse notes. “We were state runner-up one of those four years and made the state Final-8 all those last four. Every team during that stretch that knocked us out eventually went on to win the state championship. I took freshman those first years and we got our brains beat out for two years. But, I brought them up and our team became very successful.”
With Gruse in the spotlight, he made the natural climb on the coaching ladder to the college level.
“Something I always wanted to do was coach in college,” Gruse pointed out.
He took a full-time assistant’s position at West Virginia Tech University during the 2012-13 season, followed by a year as an assistant at Averett University in 2013-14. At Averett, Gruse helped the Cougars to finish second in the USA South Conference.
That’s when the opening at Cave Spring came about after the resignation of long-time Knights’ head coach Billy Hicks in the spring of 2014.
“I read about it that he (Hicks) had stepped down, ” Gruse pointed out. “I contacted Jon Hartness (Cave Spring athletic director) and the school did a great job of following up with me. I knew Cave Spring had a rich tradition, and recognized that it was a
great opportunity. Jon Hartness and Cave Spring principal Steve Spangler were great during the process. The biggest thing was it gave my wife, Kristen, and I a great place to raise our kids.”
Jacob and Kristen have a son Taylor (4) and daughter Tinley (2).
“From the beginning, my wife felt good about my chances of landing the job,” Gruse said. “We were at TJ Maxx at Tanglewood and she bought the kids red and black shirts, and picked up real estate magazines. She said ‘you’re going to get this offer’.
Before we left town I got the call and I told them to give me an hour-and-a-half to think about it on the drive home.” It was a slam dunk decision.
Gruse was chosen from a sizable list of qualified applicants according to Hartness.
“We felt Jacob was the best choice because of his head coaching experience, his passion for the high school game and his philosophy on running a high school basketball program,” Hartness noted.
The rest is now history.
Gruse and the Knights have hit the floor running. Literally, running. Cave Spring plays a style that reflects Gruse’s personna; run and gun on offense while swarming the floor and chasing on the defensive end. The formula has not only been successful, but exciting to watch for the Cave Spring faithful.
“I call it controlled chaos,” Gruse says with a laugh. “We impose our will on our opponents at both ends. My goal is always to get better every day. The biggest transition for me has been the different style of basketball in the River Ridge. There’s morefinesse and talent. At many schools it’s athletes playing basketball. In the River Ridge it’s basketball players playing basketball. The way Cave Spring schedules, we’re always in for a dog fight. Nothing comes cheap.”
Cave Spring’s first season with Gruse at the helm ended with a Conference 32 championship before the Knights fell in overtime to Northside in a 3A West quarterfinal.
“They couldn’t have hired a better coach,” Cave Spring senior Noah St. Clair said before a recent practice. “Coach Gruse is up-tempo and he has done a great job of getting us this far. It took us a while to adjust, but with his style of
play, we’re going 200% all game.
“I’m looking forward to building on the great tradition at Cave Spring,” Gruse notes.
It definitely looks like the Knights have the right guy to provide that energy.
Bill Turner
