NC State Director of Content Strategy Jeff Gravley hosted a virtual interview via Zoom with newly-hired Wolfpack men's basketball assistant coach Mike Summey Tuesday to discuss his excitement in joining the program and the experience he brings.
Summey, whose hiring was announced in May along with two other new additions to the coaching staff, is a graduate of NC State and a former manager of the basketball team from his time in college.
Bringing almost 20 years of college coaching experience to the program, Summey most recently was an assistant at Bowling Green since 2015.
How have you tried to connect with the staff and the current players in these current conditions of separation that we're in?
“Like everyone, this, Zoom and phone calls. The staff has been terrific. Coach keeps calling and checking in on me, making sure that I'm good and settled in.
“As a staff, we get to talk on Zoom chats and I get to interact with the staff and get to know them a little better. It's one of the things you miss from not being in an office.
“We understand the gravity of the situation and everything our world is going through right now with COVID-19. Obviously, interacting as a staff isn't the most important thing that's on people's minds, but it is one of the things that when you take a new job, you'd like to be able to do so you can get to know the guys you work with a little bit better.”
How did this opportunity at NC State materialize?
“It materialized over a period of time. Takayo Siddle left here to become the head coach at UNC Wilmington. Our relationship goes way back. In 2003-2004, I was an assistant coach at Queens University of Charlotte and we recruited a little guard [Siddle] out of Morehead High School. We were able to get him to sign at Queens. Then, in turn, there was a coaching change, the head coach left, but I stayed in touch with Takayo.
“He went on to play for [NC State head coach Kevin] Keatts at Hargrave and their relationship began. Over the years I've been able to stay in touch with him a little bit and through that relationship, I got to know Coach Keatts and he got to know me. Over the last couple of years, we had remained in contact.
“This is a dream job for me. This is where I've always wanted to be from being a six-year-old in Hickory, North Carolina and growing up watching the Wolfpack, being in love with some of those great teams back in the early to mid-80s. It was really easy for a six-year-old to be enthralled by Coach Valvano and those teams. Up until right now, every day that I've worked has been to get back to here. I was able to express that to Coach Keatts and share that with him and he was so gracious to give me this opportunity. I want to make sure that I make it worth his while.”
When you were at NC State you got to work with Les Robinson and Herb Sendek. You were a student manager and a grad manager. What was your role with that?
“Early on that was it, it was just 'I'll do anything.' The first year I was working as a statistician. I sat up in the perches, I heard those are gone now. Maybe they needed to go but that was a special place for those of us that came through that process.
"The next two years, I did video, which was an opportunity to travel. Yes, my journey has been a long one and it's been up and down the East Coast into the Midwest and then finally back here to NC State.
“If you think of a ladder for your career, I didn't skip any steps. Even from the process of taking stats my freshman year. They told me to show up two or three days a week, but I wanted to show up every day so I did. I just wanted to be around it. I knew this is what I wanted to do.
“Doing video paid dividends in helping me understand the game better and understanding how the process goes. Under Coach Robinson, those were the roles that I had. When Coach Sendek came, my role changed a little bit. Because I was an older guy, I got to be more involved in the meetings and listen and learn.”
What do you see your role is under Coach Keatts?
“I want to do whatever helps our program, grow and be the best. Whichever role coach Keatts feels that I'm best suited to do.
“I feel like I can wear a lot of hats. Having been on a lot of different staff, you learn to wear a lot of hats and do a lot of different things. I can do a lot of different things, but I want to do what he feels is best for me to do on this staff. He's been so unbelievable since the day that I got here. In giving me this opportunity, I just want to add value and make sure that each day I'm giving back to a place and a person in Coach Keatts, who has given so much to me already.”
How deep are your roots are to NC State and the basketball program?
“I get chills when you talk about that because, to me, when you put on a basketball jersey you got a name on the front and name on the back. You know the name on the back is always important to all of us because that's who we are, that's our family, that's who we represent. That name on the front, NC State, has always been so important to me.
“I remember my first Wolfpack shirt when I was six-years-old. I remember my aunt got it for me and it said, 'This is big red country' and it was a strutting wolf. I just remember that shirt and remember being a Wolfpack fan from the earliest of days.
“I went to Jim Valvano's camp when I was 10-years-old and had my picture taken. I got to be in Reynolds Coliseum for the first time and walk around the campus. For a kid who had only been able to watch it on TV, those were moments that you never forget.
“Then to come to school here. I got in very early, September of my senior year of high school. I never wavered and never wanted to be anywhere else. This was my school from as far back as I can remember and it always will be."
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