Former Brighton player Greg Rau returns to Bulldogs as head basketball coach

John Renfrow
jrenfrow@coloradocommunitymedia.com
Posted 6/6/23

Greg Rau’s love for the game told him he would end up in basketball one way or the other. But he didn’t know it would bring him back to the same hardwood he practiced and played on as a kid. The former Brighton High School player is now the team’s head coach.

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Former Brighton player Greg Rau returns to Bulldogs as head basketball coach

Posted

Greg Rau’s love for the game told him he would end up in basketball one way or the other. But he didn’t know it would bring him back to the same hardwood he practiced and played on as a kid. The former Brighton High School player is now the team’s head coach.

Rau played for four years for the Bulldogs until 2005. Since his graduation and college, he’s worked in skills development, youth camps, and other programs as an assistant or club basketball coach. He’s excited to now run the show at his former school. 

“Being the head coach at my alma mater is huge for me,” Rau said. “To be able to grow a program from scratch and build a program based on culture and success is really what’s exciting for me. I’m looking forward to it.”

The past two years, Rau paced the sidelines at Horizon High School in Thornton as the head assistant coach and JV coach. He also spearheaded the Colorado Anarchy — an AAU club basketball team for players ages 15 to 18 — for the past three years. 

But the chance to build a high school program from the ground up was too good to pass up. 

He becomes the Bulldogs third head coach in about as many years, but said he’d like to stick around awhile. 

“It’s going to take time to learn these players from outside of who I know they were from club and scouting them last year,” he said. “Having them graduate eight seniors from last year’s team, it’s a whole restart. We’re going to have to grind and build the culture.” 

Brighton went 8-15 last season, posting a 5-10 Front Range League record, according to MaxPreps, but Rau expects immediate improvement from his team. 

My Q&A with Rau below: 

Did you always know you wanted to be a coach, even when you were playing at Brighton? 

I really love the game. Always have. I didn’t know I wanted to be a coach until college when it wasn’t in the cards to play college basketball. I had to do my own recruiting and it didn’t go too well based on a few different reasons. But once I was able to work with kids and adults, and learn the game even more, I knew it was in my cards to coach. 

What type of team are you envisioning in year one? 

Year one, we’re going to be blue-collar and hard-working. I do see us having success in the Front Range League because of movement around that league as well. But the quicker they buy into the culture that me and my staff have, the quicker the success we’ll see. 

What are some realistic expectations for your first season? 

My real expectation is to go 12-11, on the positive side of .500 based off of the work that our staff will put in for these boys to get there. If they buy into that culture then we’ll get that .500 record. Hopefully you know I’d like to get into the playoffs, but being so young and small, it might be tough, especially with the amount of teams going in this year. But realistically, 12-11 is what I see. 

How familiar are you with the team of returning players you’ll have? 

We’re in our second week of workouts and open gyms. We’re going to be small and we’re going to be quick. I have some great guards that can get downhill and can go left and right hand downhill. We have some great shooters, so we’re going to have to spread the floor and attack hard in transition with those guys. 

Why is Brighton a good place to build a program? 

Because of the turnover. I love Brighton, and get to start fresh. I’ll be the third coach in three years, and prior to that was the COVID season. There is no feeder team, so I’ll be able to build everything up my way, my culture that I foresee having. I’ve been around a lot of good programs and great coaches that have mentored me through this process and have ingrained this in me. I can start fresh and build a culture and build a program, and build it the right way. That’s the most important thing. 

How would Greg Rau the player get along with Greg Rau the coach?  

Man, it’s different times. Me as a player, I was stubborn and hard-headed. I did things my way, so I can understand why kids want to do that. But the senior Greg Rau player, he would understand me, because we have the greater goals of a team rather than individuality. So the senior Greg would buy in and believe because he would trust the process.

greg rau, brighton high school, basketball, front range league, brighton, prep sports, high school basketball,

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