When the Northside Middle School eighth-graders trailed Seymour by three points at halftime in the semifinals of Saturday’s season-ending Tri County Tournament, Ben Stevens thought back to what Josh Speidel had been telling the team all season.
“The first three minutes of the second half is what determines the rest of the game,” Stevens recalled Speidel telling them. “Today, that came into play.”
The Spartans, who came back to win by 19 points, benefited from Speidel’s words of wisdom this season. He is back in his hometown as a life skills teaching assistant at Schmitt Elementary and eighth-grade B-team boys basketball coach at Northside.
“I’ve loved that,” Speidel said. “It’s a perfect setup because I’m there, and then I just walk right over to Northside for practice after school.”
Six years ago, that might have seemed like an unrealistic dream for Speidel. Columbus North’s all-time leading scorer was critically injured in a Feb. 2, 2015 car accident near Taylorsville near the end of his senior season.
Despite suffering a traumatic brain injury and doctors giving Speidel a dire prognosis, Vermont coach John Becker, whose team Speidel had signed to play for a couple months earlier, came to Indianapolis to visit him in the hospital and told his family the school would honor his scholarship.
Following a year of rehab, Speidel headed to Burlington, Vermont, where he spent four years with the Catamounts program. He made national headlines last March when Becker inserted him into the starting lineup on senior night, and in his first and only collegiate game, he made a layup on a prearranged play, then exited to a rousing ovation.
“Coach Becker, in my eyes, is the best coach in the nation,” Speidel said. “He has one of the best mid-majors in the nation. Just being four years under him and getting to see how him and his coaching staff run practices. What they taught me there, I tried to implement here.”
Speidel said he’s learned from all the coaches he’s had both at North and Vermont.
“The coaches I had in high school — (Jason) Speer, (Chad) Sweeney, (Brad) Branham — having them in high school and having Becker, Kyle Cieplicki, Hamlet Tibbs, Ryan Schneider, Greg Snyder (at Vermont) — being able to have a front-row seat at practices, games, just hearing them talk and hearing their different philosophies and strategies, I can only thank them,” Speidel said.
Now, Speidel is learning from Northside eighth-grade head coach Mike Reed. Reed, who just finished his eighth year in that role, appreciates what Speidel has been able to pass down to the players.
“It’s been great, especially with everything that’s going on right now,” Reed said. “Just a positive uplift every day in practice and games, not just with his basketball experience, but his life experience at such a young age, too. He has a lot to offer as far as not only instructing the kids when it comes to basketball, but teaching kids about all kinds of things when it comes to just life in general.”
Although the eighth-grade B-team was able to play only a couple of games this season because of COVID and weather-related issues, Speidel helped out with the A-team in practices, which were together, and at games.
“It’s great having him because he’s a great basketball player, and he knows a lot about the game,” Stevens said. “So passing that knowledge down to us is nice. He messes with us and likes to make jokes. It’s just a fun experience.”
Northside athletics director Cindy McCoy has enjoyed that experience, as well. When Reed’s assistant stepped down last year, he went to McCoy and suggested the possibility of bringing Speidel on board.
“It’s been really good,” McCoy said. “Josh is an excellent role model, and as I tell him every time I see him, he is a walking miracle. He knows basketball in and out and always does the right thing.”
Not only is Speidel teaching and coaching, he recently began driving again, and he has his own apartment in Columbus.
“I’m loving having that independency,” Speidel said. “I know my parents and my sisters love driving me everywhere, but I can drive myself now.”
Speidel hopes this is only the beginning of a long coaching career.
“I thought I’d enjoy it, but I didn’t know I’d love it this much, so I could really see myself keeping with it,” Speidel said. “I thank Cindy McCoy and Mike Reed for giving me this opportunity. I love coaching these kids, just working with these kids. I said at the beginning of the year, ‘I hope that I learn as much from them as they learn from me.’ I’ve learned so much. I couldn’t ask for a better group of kids, a better (head) coach, a better AD. It’s a perfect situation I can only thank God for setting up.”
