Resignation reflections
Behind Joe Daily's exit from Gila Ridge boys basketball
YUMA, Ariz. ( KYMA, KECY-TV ) - A day after Joe Daily turned in his resignation as the head coach of the Gila Ridge boys basketball, he gave his insight on why he chose to step down
The main reason was his desire to give more focus on his family.
"For the last 14 years, I've been coaching all the kids out in the community and it's just time for me right now to just focus on my three one little ones that I have at home. I have a 9 year old, a 6 year old and a 5 year old and it's a great time in my life at 35 to put more focus on them."
Joe Daily - Former Gila Ridge boys basketball head coach
Daily led the program for the past decade, finishing with 150 wins and 131 losses; and leading the Hawks to 3 playoff appearances.
Daily is one of our area prep basketball coaches that organized events, such as the Southwest Rotary Classic and the Summer League in an effort to continue to cultivate prep basketball on more of a year round basis to help improve the sport in our area.
Daily shares what he hopes his coaching legacy will be.
People had to worry about us. It wasn't one of the things, it's just a Yuma team. We're just gonna walk through them. No, they had to focus and we, and we beat them some of the time. So that I think that was the legacy I want to leave it, that Yuma basketball is good, not just Gila Ridge, but in the whole town of Yuma. And there's a lot of good players here that may not get the recognition of students in, you know, in Phoenix, or other big cities. But we've got some talent here and I feel like that's that's why I want to leave it, that we got a good basketball community here.
Joe Daily - Former Gila Ridge boys basketball head coach
As far as his future plans go, Daily still plans on remaining at Gila Ridge in a teaching capacity, while continuing to work on obtaining a master's degree.
He also looks forward to future challenges in the education field, but will not rule out a return to coaching later in his career.
