Laying the Groundwork

Young, tall, and athletic, Eric Chesser looks like a basketball coach straight from Central Casting, the company that casts extras, body doubles, and stand-ins for Hollywood movies. But Chesser, Marco Island Academy’s new basketball coach, isn’t acting. He’s busy molding the Rays into a basketball program to be reckoned with in SW Florida and beyond.

Chesser likes to quote basketball coaching legend John Wooden, and he lists another legend, former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, as a role model. Chesser himself grew up in a standout basketball program in Illinois.

“I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, ” Chesser said. "Coach K is an influence. He's a Chicago guy. We’re taking a little bit of a lot of different influences and adding some of our own things and kind of hoping everything comes together. We're confident it will. This is my first head coaching job. I heard about the position being open, and I wanted to step up for the community. I love basketball. I grew up in the Michael Jordan era watching the Chicago Bulls as a kid and fell in love with the game from a young age. I started when I was five years old playing YMCA basketball. I was fortunate to be able to be part of a lot of great teams with a lot of different coaches and different coaching styles, from high school to playing Division 1 at South Alabama in the Sun Belt Conference for Ronnie Arrow.”

Chesser, a real estate agent who is educated as a lawyer, jumped at the chance to coach at MIA.

"Hearing about this opportunity,” he said, "I was excited to be able to share my experience and knowledge of the game with our kids here at Marco Island Academy."

Chesser has a history on Marco Island.

"Marco Island has always been my home away from home,” he said. "My dad's been on the island since 1998. And I've been full-time down here in SW Florida since 2012. I went to law school at the Ave Maria School of Law. I’m just very fortunate to be able to work and enjoy life living in the Marco Island community in SW Florida.”

Chesser inherits a program that posted 16-7 and 17-6 records in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons but has endured four straight losing seasons, bottoming out at 1-18 last year.

“We are trying to build a new culture,” Chesser said. “A winning culture. We're building leaders, it's not just basketball. We're student athletes. We want them to improve as basketball players, but when they graduate and go to college or go into their careers, we want them to be good leaders in the community. We also want to promote kids on Marco to stay on Marco. I know sometimes they want to go to the bigger schools, thinking they're going to get more exposure. But being a big fish in a small pond, if you want to call it that, isn't a bad thing. Especially when you have a program where we're going to focus on fundamentals and playing good team basketball. We are still scheduling bigger schools. You're going to get the same level of exposure here, if not more, by being able to play.”

The Rays' roster has already faced adversity with three players lost for the season due to injury or health issues. Chesser defers to Wooden’s philosophy.

“You know, every team faces adversity.” Chesser reasons. “It offers a challenge for us to take on, to improve as a team, to come together, to continue to get better. My assistant coach Dennis Onken and I had tryouts and player evaluations. We weren't just looking at talent but also character. As Coach Wooden would say, ‘Sports do not build character, they reveal it.’ I'd like to think of myself as a player's coach. I've always responded to positive reinforcement. I believe in being someone to encourage our players to continue to get better, to have patience. Everyone's at a different skill level. We want to teach them the fundamentals of the game. Build a foundation. I think all the guys are really excited about Coach Dennis and I being here. It's a new start for everybody. We're all building this together as a team. There are a lot of things to be excited about moving forward. Whether we're coming close or coming up short in some of these games, we have to continue to be confident but humble and always strive to get better as a team. We have all the confidence in our players. They're still learning what they're capable of. They’re still finding out how good they can become by playing together as a team. Although we're 0-5, we lost our last game by five points. We're seeing progress. We’re a fundamentally better team with each game.”