PHOTO COURTESY OF BYUH
Harry Maxwell, left, has been a volunteer assistant for the Brigham Young-Hawaii basketball team since 1985. Sitting next to him is assistant coach Carl Ingersoll.
BYUH assistant has
love for the gameHarry Maxwell plays an integral role with
the basketball team as a volunteer helper
Harry Maxwell has a solution for those who are told they can't make the team -- make the team yours.
Way back in 1985, a Brigham Young-Hawaii employee walked onto the basketball court to set things up for a practice run by then-coach Ted Chidester. He got out a few towels, set up a few chairs and never left.
Maxwell, 66, has been a volunteer assistant for the program since, not missing a beat. He couldn't quit if he wanted to. He told his wife, Manu, so long ago that he will keep going until his team -- he did co-found the Seasiders' Booster Club -- wins the national championship he expected this year.
"Over the years she's kind of grown with it," Maxwell said. "I keep telling her that I have to do it until we win the national championship and she has kind of accepted it. That's the great thing about all the women around here. They are all supportive."
After 18 years, Maxwell has had no choice but to learn the game. He still delights in his duties as glorified towel boy, but helps out now by keeping track of fouls on the bench and working with the players on foul shooting. The Seasiders improved their free-throw percentage by 46 points over 2001.
"He brings stability," current BYUH coach Ken Wagner said. "The players love him because he will always be their friend when the rest of us are on their case. Everyone will tell you that he is the best guy to room with on the road. He always has candy and a kind word."
Maxwell has been on the road since leaving his native Kentucky for the Army in 1961. He says he has lived in 30 different places on the North Shore, all the while raising seven children and spoiling 23 grandchildren, before finally buying a house in Kahuku last year. He hopes it doesn't prevent him from going back to the Bluegrass State and chronicling the changes in a small town every year.
"Things change so much," Maxwell said. "The pretty girls turn ugly and the fat ones become skinny but I lost my hair so nobody really cares."
Ask Maxwell why he keeps showing up for practice even on his bad days, and he has no explanation other than his love for the game. He never thinks about what might have been had he tried to parlay his Army coaching experience into a college job of his own. He is content allowing Wagner, who was an assistant when Maxwell started at BYUH, to accept the glory for each win.
But when the team loses, as it did in the first round of the NCAA tournament this year, the volunteer assistant begins to wonder if the regular Kentucky barbecue he fixes up for the players was to blame.
"That (BYUH's loss to Cal State San Bernardino in the first round of the NCAA tournament) was devastating," Maxwell said. "I just went home asking myself 'What did I do wrong? How did I lose the game for the team?' "
Rabid fans all say that they live and die with their team. Maxwell means it, saying he will not die until he helps BYUH bring a national championship in basketball to Laie. Then he figures his debt to the school that employed him as its receiving manager for 19 years until his retirement in 1999 will be paid off.
"It is just for the love for the game," Maxwell said. "I want to pay back the school for all they have done for me."
But can Maxwell just walk away when the banner is raised in the Cannon Activities Center?
"I'll have to talk that over with my wife," Maxwell said. "She has waited a long time."
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