After the final bell of the day sounded, Grover and his group flocked across the street from school in Boothbay Harbor to play pickup games.

He could never play, but he enjoyed watching.

Born with a rare form of muscular dystrophy known as SMA (spinal muscular atrophy), Grover has spent his entire life in a wheelchair, but that never limited his hopes and dreams. Watching pickup basketball games as a young student only fueled his desire to find a way to participate.

“I always wanted to be involved in basketball,” Grover said. “I couldn’t play. I wanted to do more than manage. I loved the sport, and I just had a passion for the game that way.”

He started volunteering at the YMCA and started coaching elementary school kids. He was even asked to coach a travel team of fourth-grade boys. The support and praise from adults only encouraged his progress and fueled his desire for more.

“Having that element of responsibility made me take it a little more seriously,” Grover said. “I wanted to do a good job as a young kid while representing the community. I got really engaged in it. Then I just started studying the game like any coach would, reading books, going to clinics and going to camps.”

In high school, he started assisting longtime coach I.J. Pinkham with the boys’ varsity program. Grover graduated at 17, and began attending college. He made sure to juggle his schedule so he could continue to assist Pinkham, and he even branched out to coach an AAU program.

“I.J. put a lot of faith in me,” Grover said. “I’d run segments of practice at times. He’d give me a 15- or 20-minute block to run whatever he wanted me to focus on.”

Grover would watch game films, scout opponents and make suggestions during games. His evolution as a coach was evident when his teacher, whom he’d always known as ‘Mr. Pinkham,’ became a peer he could call ‘I.J.’

“That’s when I started to get a sense of confidence that I might be able to do this,” Grover said. “That’s when I really finally gained the sense that I could do it. That was it for me.”

When the girls’ varsity job at Boothbay became vacant, Grover applied. His goal was to make the Seahawks program a consistent contender in the Mountain Valley Conference and in Western Class C. Last year, Boothbay reached the semifinals before losing to Waynflete, the eventual state champion.

“The administration hiring me was a great feeling that they had enough faith and confidence in me to do a good job,” Grover said.

Coaching at the varsity level was a challenge, as it would be for any new coach stepping up to that plateau.

“You never know if you can do it until you’re actually doing it,” Grover said. “My first year, every week, something would come up. Every week, you’re getting caught off guard somewhere with something you don’t think about. You kind of work your way through those little challenges.”

That’s Grover’s goal as a coach: Teach and prepare and then go with what works. He’s done that all his life.

“You’re always a teacher first and a coach second,” Grover said. “Basketball is a medium for teaching life lessons. That’s what high school sports are. You don’t want to take anything for granted. You want to pay attention to detail. When you do that and can get five people to play as one, no matter your individual talent, it’s your team talent and team chemistry and your willingness to work with others that enable you to achieve the highest level of success. That’s the message I try to pass down.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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