“Who’s got the shootah?” Thomas Messinger yelled from the Walter Davis Gymnasium sidelines.

The surprise Boston accent drew glances and chuckles from the assembled Hargrave Military Academy fans in Chatham, Virginia. Messinger smiled to himself. He doesn’t have a Boston accent growing up in Northampton. They really heard his college coach Hank Smith, a Southie native who led Emerson for 16 seasons.

“His Boston accent and his angry words come through my mouth, and I’ll get a kick out of it,” said Messinger, who graduated from Northampton in 2006.

They’re one of many things he borrowed from Smith during his coaching journey. Messinger took pieces from every coach he played and coached under over the past decade and a half – from Rey Harp at Northampton to Smith at Emerson, and Hargrave pillars A.W. Hamilton (now Eastern Kentucky head coach) and Lee Martin (Ohio assistant).

“All good coaches are thieves,” Messinger said. “You make it your own. I’m a byproduct of the incredible coaches I’ve had across my career.”

It’s produced the Next Up Recruits National Coach of the Year after Messinger led Hargrave’s postgraduate team to a 44-2 overall record, the No. 5 ranking in the final national poll and the National Prep Championship Sweet 16. He was also the 2023 Elite Prep League coach of the year and became the fastest Hargrave coach to reach 100 wins in just 106 games.

“We had a great year and we were ranked No. 1 for the majority of the year in the country. I knew I’d be in the mix, but obviously a huge honor still,” Messinger said. “The publication that puts it out, it’s the only one that really follows and tracks postgrads all year. It’s nice to be recognized.”

Four Hargrave players were named to Next Up’s postseason all-America teams: Indiana State signee Jaden Daughtry (first team), Kailon Nicholls (second team), Diovion Famakinde (third team) and DeShayne Montgomery (honorable mention).

“We get to be the place where a lot of unknowns become known,” Messinger said. “It starts with that chip on their shoulder and not having the recognition in their recruitment and the love they deserved over the years.”

Messinger’s job exists in a nexus of recruiting. He only has the players for one year, so he has to both recruit them to come to Hargrave but also try and find them a spot in the collegiate ranks after that season.

“Being a military school, it takes a certain amount of grit, a certain kind of determination and willingness to sacrifice things for your dream and all of those go in with that kind of ethos as well,” Messinger said. “You kind of have to be tough to make it here. That toughness is what college coaches want, and that toughness is what wins you games at any level.”

UMass freshman Keon Thompson spent a postgraduate season at Hargaves before joining Frank Martin’s program in Amherst. COVID disrupted his recruitment, so Messinger’s program provided him an opportunity to prove himself against elite competition.

“We had the same vision. We were both winners and we wanted to win. I feel like him talking to me to get me to come there, like I could actually be myself and be coached by someone who was a part of winning for so long,” Thompson said of Messinger. “He’s always encouraging. He’s always someone you can talk to as a coach and as a person as well. He’s also competitive and also hard on us trying to get us to play harder or trying to teach us how hard it is to win.”

Messinger learned those lessons himself during his long road from Northampton to Chatham, Virginia. He played four seasons for the Blue Devils and spent a postgrad year at Deerfield Academy before matriculating to Emerson. After graduating, he pursued a master’s degree from Smith College and searched for coaching jobs. A head hunting agency recommended him for an admissions counselor job at Hargraves that included working as a varsity boys basketball assistant.

“I was lucky enough to get promoted incrementally along the way,” Messinger said.

Messinger worked his way along slowly, serving as the school’s varsity head coach and athletic director before he was named the postgraduate squad’s coach in 2020.

“I joke about it all the time. There’s no reason that a stumpy 5-11 kid from Western Mass. that played D3 basketball should ever be where I am right now. Literally every player on my team would have absolutely cooked me when I was in high school,” Messinger said. “I’m very lucky to be the coach here. It’s definitely a surreal moment that every once in a while it’ll smack you in the face that I can’t believe I actually got to this point.”

His favorite part of the job is watching players from different backgrounds coalesce into a team. None of them have been to military school before and few have lived away from home.

“They talk to these guys every single day. They become brothers,” Messinger said. “They stay connected for the rest of their lives. That’s the coolest byproduct of everything we do here.”

Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.]]>