When Anthony ‘Eggy’ Searcy relocated from his native Boston to Oregon in 2022 with his fiancée, former WNBA player Ashley Walker, he thought the clock on his basketball career had finally run out.
But the ball has bounced back into his court.
Last month, the 41-year-old Searcy signed on as head coach of the Salem Capitals, a team in the newly revived professional United States Basketball League (USBL).
The league, originally created in 1985, was once a launch pad for future NBA players like Spud Webb, Manute Bol, and Anthony Mason. It now has been re-formed with 15 teams across the US and Canada, including Vancouver, Seattle, New York, New Jersey, and Baltimore.
The Oregon-based squad under Searcy’s command will tip off in their first season in March. Tryouts started on Dec. 14, he said.
“Being the head coach of a pro team still hasn’t set in yet, but I’m going to meet the guys and have open gyms,” said Searcy. “You would think that it could be difficult or overwhelming, but when you know what you’re doing, then you know how to approach this. You’re excited, but you know how to get it done and you’re ready to kill it.”
Searcy played his high school ball for Madison Park Technical Vocational High School in Roxbury and was a standout in the Boston Neighborhood Basketball League. The son of Mattapan activist Lisa Searcy, he grew up loving and playing baseball, but a teenage growth spurt brought him to the round ball game instead.
His coach, Dennis Wilson, got him focused on studies and he moved to New York City to play for at Monroe Junior College in New York City and then the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), not especially known for its basketball pedigree.
“I was playing really good basketball there and a lot of Division 1 coaches were walking around campus looking for me; you really didn’t see that much at FIT. It was hilarious,” he said.
After earning a degree in advertising and marketing at FIT, he pursued basketball at Mississippi’s Alcorn State University, where he was a standout once again. A noteworthy moment was when they played the University of Texas in what was NBA star Kevin Durant’s first college game. Following college he played in the former Continental Basketball League (CBL) with the Birmingham Steel before coming back home to Boston.
“I was helping Pete Washington coach his AAU team at the Mattahunt Community Center, and he asked me if I ever thought about seriously coaching,” he recalled. “I told him that I didn’t like coaches, and he said that was perfect because I knew what players wanted from a coach.”
After a stint as assistant at Madison Park with Wilson – including two city championships in 2010 and 2011 – Searcy assisted for seven years at Charlestown High School under former Coach Edson Cardoso. More recently, he was recruited by O’Bryant High School coach Trudy Fisher, where he learned volumes about the game while also training elite players in New England at Team Sims in the Under Armour Circuit.
Searcy and Walker, now his wife, made the move west when Ashley was hired by Nike. “I had no idea about anything in Oregon,” he said. “I was looking at something different, but then I got an opportunity with the Portland Trailblazers as the youth basketball director for a few years.
“Then someone in the organization suggested I interview for this job in Salem, and the front office spoke well of me. After the interview, they offered me the job. I had no intention and wasn’t looking to coach. I just was candid about my experiences and who I had worked with. He offered me the job and I accepted; it’s been non-stop since then.”
Since his hiring was announced on Nov. 9, Searcy said he’s been studying film and delving into his playbooks. He said he really likes what Boston Celtics Coach Joe Mazzulla runs, and the same goes for Brad Stephens when he was the Celtics coach and the college coach at Butler University.
“I really believe you build a defense to create your offense because you can get out and run in transition,” he said. “The game has changed though, and you need a shooter, too.”
That said, he’s going to prepare for all situations, and the strategy for the first-year Capitals will depend on the roster they secure.
“It’s right under the G-League and is for guys who want to achieve the dream of pro basketball in the NBA or overseas,” he said. “My goal is to get my guys playing their best basketball and then they can move on to the next level. The owners of this team even want that for me – to move on to the next level of coaching in a few years.
“This job right now really resonates with me because it’s a lot of guys who need a second chance and people gave me a second chance and I’m proud to be able to do that – and I’ll give them third or fourth chances if I can,” he added.
