Life on the Road - A Coach's Journey

About Life on the Road - A Coach's Journey

Life on the Road, A Coach’s Journey, hosted by Alphonza Kee and Scott Bollwage , is a basketball podcast featuring coaches at the high school, college, and professional levels. Each episode dives into coaching, recruiting, player development, leadership, and building winning programs. Hear real stories from the road, the grind, and the game. Season 2 brings bigger guests and deeper insight. Subscribe, share, and stay locked in on the journey.

Publisher

Alphonza Kee and Scott Bollwage

Category

sports

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Oct 2023

Latest episode

14 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

51 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   14 Oct 2026

   Life on the Road - Guest Murray Garvin

   From Pikeville to the MEAC: Murray Garvin on Resilience, Purpose, and Building People This week on Life on the Road, we’re joined by a man who has spent his whole career proving that coaching is about way more than what happens on the scoreboard. Murray Garvin has more than 28 years in the game across high school and Division I basketball, and everywhere he’s been, he’s left behind better players and better people. Murray’s story starts on the Intramural courts of Eastern Kentucky University, first coaching an intramural team full of football players and basketball players who were redshirting due to not making the grade out of high school. After graduating from Eastern Kentucky University, Murray got his start as an assistant at Tates Creek High School in Lexington. Not long after, he was running the whole show at Clinton Junior College, serving as both head coach and Athletic Director. He laughs about what it’s like to wear every hat in the building, and how much that season of life taught him about leadership. From there he worked his way up through assistant jobs at Charleston Southern and Winston-Salem State before landing at South Carolina State University. He arrived at SC State in 2010 as an assistant and got the call to take over as head coach midway through the 2012 to 2013 season. That turned into an 11-year run with the Bulldogs. The high point came in 2015 to 2016, when his team went 19 and 15, finished 12 and 4 in conference play, tied for second in the MEAC, and earned a trip to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. That year, his peers named him MEAC Coach of the Year. We talk a lot about what it really takes to build a program at an HBCU, how you keep kids believing when the resources aren’t always there, and what the tough seasons taught him that the good ones never could. When his college run wrapped up, Murray didn’t step away from young people. He went right back into the schools, taking on leadership roles at local high schools and most recently working as a Student Belonging and Transition Specialist with Fayette County Public Schools, helping students find where they fit and get through some of the biggest changes in their lives. Today he serves as a Regional Director in Kentucky, and the mission hasn’t changed one bit. If you’ve ever been around Coach Garvin, you know his energy is contagious. He’s real, he’s passionate, and he connects with just about anybody he talks to. That all comes through in this conversation. Whether you’re a coach, a player, a parent, or somebody who works with young people every day, there’s something in this episode for you. Pull up a chair and ride with us. Hosted by Coach Alphonza Kee and Coach Scott Bollwage. If you enjoy the show, make sure to subscribe, leave us a rating, and share it with somebody who needs to hear it.

2. 

   7 Oct 2026

   Life on the Road - Guest Darrell Brooks

   Forty years on the sideline. Sixteen seasons leading his alma mater. The winningest head coach in Bowie State men's basketball history. This week on Life on the Road, Coach Alphonza Kee and Coach Scott Bollwage sit down with Coach Darrell Brooks, whose career is a lesson in loyalty, patience, and doing things the right way. A Brooklyn native, Coach Brooks first arrived at Bowie State as a point guard, lettering two years for the Bulldogs and earning his Bachelor's degree in Communications in 1979. Forty years later, in 2019, he went back and added a Master's in Organizational Communications from the same school. In between, he built one of the most respected résumés in the business. His road as an assistant ran through Bowie State, Central State, William & Mary, American, George Mason, and Loyola, with five summers directing Camp Austral in Spain along the way. He got his first head coaching job at Western Maryland College, now McDaniel, in the 2000-01 season, then spent eight years on staff at George Washington. Those GW teams made four straight postseason appearances, including three consecutive NCAA Tournaments, won two Atlantic 10 Tournament titles, went a perfect 16-0 in conference play in 2006, and climbed as high as No. 6 in the country. Then he came home. In 16 seasons at Bowie State, his Bulldogs won five Northern Division championships, cut down the nets at the CIAA Tournament in 2013 and 2017, and made three NCAA Division II Tournament appearances, including a run to the regional semifinals in 2011. He was named CIAA Coach of the Year in 2014-15 after a 22-8 season, earned Bowie State Male Coach of the Year honors four times, and became the program's career wins leader in January 2022 with victory number 200. He also served his peers as President of the CIAA Men's Basketball Coaches Association. In February 2026, right after a hard fought 86-83 loss to Fayetteville State in the CIAA Tournament quarterfinals, Coach Brooks announced he was retiring. He had made the decision the summer before and kept it to himself all season so his players could play free. That tells you plenty about the man. This episode is about the long game: the years spent as an assistant learning the craft, the pull of coming back to the place that raised you, what it takes to build a program that lasts, and how a coach knows when it is time to hand over the whistle. Whether you coach, play, or just love the game, there is something in this one for you. Follow Life on the Road: A Coach's Journey so you never miss an episode, new conversations drop every Tuesday. If this one hits home, share it with a coach who needs to hear it and leave us a rating.

3. 

   30 Sept 2026

   Life on the Road - Guest Marty McGillan

   This week on Life on the Road, Coach Alphonza Kee and Scott Bollwage sit down with Marty McGillan, the Associate Head Coach at Eastern Michigan University and one of the most respected assistant coaches in college basketball. With more than three decades on the sidelines, Coach McGillan has built a career on loyalty, relationships, and a commitment to doing the work that most people never see. His story starts right here in North Carolina. A Winston-Salem native and Bishop McGuinness High School product, McGillan earned his degree in Therapeutic Recreation from UNC Wilmington in 1990, and he has been coaching ever since. He cut his teeth in the Southeast during the 1990s with stops at East Carolina, Coastal Carolina, The Citadel, and the College of Charleston. Those years were the classic young assistant grind: long nights on the recruiting trail, learning from different head coaches, and earning trust one job at a time. Then came the partnership that would shape his career. McGillan returned to his alma mater, UNC Wilmington, where he and fellow Seahawk Billy Donlon spent four seasons helping lead the program to two conference championships and two NCAA Tournament appearances. The pair then moved together to Wright State in 2006, where they helped the Raiders capture their first Horizon League regular season and tournament championships and punch a ticket to the Big Dance. From there, McGillan spent ten years at Winthrop, with a season at Kennesaw State in between, becoming a fixture in the Big South. In 2017, he took on a new challenge at the University of Minnesota, coaching on the women's side with the Gophers. In 2018, he landed at Longwood University, where he spent eight seasons and helped the Lancers reach two NCAA Tournaments in a five season span, historic runs for that program. Now, the story comes full circle. This season, McGillan reunites with Billy Donlon, now the head coach at Eastern Michigan, as Associate Head Coach of the Eagles. In this episode, we talk about what it takes to last more than 30 years in this business, and what it's like having a son in the business now. Whether you're a coach, a player, or a parent trying to understand what it really takes to build a career in this game, this one is for you. New episodes of Life on the Road: A Coach's Journey drop every Tuesday on Spotify. Subscribe, rate, and share the show, and tag a coach who needs to hear this one.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.