COOPERSVILLE – Phil Marshall is a retired state police officer who loves coaching basketball.

He happily served as a volunteer assistant in the Spring Lake High School basketball program for more than two decades, and there was nobody who could have lured him away from the Lakers – except his son, Mike Marshall.

Mike, 37, has been working his way up through the coaching ranks for several years, mostly recently at Mount Pleasant High School. This spring he finally landed his first varsity head coaching job, with the Coopersville girls basketball team, and he knew right away who he wanted to hire as an assistant coach.

“When I got the job I told my dad that I would love to have him help me,” Mike Marshall said. “I told him ‘I know you’ve got a good thing going at Spring Lake, and if you stay there I get it, but if you wanted to come here and help rebuild this with me, that would be great, too.’

“He took some time. I thought it might take most of the summer, but he took three or four weeks. Finally he called and said he was going jump over and help me. It’s been great so far. We’ve had a lot of fun.”

Now son and dad are working together to rebuild a Coopersville girls program that’s had limited success in recent years. They won their first game 31-20 over Ravenna on Nov. 30, matching the Broncos’ entire win total from last season.

“That was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make in my life in some respects,” Phil Marshall said about leaving the Spring Lake program. “It was hard to go because Spring Lake has three returning three-year starters this season and some sophomores coming up, some that I have known since they were born. I hated to leave them.

“But in the end I think I made the right decision.”

Phil and Mike Marshall began their Spring Lake basketball journey together years ago, when Mike was a sophomore on the Lakers junior varsity team.

Phil, who had coached Mike and his other kids in youth leagues, volunteered to help out anywhere in the Spring Lake program, and ended up being an assistant coach with the Spring Lake freshmen boys team, one level below where Mike was playing.

Within a few years Coach Rich Hyde took over the freshmen boys and girls squads (girls and boys played in different seasons back then), and Phil became his assistant for both teams. They eventually moved up together to coach the junior varsity girls and boys teams, and finally the varsity girls team. Throughout the years both have also helped with the Spring Lake boys varsity team, keeping stats on the bench.

The two coaches meshed very quickly and formed a partnership that lasted for a very long time. Perhaps their best season together was 2014-15, when they coached the Spring Lake girls varsity to a 23-1 record and a district championship.

In 2015 Hyde stepped aside from coaching, and Phil stepped aside, too. Three years ago Hyde returned to coach the varsity girls, and Phil happily came back with him.

“I stayed on when Rich Hyde took over the team, the freshmen boys, and then we moved up to JV boys and girls,” said Phil Marshall, 58, who served for 31 years as a Michigan State Police trooper. “Rich kind of adopted me.

“We were pretty tight. Rich is a great coach and a great guy. We hit it off right away. Our philosophies were pretty similar and we had a great run together. I knew what he wanted and he knew what I would say to the girls. We trusted each other. It was a great relationship.”

Phil and Mike Marshall actually coached in close proximity for a few years at Spring Lake. After graduating from Calvin College, Mike Marshall came back and coached the Laker freshmen girls when Phil and Rich Hyde were coaching at the JV level.

After three years Mike took over the junior varsity girls team at Fruitport, then got a teaching job at Mason High School and coached the freshmen girls team there for two years.

He went on to coach one year of junior varsity boys at Lansing Christian, then spent the past three seasons as the junior varsity girls coach at Mount Pleasant.

This spring Mike landed a teaching job at Coopersville and applied for and got the varsity girls basketball job, his first at the top level of high school basketball. His wife secured a job at Grand Valley State University, and suddenly the Marshalls were close to home again.

Phil Marshall was excited to learn his son was going to be a varsity coach, and finally realized he wanted to share that experience with him – even though it meant leaving his longtime partnership with Coach Hyde.

“Mike called me and told me, and my first call was to Rich, because I was so excited that Mike got the job,” Phil said. “I didn’t know at the time that I was going to be calling Rich again, telling him I was going with Mike, but he understood 100 percent.”

Coach Hyde said Phil Marshall’s decision was a definite blow to his team.

“He has some strong Spring Lake bonds – his kids went to school here, and he’s helped Bill (Core, the longtime varsity boys coach) and I out every second of every game for about 25 years now,” Hyde said. “The only thing a little more important than that is loyalty to family. I totally understand it. It’s great for Mike and it’s great for Phil.

“We got to the point where we were starting and finishing each other’s sentences. I did all the x’s and o’s work, and I was the one who was hard on the players. He was a state trooper, and with the team he was the good cop. He was the comforter, not just for the kids, but for me, too.

“Early in my coaching career I was sometimes young and foolish, and he would grab me by the belt and make sure I didn’t get too far out of the court (when yelling at the referees). He had a great calming effect.”

Hyde noted that his team is scheduled to play the Coopersville girls twice this year in O-K Blue conference games, with the first slated for Jan. 18 on the road.

“There will probably lots of hugs and tears that night,” he said.

Mike Marshall said he’s counting on his dad to bring the same great qualities to Coopersville that he had when coaching at Spring Lake.

“The biggest thing is that he’s very loyal,” Mike said about his dad. “He always wants the best for the kids. The way he sees the game is very good. He keeps it simple. When I get too complex about things, he will say ‘Back off, let’s keep it basic.’ He just loves basketball and loves being around the kids.”

Phil says he loves the energy his son brings to coaching, and he’s excited about the opportunity to rebuild the Coopersville girls program with him.

“He’s very energetic and enthusiastic,” he said about Mike. “I love the idea of being part of Mike’s program for the foreseeable future. Hopefully we can develop something there. I spent so long as part of the Spring Lake basketball community, and I’m looking forward to meeting people in Coopersville, as well.”

Phil Marshall said there is one person who is very glad to have him and his son finally coaching together – his wife and Mike’s mom, Myra Marshall.

“If nothing else, she will only have to go to one game instead of two,” Phil said with a chuckle. “For a couple of years there, Mike was coaching the JV girls at Fruitport and I was with the Spring Lake varsity, and one of those years we figured out that she must have sat through about 60 games. It will be nice for her to have us on the same team.”