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Tanner and Rick Sloan enjoy a quarterback-coach relationship at Central Valley High School. Most important to the pair, however, is their father-son relationship. "The relationship with your son is forever," Rick said.

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Sloans navigate father-son, coach-player dynamic
9/28/2015 2:29:40 PM

By Mike Vlahovich
Splash Contributor

People are often advised not to bring their work home with them, but that's easier said than done in sports. Central Valley offensive coordinator Rick Sloan and Bears quarterback Tanner Sloan walk that fine line.

Still, it was Rick's advice as a parent, not as coach, that helped him succeed in athletics and academics, Tanner said. 

He clearly remembers in middle school mailing in an effort during a basketball game.

"What bothered me afterwards was when my dad said, ‘I don't care how you played, but how hard you played. It was like you didn't care,'" Tanner recalled. "He was really disappointed in me. His whole life he had been taught to compete in everything he did. I don't ever want to reach a point in my life when I don't compete in what I do."

Lesson learned, Tanner has competed academically and athletically and followed in his father's footsteps as quarterback of the CV football team. 

Rick is his son's football offensive coordinator and basketball coach and quick to point out that Tanner is his own man.

"Quite honestly, he knows more about football than I did when I was a player," the coach said. "He's light years ahead of me. There are a lot of things on a quarterback's plate. You have to have a pretty high IQ. I was more of a gunslinger, maybe, and more of a risk taker."

Tanner demurs, saying, "That's probably not true." 

Maybe so, maybe no, but it's high praise indeed, coming from the father who was the Greater Spokane League career passing leader 35 years ago and had a college career that spanned two years, each playing for legendary coaches - Jack Elway at San Jose State and Dennis Erickson, who Sloan followed from San Jose to the University of Idaho where Erickson became head coach.

Tanner has already surpassed his dad's yardage total, and the Bears could easily be undefeated at the halfway point of the season save for the botched opportunities in their season opener.

While not particularly unusual - Bears coach Rick Giampietri, for example, coached his son at CV - the relationship between son-player and father-coach can be complicated. You must, said both Sloans, separate the two when you step through the front door of home at the end of a day and leave sports at the doorstep.

"I think so much relates on the personality of the son," Rick Sloan said. "Are they willing to accept coaching from their parents? Do they have faith that the parent knows what they're talking about?"

Said Tanner: "It could be a pretty hard thing to do, but it hasn't. We've been good about separating sports from life. We have a closer bond, but at the same time he's no longer my dad, he's coach. Afterward he no longer becomes my coach, he's my dad. It's a unique relationship."

Certainly there have been days when the two come home in a bad mood. 

"So we just stay away from each other that night," Tanner continued.

Rick has placed a two-hour moratorium at home following work before they might hash things out, if Tanner asks. 

"I suppose there are times he doesn't agree with me." Rick said. "He bites his lip, and I try to do the same. When things are boiling, until we settle down, then we might chat, but there haven't been many times."

Rick told his wife was that he was blessed to be able to develop Tanner as an athlete, but if it hurt the father-son relationship he'd get out of coaching. 

"The relationship with the football player lasts only a couple of years," he said. "The relationship with your son is forever."

There never was a time when Tanner didn't want to be an athlete. He was never pushed, but being around the family business, "It was just kind of a lifestyle growing up," Tanner explained. "I ended up falling in love with sports. I didn't play for him; I did it for myself."

He's a two-sport athlete, but when he got to high school, football comes first and basketball has taken a back seat.

His work ethic, learned from the middle school incident, has carried over into academics. 

"My parents impressed on me at an early age that grades are important," Tanner said. 

He carries a 3.9 GPA and is likely to pursue an engineering degree.

(His dad quipped that when he was in high school he had a 3.0 average, "probably because my basketball coach was one of my teachers.")

Rick said playing sports was fun growing up, but more importantly they guided his life.

"It provided structure for me, and it got me through college," he said. "Who knows what would have happened had I not played sports."

He impresses upon Tanner that if he decides to play football in college, to choose one in line with his academic goals.

Wise counsel - and proof that a father-son/coach-athlete relationship can thrive.

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