Think, Look & Act Like A Winner: Wes Flanigan Ready To
Help Bring UAB Back To National Prominence
November 2,
2009
Basketball,
as with most sports, is a game of challenges. Every
individual who plays basketball, regardless of their god
given talents, must at some point in their careers
confront adversity in order to progress. More often then
not, hard work and persistence is the winning formula to
break through it. Yet sometimes a player is faced with a
form of challenge that cannot simply be overcome with mere
work ethic.
During his senior season at Auburn University in
1996-97, Wes Flanigan had to confront just such a
challenge. Coming off of three seasons as one of the best
guards in the SEC, Wes was diagnosed with cancer after his
junior year. He was forced to undergo a complex and
painful surgery which involved the removal of an area of
muscle and soft-tissue of the tumor down to the bone. A
bone graft was taken from his right leg and a bone plate
was placed over the graft to stabilize his arm bone.
Amazingly enough, only a few months after the surgery Wes
was back with his team practicing. Even after such a
traumatic event as a fight with cancer at the age of 21,
the disease was no match for Wes’s desire to play the game
of basketball. Wes faced up to his misfortunes, confronted
the disease head on and valiantly came out the other side
alive and a better person for it. He did it with a mantra
that he carries with him today, “Be Positive, Special,
Work Hard, Think, Look & Act Like A Winner.”
Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony. Today
Wes Flanigan enters his 2nd season as an assistant coach
with the University of Alabama – Birmingham. The very same
UAB team that he made his triumphant return against some
13 years earlier after recovering from his bought with
cancer. With the Conference USA title up for grabs, UAB is
ready to compete once more for league superiority.
Admittedly, some view the season as a rebuilding year
after the loss of several starters. The Blazers will have
just 11 scholarship players this season, including two key
transfers in George Drake (Vanderbilt) and big man Kenneth
Cooper (Louisiana Tech). In spite of the naysayers, Wes
Flanigan knows that there will always be something working
against a team and inexperience is no excuse for having a
let down season.
Such an attitude is not surprise coming from a coach
that has known only success during his career. In five
seasons on the staff at Northwest Mississippi Community
College, Flanigan helped coach the team to a 119-39
record, three Region XXIII championships and three trips
to the National Junior College National Championship
Tournament. The Rangers also captured two MACJC North
Division titles and the state championship in 2001.
Following his stint on the Junior College level, Wes went
on to become Associate Head Coach at University of
Arkansas – Little Rock. The players that Wes helped
recruit have allowed the team to enjoy an unprecedented
run of 20+ win seasons and top finishes in the Sun Belt
Conference.
Wes realizes that returning UAB to the top of Conference
USA and its place as a perennial Top 25 team will take
time. Hard work, passion and dedication will be the corner
stones of that process. Yet Wes knows that instilling the
right philosophies in his players is of equal importance.
Whatever his team faces, as long as they stick together
and keep there heads above the water, things will work
themselves out. Victory in basketball, as in life, is not
something that comes easy. But Wes realizes that those who
are willing to fight hard enough for it will, in the end,
know the triumph of high achievement.
Be positive, special, work hard, think, look and act
like a winner… because that is what it takes to be a
champion!
Basketball,
as with most sports, is a game of challenges. Every
individual who plays basketball, regardless of their god
given talents, must at some point in their careers
confront adversity in order to progress. More often then
not, hard work and persistence is the winning formula to
break through it. Yet sometimes a player is faced with a
form of challenge that cannot simply be overcome with mere
work ethic. 
