Liam Barrett is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Seton Catholic Prep for AZPreps365.com.

Passion can’t be measured, but it can be shown. First-year head coach Raymon Patche II is using his love of basketball to push his athletes further and bring more passion to the Seton Catholic program.

Patche is a student of the game. He’s loved the sport from the start, playing in his youth and rising as an elite high school player. Growing up in Houston, Patche had great competition around him at all times. He competed with his best tool as a player, his basketball IQ, which led him down the path of coaching. 

“I knew [coaching] is what I wanted to do. I want to try and impact these people with my passion and hope it’s contagious,” Patche said.

As a player turned coach, Patche leads by example. By using his basketball knowledge and combining it with his intensity, he is able to capture the attention of his new team while getting the most he can out of his players. 

“I try to get everything out of them that I can, including the schoolwork, including the brotherhood, including being a better person and a better teammate,” Patche said.

His effort isn’t going unnoticed. Players feed off Patche’s energy and continue to push themselves to be better. Patche inherited an extremely young team, one that only has four returning players from last season, but the players are eager and full of energy provided by their new coach. It’s a hard task to energize a team when wins are far and few in between, but Patche has been able to do just that. 

“Coach Patche has done a great job for his first year. Even though we’ve had kinda a rough start to the season, I feel he has built a great culture and we’ve really been growing as a team a lot more than we’ve had in past years,” junior guard Jackson Adlhoch said.

Patche prides himself on being a high IQ coach and uses this knowledge of the game to empower his players to be smarter on the court.

“I was always able to understand something and break it down to the most elementary level, and sharing that with others so they could understand as well,” Patche said.

By breaking down the game into simpler terms for his young players, concepts and plays become easier to learn. In turn, simplifying the game allows players to slow down and feel more comfortable on the floor. These traits are exactly what they need as they work to overcome one of their biggest flaws: inexperience. 

“Last year all we did was 5-out, we didn’t really have a game plan,” junior forward Robert Heim said. “This year we’ve got new plays that we’ve been working on and we’re developing as players.”

Patche knows instant success isn’t an option for this team. But through development, passion and more experience, the team continues to improve. By listening to his players and communicating his knowledge, Patche is learning their strengths and trying to put them in the best position to succeed.

“Coach pushes me to be something different. He has taken the time to talk to me and to form me into a new basketball player that can dribble and be confident in my shot,” Heim said. 

Rather than be discouraged, Patche has used this season as a test for his love of the game. This year has been a hard one for Seton, but through hard work, Patche continues to grow his young program. The only thing Patche asks is for his players to give their all, and so far that’s what he’s got from them. 

“The kids give me everything they have and I can’t do anything but appreciate that,” Patche said.