It was almost as much fun last Friday night to watch Mike Washington on the sideline in his first game as Oak Harbor’s head basketball coach as it was to watch the game itself.

Washington’s lads did well and after winning his first varsity game, the coach was almost too excited to be interviewed by the press.

I’ll tell you what, the powers that be made the right decision when they chose this young man to be the Wildcats’ new mentor.

The way the kids played and responded, Washington is on the same wavelength as his players and the man sure does look like a basketball coach.

I heard he took some harassment before the game about the “new threads” he was wearing. Be that as it may, the suit he had on looked sharp.

There have been high school basketball games I reported on where the coach looked like a poster child for the Salvation Army.

Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I think a coach should wear something other than Levis and a T-shirt — especially when the team is playing a game out of town.

All the kids are dressed up in collared shirts and ties, and here comes the coach looking like he just stepped off his John Deere tractor.

Coach, wake up! You are not only representing the school and your players — you are representing yourself. Besides, I think the “grunge” look went out of the Seattle rock scene years ago.

It’s a lot of fun coaching your first game, something you’ll always remember.

I can vividly remember my first time as a varsity defensive coordinator and the first time I went out on the field to talk to my players. I’m glad we were ahead and I had a good defensive captain in the huddle to sort things out. The coach could hardly talk!

I also had the pleasure of coaching middle school girls basketball for a couple of years and I had a particularly good time with the opposing coaches.

Most of them were first year, female teachers and it was their first time in any kind of coaching position. My, oh my, those young ladies were more nervous than the kids!

When I walked over to them wearing my V-necked sweater to introduce myself, I thought a couple of them were going to pass out.

“Hi there,” I’d begin as I shook their hands. “Bob Knight, pleased to meet you. I promise I won’t throw any chairs this afternoon.”

My hair wasn’t quite as silver back then as it is now (losing games will do that to you) but I could tell by the looks on those young ladies’ faces they weren’t sure whether they were talking to the crazy man from Indiana before he left the Hoosiers for Texas Tech.

Only one of them summoned the courage to ask me whether my name was really Bobby Knight, and that was after the game.

Coaches, here are a couple of rules you should always remember when working with kids.

First of all, try to keep the tension and stress levels on your players as low as possible no matter what. Remember, somebody always has to win and somebody always has to lose.

Finally, remember to have fun. That’s what the game is all about.